Yes, in California the conservator must obtain court authority prior to signing a will or trust for the conservatee. (The conservator is the person in charge of the conservatorship. The conservatee is the incapacitated person who is unable to manage her affairs and is the subject of the conservatorship.) Filing a substituted judgment petition with the court is the way to obtain that specific court authority.
A California conservatorship can consist of 1 or 2 parts. A conservatorship of the person gives the conservator legal authority to manage the medical and personal affairs of the conservatee. A conservatorship of the estate gives the conservator authority to manage the assets and financial affairs of the conservatee.
One California court proceeding may include both a conservatorship of the person and a conservatorship of the estate.
The conservator has legal authority to manage essentially all of the affairs of the conservatee. That said, the conservator must obtain court approval prior to certain more significant acts. Those more significant acts include:
All such actions involve assets and finances. Accordingly, this post applies to California conservators of the estate and not to California conservators of the person.
The substituted judgment petition process is similar to the process of most other conservatorship petitions filed with the court. It involves:
The court can approve your substituted judgment petition only if it makes the following determinations:
and
Also there is a list of factors for the court to consider. Some of them are as follows:
Obtaining court approval of a substituted judgment petition in a California conservatorship court proceeding is very challenging to the unexperienced. If you don’t do it correctly, then you may waste a lot of time, and a significant amount of money. Also you may not be able to take the proposed action that you want.
Hiring an attorney experienced with California conservatorship court proceedings is critical for obtaining the results that you need. In addition, the advice and guidance of an attorney experienced with conservatorship court cases is invaluable in these cases.
At Meinzer Law Firm, P.C., we have over 20 years of experience helping clients achieve their goals in these types of cases in California. Contact Meinzer Law Firm, P.C., in Torrance to assist you with your California conservatorship court case.