October 10, 2008
They describe their site as “Probate Help for Adults and Elders”. It is a useful link for an overview of what probate conservatorships are all about. It also contains information about LPS Conservatorships (LPS is an acronym for Lanterman, Petris, and Short, who wrote the legislation) which are for mentally ill adults.
Link: Santa Clara County Probate Court Help for Adults/Elders
Phone: (408) 882-2700
Updated: 25 Aug 2011
October 10, 2008
“Relatives in the first and second degree” refers to the group of relatives of the subject of the proceeding (conservatee or decedent for example) that the court often requires be mailed a notice of hearing (usually 15 days in advance).
The members of this group are: spouse or domestic partner; parents; children; siblings (brothers and sisters); grandparents; and grandchildren.
The following is required for each person on the list: a current mailing address, their relationship to the subject, and their age (if they are 18 or older this can be simply “adult”).
If there are no living relatives in the first or second degree, then the relatives in the third degree must receive notice. They are: great grandparents; uncles and aunts; nephews and nieces; and great-grand children.
October 1, 2008
he risk factor we will examine here concerns your need to have a financial power of attorney, even if you already have a trust.
Most of our clients are aware that they may have one or more periods of incapacity before reaching the end of life, and have read enough horror stories to know about the need to complete an Advance Health Care Directive. But people often say to us, “I have a trust and all my assets have been properly transferred into it, so I don’t need a financial power of attorney, right?” Wrong.
A trust is a container, like a bucket. The Trustee in office at any given time controls the assets that are in it, such as real property, investment accounts, and tangible personal property that has been assigned to it. But many financial affairs and transactions are about other things. For example, most people have income from one source or another, and sometimes it is necessary to communicate with Social Security or an annuity company about that. Medicare is famous for sending notices that may require a reply. And what if an asset has been left outside the trust, or a home was taken out for re-financing and never put back in? While the trustee can manage the trust, someone else must address these things, because they are not in the trust.
Just as completing an Advance Health Care Directive is important, having a financial power of attorney is also part of a complete estate “plan”. As the word implies, the plan is about having someone in place to manage whatever you cannot, if you become incapacitated.
There is nothing more frustrating to us than having to launch a Conservatorship solely because there is no financial power of attorney, with or without a trust. No one document does everything. But a good set of documents should avoid the need for Conservatorship, and prevent a lot of turmoil for your family.
Click Conservatorship Risk Factors to see all of the posts in this series.
August 29, 2008
he risk factor we will examine here concerns your family’s dynamics combined with your not having an Advance Health Care Directive or Power of Attorney for Health Care.
As a practical matter, doctors and hospitals will look to the closest relative for medical decisions should you not be able to make them yourself. However, what happens if your family is one where there is a strong difference of opinions? Could this difference of opinions result in fighting? Take a close look at your family:
If there are any difficulties with your family in making decisions about your medical care, at some point the hospital will ask that a Conservator be appointed so that the hospital has one person legally responsible for your medical care.
You can best take control of this situation now while you have capacity
. By preparing and signing an Advance Health Care Directive or Power of Attorney for Health Care, you reduce your risk of Conservatorship of the Person. If you state your wishes, pick your agent and successor agent, you control what will happen if you become incapacitated. It also makes it easier for your family by eliminating future conflicts during what will be a stressful time for your family.
Click Conservatorship Risk Factors to see all of the posts in this series.
August 28, 2008
ou are at risk of having a Conservatorship imposed upon you if you become incapacitated. As you know, incapacity can happen not only as a result of dementia in older age, but at any time. For example, you could become incapacitated as a result of a car accident, a stroke or heart attack. A Conservatorship should not be filed unless there is no other alternative, as the process is costly, procedurally complex, time consuming, and extremely stressful for a non-professional Conservator. Do you have some of the risk factors that may indicate that you might be someone who could have a Conservatorship filed against you?
Click Conservatorship Risk Factors to see all of the posts in this series.
August 17, 2008
ffective immediately, the Alameda County Local Rules require Conservators to submit a record showing how much time they spent doing what, each day. Further, time spent as Conservator of the Person (concerning food, clothing, shelter and physical health) and that spent as Conservator of the Estate must be recorded separately. Both time records shall be submitted to the court with the next account and report.
We have prepared a timesheet form that you may use to accomplish this task. Clicking on the link below will open a new window displaying the timesheet. From there you may print directly to your printer, or if you want to save it to your computer for future use, choose ‘Save as…’ from the ‘File’ menu; then choose a location to save to:
The Court has historically awarded a range of hourly rates to Conservators. The Court will review all the circumstances surrounding the request, such as the size of the estate, the rate of expense for the Conservatee’s care, the difficulty of the tasks performed by the Conservator, etc. The Court has discretion to set the hourly rate in each case. The local rules previously provided for $25 per hour, and we hope to raise the request to $40-$50 per hour.
The Alameda County Local Rules long provided a commission
‚ for Conservators, payable upon approval of each account and report. The commission was 1% per year of the assets being managed in the Conservatorship, regardless of the amount of time the Conservator spent on all the tasks involved. There had also been the option of submitting time records and requesting a larger amount, but the commission was useful for its simplicity, as it did not require any recording of time.
The Court was concerned however, that this 1% automatic commission was not a reasonable way to determine what the conservator should receive. It sometimes resulted in very large amounts being paid, in cases with substantial assets, to the Conservator. In cases where the estate was almost entirely real property, there was very little cash with which to pay these large amounts. In other such cases, the payment to the Conservator was seriously out of proportion to the work actually done.
August 11, 2008
here were some important changes in the California conservatorship law enacted by the Conservatorship Reform Act of 2006 that have recently taken effect. These changes will affect Conservators here in Alameda County and Contra Costa County.
Regarding moving a Conservatee, Conservators must give notice as follows:
first and second degreeand anyone who requested special notice, before moving the Conservatee. Of course, if there is a medical emergency, the Conservatee can be moved without prior notice.
first and second degree.
August 8, 2008
here were some important changes in the California conservatorship law enacted by the Conservatorship Reform Act of 2006 that have recently taken effect. These changes will affect Conservators here in Alameda County and Contra Costa County.
Regarding what documents Conservators must request and save, the new rules are as follows:
July 28, 2008
Super Lawyers
All three partners of Camp Rousseau Montgomery, Priscilla Camp, Srinoi G. Rousseau and Katherine A. Montgomery have been honored by designation as Northern California Super Lawyers. Priscilla Camp, the Senior Partner, has received this recognition for the past three years.
Super Lawyers are chosen by polling and peer evaluation, including 12 indicators of peer recognition and professional achievement. Five percent of California lawyers are so chosen each year. The objective of the Super Lawyer process is to create a list that is useful to consumers of legal services.
July 28, 2008
Priscilla Camp
PRISCILLA CAMP’S practice includes powers of attorney, probate, conservatorship, Medi-Cal eligibility for nursing home patients, capacity determinations, and trust administration.
She was Executive Director of Legal Assistance for Seniors and has served on the Boards of Legal Assistance for Seniors and Support Services for Seniors of Alameda County, as well as a number of other community organizations. She is a past President of Women Lawyers of Alameda County and a past Secretary of California Women Lawyers. A frequent speaker to Alzheimer Family Support Groups and other community groups throughout Alameda and Contra Costa Counties, she also lectures to attorneys, doctors and judges, and is a founding member of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys. Her column, The Senior Partner, has appeared in The Bulletin of the Alameda County Bar Association since 1991. She has chaired the Alameda County Bar Association’s Community Service Committee and the Elder Law and Conservatorship/Guardianship Committees of the Association’s Probate and Estate Planning Section, chaired the State Bar’s Legal Services Trust Fund Commission in 1994 and has served as a Settlement Conference Judge Pro Tem in the Probate Department.
She received the State Bar President’s Pro Bono Award for District 3 in 1990 and the Wiley M. Manual Pro Bono Services Award in 1999. She is a contributing author of three books by Continuing Education of the Bar (CEB): California Elder Law, 1993-2002; California Durable Powers of Attorney, 1996-2005; and Capacity and Undue Influence, 1999-2006. She has been included in the Northern California Super Lawyers list the past four years and was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009 by Legal Assistance for Seniors.
A 1977 graduate of Golden Gate University School of Law, she has an MS in Educational Psychology from the University of Kansas and is currently a student at Church Divinity School of the Pacific Episcopal Seminary in Berkeley.
Priscilla retired from practice of the law as of the end of 2010.
Updated January 2011
July 28, 2008
Srinoi G. Rousseau
SRINOI G. ROUSSEAU’s practice is in Conservatorships (including limited Conservatorship for the developmentally disabled and LPS Conservatorships for the gravely disabled), probate, Medi-Cal eligibility for long-term care, powers of attorney, trust analysis and administration, trusts and wills for single individuals, and special needs trusts.
She has been included in the Northern California Super Lawyers list for Elder Law Attorneys since 2008. She is a member of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys, the East Bay Trusts and Estates Lawyers, Alameda County Bar Association, Contra Costa Bar Association, and the Asian American Bar Association. She was the past Treasurer and Chair of the Elder Law, Conservatorship and Guardianship section of the East Bay Trusts and Estates Lawyers, the past Chair of the Elder Law Committee of the Trusts & Estates Law Section of the Alameda County Bar Association. She was also a past Chair and Secretary of the Board of Directors of the non-profit, Asian Community Mental Health Services.
Srinoi is a 1983 graduate of Santa Clara University’s School of Law. In addition to her law degree, she also received her Masters in Business Administration from Santa Clara University, School of Business, in 1983. She has an A.B. in Psychology from the University of Southern California.
Srinoi is a contributing author of the updates to the Continuing Education of the Bar (CEB) California Conservatorship Practice Guide and the CEB California Guardianship Practice Guide. She frequently speaks to the legal profession in the Bay Area as well as to community groups:
Updated July 2015
July 28, 2008
Katherine A. Montgomery
KATHERINE A. MONTGOMERY emphasizes public benefits planning in her practice. This includes Medi-Cal advice for long-term care, advice for individuals on means-tested public benefits in receipt of inheritances or litigation proceeds, and special needs trusts. She prepares trusts and wills for single individuals and powers of attorney and administers conservatorships and probates of decedents’ estates. Kathy is the past chair of the Elder Law and Conservatorship Committees of the Alameda County Bar Association’s Trusts and Estates Section and she is a member of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys and the State Bar of California’s Trusts and Estate’s Section. She has written articles on durable powers of attorney for Legal Assistance for Seniors and HICAP’s HICAPTIONS, has taught an elder law course at Cal State Hayward, and has given presentations on special needs trusts and general estate planning to various community groups.
Kathy has been included in the Northern California Super Lawyers list since 2008, and is a 1981 graduate of Hastings College of the Law.
Updated July 2015
Law Office of Srinoi G. Rousseau 