Conservatorship – 2 of 6 (Aspects and Court Procedures)

This writing is the second in a series regarding conservatorship court proceedings in California. The first writing covered who might need a conservatorship court proceeding and the types of conservatorships. This writing will discuss the two aspects of every conservatorship and some of the court procedures generally.

Each type of conservatorship can be divided into two general parts.

Those parts are a conservatorship of the person and a conservatorship of the estate.

• A conservatorship of the person provides to the conservator (the person in charge) authority to manage the medical and personal affairs of the conservatee (the incapacitated person). The conservatee retains authority to manage his or her own assets and financial affairs.
• A conservatorship of the estate is the opposite of that. The conservator has authority to manage the assets and financial affairs of the conservatee. The conservatee retains authority to manage his or her own medical and personal affairs.

A single conservatorship court proceeding may include a conservatorship of the person, a conservatorship of the estate, or both.

Generally a conservatorship court proceeding lasts for the remainder of the incapacitated person’s life. A conservatorship court proceeding is much more than going to court one time. It normally requires going to court numerous times.

In addition to the court hearings, the court ordinarily will not put a person in charge as conservator of the estate unless that person obtains a bond and files it with the court. Bond companies require the person in charge to be represented by an attorney. That person also must file with the court a detailed inventory of all of the incapacitated person’s assets and annual income. There are additional court procedures after a person is put in charge. These additional court procedures, alongside the bond and the inventory, will be discussed in more detail in a later writing in this series.