A post wedding GOOD MORNING!!! to you all! Yup, cousin got married this past weekend. Not a bad get together all things considered plus got to see my cousin from So. Cal. I may or may not have had a bit too much in the spirits department. All good though. No Restraining Orders!
Monday Musings Ed-vise today. Cause it’s MONDAY! So GET AFTER IT!
I attended a training about Conservatorships and Guardianships.
Know the difference?
I do…YEAH ME!
You use a guardianship for people. So, let’s say you have a psycho grandparent or cousin or whoever. They tend to cut themselves on purpose or overdose on purpose or just don’t have the mental capacity to take care of themselves. When that happens, you would ask the court for an order declaring you or anyone as a Guardian.
Often times you hear it used for being a child’s guardian. You “guard” the child or person. Get it? Good.
Conservatorship relates to property. Money. Assets. Stuff like that.
So, let’s say psycho family member tends to gamble and happens to also be really terrible at it. Or, like the example we had, the person likes to GIVE stacks of money to anyone they meet. Literal stacks. You think you would do a better job of managing their assets; their money than they will. You would apply to be a Conservator. You basically Conserve the estate.
You guard people; you conserve the estate.
Now, in just about every situation, you would do both. Reason being the level of review the court will do for a conservatorship will warrant appointing someone to take care of this individual.
Keep in mind that if this is something you think you want to do over someone, it WILL cause problems in the family. In particular with the person over whom you are seeking the court order. Reason being, you are TAKING control over them. Literally.
See, with a kid, they probably don’t really care or understand what is happening. But, when you do this over an adult, yeah…adults really don’t like being stripped of control. So, it can create a BIG problem. And, it can get expensive pretty quick.
That’s why it is important to establish a trust. Then, you can set out in the trust what incapacity looks like and when to activate things like Power of Attorney or Healthcare directives. Set out who takes care of what in the event you can’t do it yourself.
Life can get a bit crazy folks…in case you haven’t noticed. So, plan for what you can. It only helps.
I’m just saying
That’s it for today. Take care of yourselves. Check in on each other and remember an old acid with attitude is called…A MEAN-O-ACID! HAHAHHAHAHAHHAHA…that’s good!
Peace
Ed-vise 