Camp Rousseau Montgomery, LLP

“Founded in 1977, Family Caregiver Alliance was the first community-based nonprofit organization in the country to address the needs of families and friends providing long-term care at home. FCA  now offers programs at national, state and local levels to support and sustain caregivers.”

Phone: (415) 434-3388
Link: Family Caregiver Alliance (FCA)
Updated: 28 Oct 2008

Information about the people involved:

• Proposed Conservatee’s personal information:
  • Name: full legal name and any aliases;
  • Date of birth;
  • Social Security number;
  • Residence: mailing address and phone number;
  • Current whereabouts (if not currently living at residence): mailing address, facility name (if any) and phone number;
  • Doctor: name, mailing address and phone number of the proposed Conservatee’s treating doctor and Patient Number of the proposed Conservatee;
  • Dementia medications.

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This is a link to the Handbook for Conservators, a 302 page book (in its printed version) that describes in detail the responsibilities and duties of a Conservator. It is hosted on the California Superior Court’s web site. This tome will give you a good idea of the complexity of the task a Conservator is undertaking when embarking on a Conservatorship.

Link: California Courts Self-Help Center
Updated: 15 Oct 2008

They describe their site as “Probate Help for Adults and Elders”, it also contains information about LPS Conservatorships (LPS is an acronym for Lanterman, Petris, and Short, who wrote the legislation) which are for mentally ill adults.

Link: Santa Clara County Probate Court Help for Adults/Elders
Phone: (408) 882-2700
Updated: 10 Oct 2008

“Relatives in the first and second degree” refers to the group of relatives of the subject of the proceeding (conservatee or decedent for example) that the court often requires be mailed a notice of hearing (usually 15 days in advance).

The members of this group are: spouse or domestic partner; parents; children; siblings (brothers and sisters); grandparents; and grandchildren.

The following is required for each person on the list: a current mailing address, their relationship to the subject, and their age (if they are 18 or older this can be simply “adult”).

If there are no living relatives in the first or second degree, then the relatives in the third degree must receive notice. They are: great grandparents; uncles and aunts; nephews and nieces; and great-grand children.

Most of our clients are aware that they may have one or more periods of incapacity before reaching the end of life, and have read enough horror stories to know about the need to complete an Advance Health Care Directive. But people often say to us, “I have a trust and all my assets have been properly transferred into it, so I don’t need a financial power of attorney, right?” Wrong.

A trust is a container, like a bucket. The Trustee in office at any given time controls the assets that are in it, such as real property, investment accounts, and tangible personal property that has been assigned to it. But many financial affairs and transactions are about other things. For example, most people have income from one source or another, and sometimes it is necessary to communicate with Social Security or an annuity company about that. Medicare is famous for sending notices that may require a reply. And what if an asset has been left outside the trust, or a home was taken out for re-financing and never put back in? While the trustee can manage the trust, someone else must address these things, because they are not in the trust.

Just as completing an Advance Health Care Directive is important, having a financial power of attorney is also part of a complete estate “plan”. As the word implies, the plan is about having someone in place to manage whatever you cannot, if you become incapacitated.

There is nothing more frustrating to us than having to launch a Conservatorship solely because there is no financial power of attorney, with or without a trust. No one document does everything. But a good set of documents should avoid the need for Conservatorship, and prevent a lot of turmoil for your family.

Click Conservatorship Risk Factors to see all of the posts in this series.