Cover

Many individuals realize a conservatorship is an adult “guardianship” — a court supervised method of caring for a person who has become incapacitated.  Just as many realize there can be a conservatorship of the “person” and/or  the “estate.”  Recently, The Los Angeles Times ran a series of articles regarding “professional” conservators and opined the system needed to be “re-vamped.”

 

Now the California legislature has responded to this concern.  The Legislature has approved the Omnibus Conservatorship and Guardianship Reform Act of 2006, a package of four bills designed to improve the administration of probate conservatorship cases in the trial courts.  The bills provide the following:

* AB 1363 (Jones) — Makes a number of reforms of the probate conservatorship system, including enhanced court review of conservatorships, primarily through increasing the frequency and scope of court investigations.  In plain terms, in order to keep a better eye on what the person appointed conservator is doing with the conservatee’s money, the cost of maintaining a conservatorship will increase.  Anticipate paying an additional $500 per year in costs for this investigation.
* SB1116 (Scott) — Increases court oversight of moves of the conservatee and the sale of their homes.  Again, in theory this will be an added protection.  The conservator just needs to understand the requirement of notice to the court.  A request for confirmation to do actions will result in additional attorneys fees, court costs and investigator fees.  These fees normally come out of the conservatee’s estate.
* SB1550 (Figuerora) — Enacts the Professional Fiduciaries Act, which establishes in the Department of Consumer Affairs a new licensure scheme governing professional conservators, guardians and other fiduciaries.  This particular bill was most likely proposed because of the series of articles written by The Los Angeles Times.
* SB 1716 (Bowen) — Authorizes court action in response to ex parte communications (short noticed hearings) or informal complaints regarding a conservator or the performance of a conservator’s fiduciary duties.

In total, these reforms are good measures meant to help conservatees who no longer have control over their assets, to have greater protection from arbitrary actions of their conservators.  As a consequence, the cost of bringing and maintaining these actions will increase, thereby decreasing the amount of the estate usable for the benefit of the conservatee.


Ms. MacDonald’s practice is limited to Estate Planning, Probate, Trust Administration and Elder Law.  Ms. MacDonald maintains her practice in the Santa Clarita Valley at 27013 Langside Avenue, Suite A in Santa Clarita.  She can be reached at 661-251-1300.

Santa Clarita Magazine

Santa Clarita Magazine