There are two different types of conservatorships in the state of California that I want to talk about.
The first one is a conservator of the estate, so that’s for somebody who cannot manage their financial affairs and cannot resist fraud or undue influence. The second type of conservatorship is a conservator of the person, and that’s for somebody who cannot take care of their needs. What triggers an involuntary conservatorship? I have people that haven’t paid their mortgage and all of a sudden there’s a notice posted on the door that there’s going to be a trustee sale of their house because mom and dad haven’t paid the mortgage. We may see this when the daughter comes home one day and the lights are turned off because mom hasn’t paid their bills. There’s another scenario where the person has no idea how much money is in their checking account and they can’t balance their checking account. Then I have a whole slew of cases where third parties come in and try to take advantage of your relative. They try to get themselves on deeds, which we’ve seen. They’ve tried to get themselves as beneficiaries of the person’s trust. They get powers of attorney so that they can sell the person’s property and take the money. So those are a lot of things that trigger the conservator of the estate.
Now for the conservator of the person. We have scenarios where somebody is living in unhealthy conditions. They don’t take their medicine or the medicines lined up on the table and they haven’t taken their medicine within six months. They refuse to go to the doctor, or they haven’t been to the doctor in six months or two years. They don’t have food in the house. One time I went to somebody’s house and I opened the door and there were bugs in the refrigerator and there was no food in the refrigerator. All of these will lead to an involuntary conservatorship in California. If you would like to talk to the law offices of Alice A. Salvo about a conservatorship for your loved one, please call our office for a free consultation.
