When Conservatorship and Trust Disputes Overlap in Los Angeles: Managing the Two-Track Legal Proceeding
Los Angeles County probate courts handle both conservatorship proceedings, which address the legal needs of incapacitated living persons, and trust administration proceedings, which address the management of assets held in trust. These two types of proceedings sometimes intersect in ways that create complex multi-track legal situations: a person who is the subject of a conservatorship petition may also be the settlor of a trust whose administration is disputed; a conservator who has been appointed may want to challenge trust documents that their conservatee executed while allegedly lacking capacity; or a trustee may have interests in a conservatorship proceeding that affect the trust administration. Understanding how these two types of proceedings interact, who has authority in each, and how to coordinate the two-track legal strategy gives families facing this complex situation the framework to manage both proceedings effectively.
The Conservator’s Authority Over the Conservatee’s Trust
A conservator of the person and estate in California has authority over the conservatee’s personal care and financial affairs, but the extent of the conservator’s authority over a revocable trust created by the conservatee is a specific legal question that depends on whether the trust has become irrevocable and whether the conservator has been specifically authorized to exercise the conservatee’s retained powers over the trust. A California conservator, acting with court authorization, may exercise the conservatee’s right to revoke or modify a revocable trust, to remove and replace the trustee of a trust the conservatee controls, or to compel accountings and exercise other beneficiary rights. The conservator who believes the conservatee’s revocable trust was amended through undue influence can petition the probate court for authority to challenge those amendments on behalf of the conservatee, effectively combining the conservatorship and trust contest proceedings.
Post-Death Trust Contests After a Conservatorship
When a person who was under conservatorship dies, the trust administration dispute that follows frequently involves the same factual issues as the conservatorship: the person’s capacity, the influence to which they were subject, and the specific estate plan changes that occurred during the period of alleged incapacity or influence. The conservatorship court’s findings and the evidence developed in the conservatorship proceeding become relevant to the subsequent trust contest, and family members who were involved in the conservatorship as petitioners or objectors become witnesses or parties in the trust contest. Managing the evidentiary record from the conservatorship to build the strongest possible trust contest requires the ability to recognize which conservatorship documents and proceedings have trust contest value and to preserve them for use in the subsequent litigation.
Coordinating Counsel for Both Proceedings
When both a conservatorship and a trust dispute are pending simultaneously in Los Angeles County, the affected family members benefit most from counsel who understands the interaction between the two proceedings and can develop a coordinated strategy that advances their goals in both. Actions taken in the conservatorship proceeding can create evidence that helps or hurts the trust contest, and strategic decisions made in the trust proceeding can affect the conservatorship’s outcome. The California Courts’ probate conservatorship resources describe the conservatorship framework that governs these intersecting proceedings. Working with an experienced Los Angeles trust and probate lawyer who handles both conservatorship and trust dispute matters gives families with these intersecting proceedings the coordinated legal strategy their complex situation requires.
