Hi my name is Matthew Talbot and I'm a conservatorship trusts and estates attorney in the San francisco bay area. i wanted to talk to you today about conservatorships. these have been in the news lately because of britney spears, who has been conserved for about 13 or 14 years at this point. so what is a conservatorship? at its base level, a conservatorship is where the court appoints a person to called an agent or conservator to make decisions for an incapacitated person, whether its an elder with dementia or whether its Britney Spears circa 2007, or whomever, the court has determined that this person does not have the ability mentally to make decisions for themselves and a third party must make decisions for them. now, there are two types of decisions that this third party can make. the first type is medical decisions that's called a conservator of the person. an those types of medical decisions are basically all medical decisions. For example, whether or not a person gets a surgery, what types of medications the person takes, etc. This can be confusing to some people because they get frustrated because they are frustrated that they lose the ability to make medical decisions. however, if a person is conserved a judge is making a determination that they are not able to manage those types of decisions. the second type of decisions that a conservator makes are financial decisions. these types of decisions can include any type of assets stocks, bonds, liquid cash, houses. that's called a conservator of the estate. so, a lot of people get very concerned when a third party comes into manage the financial affairs or money of an elder or otherwise incapacitated person. there are certain protections in place under california law. for example, a conservator has to account to the court on a consistent basis for every penny that they manage. that way, the court can have oversight regarding the management of the funds. if you have questions about if a conservatorship might benefit someone you know or a family member, you are welcome to contact me.