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The family of famed Beach Boys cofounder Brian Wilson filed for conservatorship this week, claiming the musician is suffering from a “major neurocognitive disorder (such as dementia).”
The court filing, obtained by People magazine, states the legendary musician is “unable to properly provide for his or her personal needs for physical health, food, clothing, or shelter.” The report follows the Jan. 30 death of Brian’s wife, Melinda Wilson, 77, who, according to documents, had been, assisting him with his daily physical needs. Wilson family representatives LeeAnn Hard and Jean Sievers will serve as Brian’s “co-conservators of the person.”
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Brian Wilson, 81, is the latest celebrity to bring focused attention on conservatorships, a sort of legal proceeding that’s an option when a person is incapacitated and unable to make important decisions by themselves. Former late-night TV host Jay Leno made news in late January when he petitioned a Los Angeles court to make him the conservator of his wife, Mavis, who has dementia.
In a conservatorship in California — in many states, they’re called guardianships — a court gives someone, often a family member, the authority to control another person’s affairs and make decisions for him or her.
“Someone who’s filing for it says, my mother is no longer able to take care of her finances or manage her affairs, and she needs help,” explains Joan Burda, an adjunct professor of law at Case Western Reserve University and a practicing attorney who specializes in estate planning and probate.
Here are some more of the basics of what a conservatorship is, and how it works.
What is the purpose of a conservatorship?
A conservatorship is intended to safeguard the conservatee, the legal term for the person who is giving up control. In the case of an older person, the situation may be that “you have an adult who has no ability to care for themselves, or provide for their needs for housing, food and clothing, or to resist fraud,” explains attorney Chris Melcher, a partner at Walzer, Melcher & Yoda in Woodland Hills, California. “And that is a persistent condition. They don’t have the capacity to protect themselves and make their own decisions, so now somebody else needs to step up.”
Usually, the conservatorship is needed because a person became incapacitated without leaving any advance directives, such as a power of attorney or a health care directive for health decisions, according to Moira S. Laidlaw, former chair of the Guardianship Committee of the Westchester County Bar Association in New York. “There is a vacuum of authority,” she explains.
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