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Conservatorships

Do you need help establishing a conservatorship? Attorney John T. Anderson has years of experience helping people establish guardianships and conservatorships in Long Beach, Los Angeles, Orange County and other areas of Southern California.

A conservatorship is a court proceeding. No one is a Conservator for another person unless the court has ordered
the conservatorship.

Whom is a Conservatorship for?: A conservatorship in California may be required when an individual, who is 18 years of age or older, is not competent to make medical, financial, or other decisions for him-or herself or is unable to resist undue influence or fraud. This may be the result of an injury, birth defect, age or disease. In a conservatorship, the court is asked to sign an order giving a person the power to make decisions as to health, living conditions or finances for another person.

If the individual you are seeking to make decisions for is under the age of 18, a guardianship may be necessary. Click Here for information on California guardianships.

Typical Situations Where a Conservatorship May be Necessary:

  1. A loved one has been admitted to the hospital and is no longer competent to make medical decisions for him- or herself.
  2. A family member discovers that a loved one is being careless with his or her money (e.g., giving large donations to charities advertised on TV or is no longer paying bills) and is no longer competent to handle financial affairs on his or her own. Maybe he or she is giving gifts not in accordance with previous giving patterns.
  3. A child, who has a mental or physical disability turns 18, and his or her parents or guardians need to be able to continue making decisions for him or her because the child is not competent to make decisions on his or her own. A parent or guardian's authority terminates when the child turns 18. At that point, a conservatorship may be necessary.

The attorneys at The Law Office of John T. Anderson have experience representing both Conservators (i.e., the person attempting to gain control over another) and Conservatees (i.e., the person who is not competent to make decisions for him- or herself). In addition, Mr. Anderson has been a Probate Volunteer Panel ("PVP") Attorney in Long Beach and Los Angeles County for over thirty years. As such, he is frequently appointed by courts to represent Conservatees when conservatorship proceedings are filed.

The conservatorship process in California can be complex, expensive and time consuming. At The Law Office of John T. Anderson, we have the experience necessary to handle the most complex conservatorship cases in Long Beach, Los Angeles and Orange County.

How to Avoid a Conservatorship:

There are ways to avoid conservatorships if appropriate documents are prepared while a person is competent. These documents include a Healthcare Power of Attorney and a Financial Power of Attorney.

Sometimes people come into our office believing that they need a conservatorship over another person, when that other person is actually sufficiently competent to sign a Healthcare Power of Attorney and a Financial Power of Attorney. If a person is competent to sign these documents, the time and expense of a conservatorship may be avoided. Click Here to view a video on Healthcare Powers of Attorney and Financial Powers of Attorney.

To view a short video on the conservatorship process in Southern California by Long Beach Probate Attorney John T. Anderson, Click Here.

Please contact our office for more information on the conservatorship process in Southern California and to discover if a conservatorship is necessary and feasible in your situation or if a conservatorship can be avoided by executing Healthcare and Financial Powers of Attorney.

DISCLAIMER: The information contained in this website is intended to inform the reader, generally, of issues in California estate planning, trust, and probate law and is not to be the final resource, and should not be considered legal advice. The information is not intended to be all-inclusive. To obtain detailed information or advice regarding a specific legal problem, you should contact a qualified attorney in your geographic area and state. Although attorneys John T. Anderson, Lisa R. Norman, and John T. Anderson, Jr. (“Attorneys”) intend that this website be correct, complete, and up-to-date, they do not guarantee it to be. It is not intended to be a source of legal advice, thus the reader must seek out specific advice, from competent counsel. Attorneys do not intend links on this website to be referrals or endorsements of the linked entities. Sending e-mails to John@trustlaw.ws or other e-mail addresses associated with attorneys or staff at The Law Office of John T. Anderson does not create, and receipt does not constitute, an attorney-client relationship. No representation is made that the quality of the legal services provided by Attorneys exceeds that provided by other lawyers. To the extent that this website is deemed an “advertisement,” Attorneys advertise only in California and do not seek to represent a person based solely on that person’s visit to this website. Attorneys are licensed to practice law only in California and are willing to appear in courts only in California. Attorneys maintain one office located in Long Beach, California.

The Law Office of John T. Anderson
1741 E. Wardlow Rd., Long Beach, California 90807