Conservatorships for Disabled with Alcohol or Drug Use, or Developmental Disabilities

Conservatorships for Disabled with Alcohol or Drug Use, or Developmental Disabilities in California

Sirkin Law provides professional conservatorship services for families with incapacitated members or those suffering from alcoholism or drug use.

When a parent did not set up a trust or designate a conservator or a disabled child, the child’s medical care and financial decisions are left for others to decide.   This is often not consistent with the wishes of the parent who was the primary caregiver for the disabled child.

The selection or nomination of the  conservator of a disabled child can be made in a will, or in a separate document.  Picking a conservator requires the parent to think of many things, such as:

  1. Who will make the decision regarding where the disabled child will live.   Residence issues can get complicated when a disabled person is a consumer of the Regional Center, as different Regional Centers offer varying services.
  2. Who will make decisions for the health care and medical needs of the proposed conservatee is the conservator of the person.
  3. Who will make financial decisions for the proposed conservatee is the conservator of the estate.
  4. The conservator of the person does not have to be the same person as the conservator of the estate for the special needs person.
  5. In most cases, the SSI, Regional Center respite and IHSS benefits do not require a conservatorship of the estate, unless there is a dispute regarding the suitability of the representative payee.
  6. Social Security has forms for designation of the representative payee of SSI, which falls outside of conservatorships.
  7. A parent can set up forms to leave authority to another person make financial and medical decisions for not only himself or herself, but for a disabled child with developmental or other disability.
  8. Mina Sirkin is a conservatorship attorney with over 25 years of experience filing conservatorships petitions and nominations in the Los Angeles court.
  9. As a PVP attorney, Mina Sirkin is often appointed by the court to represent the proposed conservatee in his or her interest.
  10. When it comes to advice to the conservator, we counsel conservators about the duties of the conservator in California. Conservatorship estate management requires books and records to be set up from the start of the case to prepare the conservator for court required accountings.   The appointed conservator must account at the first year anniversary of the conservatorship, and every two years thereafter, unless the court requires a more frequent schedule.  This close review is the conservatorship process by which the court determines whether or not the conservator should continue to act.
  11. As one of the duties of the conservator, he or she must find, locate and marshal the asset of the conservatee. This is solely for the benefit of the conservatee and the conservator must not obtain any personal benefit from those assets. Where there are questions about assets, the conservator must file a petition for instructions to obtain the court’s approval of his or her actions.
  12. Conservatorships for alcoholic and drug disabled individuals can often result in clean up and rehabilitation of those with specific disabilities.
  13. Care management is a large part of the conservatorship disputes. When a conservator is both a conservator and a caregiver, the court should set an amount for caregiving as opposed to conservatorship tasks, so that there are no overlaps in what the conservator does, and the caregiving fees. Caregiving fees when ordered can be paid before the conservatorship fees are ordered, and are often the source of conflict in families.
  14. Conservatorship services and caregiver services are in fact two different things and there should be distinction between the types of services in the conservatorship order.

When initiating a conservatorship in Los Angeles, if you are someone other than the parent of the proposed conservatee, you must obtain a nomination from the parent, as the parent has priority in appointments in conservatorships.

Consult with Los Angeles attorney Mina Sirkin regarding the importance of conservatorship care management orders for protection of both the conservator and the conservatee, and to avoid unnecessary conservatorship litigation.   We have access to hundreds of professionals who serve the conservatorship area and will readily share that information with our clients.  Call 818.340.4479 or Email.

Call our conservatorship paralegal to set an appointment for you to discuss your conservatorship solutions with our specialist lawyer.    We serve all of Sourthern California, but specifically: Los Angeles, West Los Angeles, Glendale, San Fernando Valley and Conejo Valleys, as well as Orange and Ventura County.