Conservatorships—What Are They, and What Can We Learn From Britney Spears?

News Nov 06, 2021 NOELLE MINTO, ESQ.

Did you know that the number of conservatorships in the United States is not tracked—and finding reliable data about conservatorships on a state-by-state basis is sporadic at best?

In a 2018 report, the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) said, “data standards for what needs to be collected and reported often do not exist within a state.” In 2016, NCSC estimated that there were about 1.3 million adult guardianship or conservatorship cases in the U.S. that totaled at least $50 billion in assets.

The recent news coverage regarding Britney Spears’ ongoing legal battle to remove her father as conservator of her person has led to whistleblowers coming forward with disturbing information, highlighting the very dark side of conservatorship exploitation and conservatee abuse.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a 2010 report that, “[the] research did not identify any public, private, or non-governmental organization that systematically tracks the total number of guardianships or allegations of abuse, neglect, and exploitation by guardians.” With no oversight, how do you go about ensuring that conservatorship abuse doesn’t happen in your family?

In this 45 minute webinar, Stefan O’Grady will discuss how conservatorships can be used to safeguard an individual’s personal and financial health, and how they can, unfortunately, be perverted to abuse conservatees, including:

• Explaining exactly what conservatorship are;
• When they are necessary;
• When they are not necessary
• The breadth of power of a conservator of the person and of the estate;
• The roles of court-appointed counsel and probate investigators;
• The Britney Spears conservatorship—particularly why it can be very difficult to get out of a conservatorship.

Speaker: Stefan O’Grady, Esq., Senior Litigation Counsel for the firm.

For more information about this topic, contact the business and succession planning attorneys at NM Law. Call them today at (949) 253-0000 to schedule an appointment.