Can a person be conserved by a relative?

Question

Can a person with dementia, living in an assisted living home, that has an irrevocable trust be conserved outside of the trust by her neice? She cannot make her own decisions and is not allowed to sign anything.

Answer 1

You mean have a conservatorship made. Yes, it happens all the time. I just hope that crooked lawyers and judges don't try to break the trust, as happened with the sainted Molly Orshansky in Washington DC (inventor of the Social Security poverty index, and a great economist in her time) -- who was only saved because her loyal family in New York drove down and kidnapped her from the hospital where the greedy lawyers had imprisoned her.

The corrupt DC judge broke the trust -- but after a NY court intervened, the matter became public, and the crookedness became obvious, an appellate court reinstated it.

The moral: videotape the signing of the living trust, the will and the health care proxy.

Answer 2

The rules vary state to state. California probate law builds in a lot of safe guards, including appointment of a lawyer (the public defender if the incompetent person has no money) to protect the conservatee's interests. In addition, the court has staff investigators to visit the conservatee's home and check the financials. That also makes it harder to get the conservatorship through even in friendly situations.

Answer 3

Conservatorship of the estate is one thing, dealing with financial matters, and conservatorship of the Person is another, dealing with health matters. One type of the powers does not imply the other.

If no instrument giving this power was made while she was competent, one would have to petition a court and show that it is necessary, and that the petitioner is a proper person to be conservator.

Answer 4

Sure. I work with the developmentally disabled and they're conserved by relatives all the time. It's more difficult if the conservator isn't a relative.