When a person is having trouble in administering his or her property and assets, it is normal for the court to set up a conservator. Typically, what a conservator does is that he or she has the legal responsibility to manage another person’s affairs, which can be related to their finances, health, property, etc. It is important to know how a conservatorship works and how it is set up.
Understanding conservatorships:
When setting up a conservatorship, a person is assigned by the court to take care of another’s finances due to sickness, disability or injury. This is mostly due to a person’s incapacity to take care of herself or himself and finds difficulty in administering his or her assets. There are different kinds of conservatorships, such as: conservatorships of estate, which gives the conservator the power to look into the person’s finances; conservatorship of person, where the conservator looks into the person’s health and lifestyle choices; jointed conservatorship, which is where the conservator is authorized to make decisions on behalf of a disabled person; finally, a joint conservatorship, which is where there are 2 conservators that look into one person’s estate.
Establishing the conservator:
The court usually looks into family members who are willing to be the conservator. A judge might usually consider the spouse, an adult child, a partner, parent, or sibling. If there are no relatives that are available or willing to be the conservator, then the court might look into other extended family members or friends. In the worst case scenario, the court will assign an attorney who specializes in conservatorship issues.
