Legal Question in Elder Law in California

Conservatorship of senior

My 80 year old relative and his 42 yr old wife of 14 years recently separated due to his demensia & alcoholism & to protect their 8 yr old triplets. By the terms of their premarital agreement she gets nothing if they get divorced. Her husband's closest blood relative is his abusive son who is married to a conniving bitch. The senior's stepson has been taking care of him for the last several years (and is the executor of the estate) but now the birth son wants to seize control as his father is very wealthy. A living trust was set up about 15 years ago. I dn't know who has the ''durable power of attorney '' for financial & health care directives but there is one in place. Can the wife act in conjunction w/ the doctor to take conservatorship even though they are currently in the Family Law court over divorce/separation? She wants a separation only, of course... the birth son & his wife are trying to convince the senior to divorce his wife if she won't move back in (which would be very hard on her & the kids.) We are afraid they will get the senior to change his trust & then have him declared legally incompetent & then finish his wife off in a divorce. Can the wife or stepson get conservatorship? Should they act 1st or wait to defend?


Asked on 8/17/07, 1:42 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Phillip Lemmons, Esq. Phillip Lemmons APC, Attorneys at Law

Re: Conservatorship of senior

Your best bet is to hire an attorney and soon. If someone petitions for a legal separation the responding party can request and receive a dissolution instead. This box isn't big enough to attempt to answer all of your questions. My office offers a one hour telephone consultation of $275, you might want to take advantage of that or find another attorney willing to do the same thing. There are lots of issues here.

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Answered on 8/24/07, 8:58 pm


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