Limited conservatorships

The judge can either decide to appoint either:

• One of the people who ask to be appointed 
• A third person

The 3rd person could be a relative or friend, a private professional, a county officer (usually called the public guardian), or the Director of Developmental Services if the Director agrees.

How  the judge decide between the options

Subject to the proposed conservatee’s preference, if two or more people are equally qualified and don’t want to serve together or the judge doesn’t think that would be a good idea, the judge must choose among them in the following order of preference: the proposed conservatee’s spouse or domestic partner, an adult child, a parent, a sibling, or any other person.

If the Director of the Department of Developmental Services thinks a person with a developmental disability cannot otherwise be protected, the Director will petition for appointment as limited conservator of a person. In that case, the court is not required to follow the order of preference above. 

The judge can appoint two or more limited conservators to serve “jointly.”

If the judge appoints two limited conservators, both conservators must agree to exercise a power. If the judge appoints more than two, a majority of the conservators must agree to exercise a power.

The judge can appoint one conservator of the person and one conservator of the estate. Even though the conservator of the person is responsible for the personal care of the conservatee and the conservator of the estate is responsible for the conservatee’s money and property, the two conservators need to work together to provide for the conservatee. The conservatee’s care will cost money and unless the conservatee is eligible for public benefits, the estate will need to pay for that care.