Four Downsides To Conservatorship

Guardianship and/or conservatorship could become necessary if a person who doesn’t have an incapacity plan becomes sick or hurt. The injury or illness could leave you temporarily unable to explain how your assets and financial affairs are to be managed. If you cannot express your wishes or take care of your investments and wealth, someone needs to act for you. Unless you have an incapacity plan, guardianship or conservatorship may be the only option for someone to gain authority to manage your wealth. 

Parman & Easterday assists with legal issues related to incapacity and conservatorship. We help you create an incapacity plan before you become sick or hurt and need a conservator or guardian named. We also assist with guardianship and conservatorship if you need to get control over the assets for an incapacitated loved one. Our legal team helps you understand the downsides of conservatorship and works with you to explore alternatives that may be better for your situation.

What Are The Downsides Of Conservatorship?

Conservatorship proceedings must be initiated if someone is incapacitated and cannot act, and he or she doesn’t have the necessary powers of attorney or other incapacity plan in place.  Someone must be given authority to act on behalf of the incapacitated person. Some negative aspects of conservatorship include the following:

• The conservatorship process can be costly: Family members must go to court. This means paying filing fees and legal fees. If a fight arises over who should be the conservator, costs go up.
• The wrong person may be chosen as conservator: The court decides who is appointed as conservator. This could end up being someone who wouldn’t have been selected and given decision-making authority by the incapacitated person.
• The incapacitated person has no say over who takes care of assets: If no incapacity plan is in place and something happens to you, it will be too late for you to have any say in who makes some of the most important decisions impacting you and your wealth.
• The value of assets could be lost or reduced: There is often a delay until court proceedings can be initiated and a conservator named. During this time, assets may not be properly managed and wealth could be lost. If the wrong person is selected by the court as a conservator, this can also increase the chances that some assets could be lost or reduced in value.

We encourage you to NOT sit back and let a court decide who will serve as conservator to make your decisions when you can’t. You should work with an Oklahoma City incapacity planning lawyer to take control and name someone to whom you want to give this authority. The person you select to act on your behalf would have a fiduciary duty to act in your best interests and, if you select the right person, he or she will have the knowledge and ability to actually fulfill that duty.

What Are Some Alternatives To Conservatorship?

If you don’t want your family to cope with the downsides of conservatorship, or if you are unhappy with the outcomes that could come from conservatorship, you need to take action before something happens to you and it is too late. Parman & Easterday helps you to decide on the right actions to take.

Our legal team can assist you in making a plan to protect all your wealth from loss due to uncertainty and mismanagement in case of incapacity. We also assist you in maintaining as much autonomy as possible by being in control over who makes decisions when you no longer can.

Having an incapacity plan is essential.  We help you explore the use of legal tools like trusts and powers of attorney that give you control when you cannot speak for yourself any longer.

Getting Help From An Oklahoma City Incapacity Planning Lawyer

Parman & Easterday is here to create a comprehensive incapacity plan that addresses the issues that matter to you and your loved ones. You work too hard for your wealth to lose control over what happens to your assets due to incapacity. Our legal team also can assist if you didn’t plan ahead and a conservatorship becomes necessary.

To discover more about incapacity planning and how conservatorship works, join us for a free seminar. You can also call today at (405) 843-6100 or contact us online to connect with an experienced Oklahoma City conservatorship lawyer.