People in certain circumstances cannot manage their own affairs effectively. Some people experience incapacitating emergencies that leave them unconscious for months. Others might have mental health challenges, such as bipolar disorder, that result in them making unsafe and damaging financial decisions. For some people, the cognitive decline associated with advanced age is what renders them incapable of managing their finances.
The courts can award concerned individuals conservatorship in such cases. Conservatorship gives a responsible adult control over someone else’s finances. How long does a conservatorship last?
Conservatorship may end in two main scenarios
Frequently, conservatorship is an arrangement that persists for the rest of an individual’s life. Frequently, people with debilitating medical conditions or age-related health challenges never regain control of their finances after becoming subject to a conservatorship. Instead, the conservatorship ends when they die.
Occasionally, those with traumatic injuries or mental health challenges may improve their situation. Eventually, those individuals can go back to court and ask a judge to end the conservatorship because they no longer require financial oversight from another person.
In some cases, the conservatorship itself may persist, but the person subject to the conservatorship or other concerned parties may remove the party initially appointed as the conservator. They may replace a conservator who has mismanaged assets or violated their fiduciary duty with someone else who can consistently act in the best interests of the vulnerable person.
Those seeking conservatorship or managing finances for others generally need to know how the system works. Conservatorship can end after contestation in court or when an individual dies and their assets become the property of their estate.
