Conservatorship

This page is maintained by the Judicial Council’s Center for Families, Children & the Courts (CFCC) and includes tools, resources, and information for judicial officers, court staff, and justice system partners related to conservatorship.

Conservatorship

A conservatorship is a court case where a judge appoints a responsible person (a conservator) to care for another adult (the conservatee) who cannot care for themselves or manage their own finances.

There are multiple types of conservatorship, including:

1. Mental Health Conservatorships
These are conservatorships through the Lanterman-Petris-Short (LPS) Act for people who are “gravely disabled,” which means that due to a mental health disorder, a person is unable to care for their basic needs such as food, clothing or shelter and unwilling or incapable of accepting treatment voluntarily.
 

2. Probate Conservatorships
These are conservatorships through the Probate Code for people who are:

  • Unable to care for their own physical health, food, clothing, or shelter, called “conservatorships of the person”
  • Unable to manage their finances, resist fraud, or resist undue influence, called “conservatorships of the estate” OR
  • Both called “conservatorship of the person and estate”

You can also receive additional information on probate conservatorships, including limited conservatorships for people with developmental disabilities, on the self-help site.

AB 1194 Probate Conservatorship Study

CFCC is responsible for completing a mandated comprehensive conservatorship study (Assembly Bill 1194 revised by Assembly Bill 1756) to review, measure, and examine court effectiveness of probate conservatorship cases, through casefile reviews of temporary and general probate conservatorship cases. California Probate Code Section 1458 (a) provides that on or before January 1, 2027, the Judicial Council shall report to the Legislature the findings of a study measuring court effectiveness in conservatorship cases, including the effectiveness of protecting the legal rights and best interests of conservatees, by reviewing and analyzing conservatorship casefile data. The report must also include recommendations to the legislature pursuant under to Section 9795 of the California Government Code.
The report will include caseload statistics from a minimum of 3 sample courts, one small, one medium, and one large, examining both temporary and general probate conservatorship caseloads from Fiscal Year (FY) 2018-2019. In addition to required analyses, this report will include recommendations for statewide performance measures to be collected, best practices that serve to protect the legal rights of conservatees, and staffing needs to meet case processing requirements. This report shall include the following analyses with data on cases in which a professional fiduciary was appointed, presented separately from data on cases in which a nonprofessional conservator was appointed (sections 1 – 6):

  1. Number of petitions filed requesting appointment of a conservator by granted and denied.
  2. Number of conservatorships under court supervision at the end of the fiscal year in which a court investigation was conducted.
  3. Number of conservatorships under court supervision at the end of the fiscal year in which a court review hearing was held.
  4. Number of petitions or objections filed by, or on behalf of a conservatee, challenging a conservator’s action, failure to act, accounting or compensation by granted and denied.
  5. Number of conservatorships under court supervisions in which accountings due, and the number of accountings received after they were due or not received at all.
  6. Number of conservatorships of the estate, or of the person and the estate, under court supervision in which bond was not required of the conservator.
  7. An analysis of compliance with statutory timeframes in the FY 2018-2019.
  8. A description of operational differences between courts that affect the processing of conservatorship cases including timeframes and steps taken to protect the legal rights and best interests of conservatees.
  9. The report shall include recommendations for statewide performance measures to be collected, best practices that serve to protect the legal rights of conservatees, and staffing needs to meet case processing requirements.

The Judicial Council is seeking the services of a service provider with expertise in quantitative and qualitative evaluation, statistical analysis, court file review, public policy, and conservatorship for the AB 1194 Conservatorship Study. The request for proposal period is now open and closes on November 17, 2023. For more information, please visit AB1194 Conservatorship Study, CFCC-2023-53-DM (ca.gov)