Avoiding Conservatorship in Calabasas

Avoiding Conservatorship in Calabasas

Before anything else: I do not handle conservatorship proceedings. My practice is the planning that avoids them. If your family already needs one, I can refer you to counsel who handles those cases.

For what a conservatorship actually involves, why it is public and recurring, and which documents prevent it, read avoiding conservatorship in California. This page covers the two things that are different in Calabasas.

The entity gap the standard documents leave open

A durable power of attorney and a funded living trust handle personal assets. In Calabasas they frequently do not handle the largest one, because the property is owned by a limited liability company and what you hold is a membership interest.

Two separate provisions have to line up. The trust or the power of attorney has to give your agent or successor trustee authority over the membership interest. And the operating agreement has to permit whoever holds that interest to exercise the member’s voting and management rights when the member has lost capacity.

Many operating agreements are silent on incapacity, or treat it as a triggering event that suspends the member’s rights without saying who steps in. The result is an entity that cannot act. Property cannot be refinanced or sold, distributions stall, and a family that did the estate planning correctly still ends up in court to get authority over the company.

This is a drafting fix, and it is cheap while everyone is well. It is close to impossible once the member has lost capacity, because amending an operating agreement generally requires the consent of the member who can no longer give it.

Where a Calabasas conservatorship would actually be heard

Los Angeles County centralizes probate and conservatorship at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse, 111 N. Hill Street in downtown Los Angeles. There is no Valley conservatorship court, so proximity to Calabasas is irrelevant.

That matters more here than the address suggests, because a conservatorship is not one hearing. It is an appointment, then inventories, care plans and periodic accountings the court reviews for as long as it lasts. Los Angeles is among the busiest probate courts in the state, and a Calabasas family is making that trip repeatedly, for years.

Capacity, and the month that matters

The documents can only be signed by someone who still has capacity to sign them. Once capacity is gone, the window has closed. Capacity is also a specific legal question rather than a general impression, so someone who is forgetful may well still be able to sign.

If a parent is starting to slip and property is held in entities, there are two clocks running rather than one: the documents, and the operating agreement amendment that needs the member’s own consent. The second usually closes first, and almost nobody knows it is there.

Questions Calabasas clients ask

Will you represent us in a conservatorship? No. I do not handle conservatorship proceedings or advise on conservator selection. Counsel who handles those cases can, and I am glad to refer you. My work is the planning that prevents the need.

Our house is in an LLC. Do the usual documents cover it? Often not fully. Your agent needs authority over the membership interest, and the operating agreement needs to say who may exercise the member’s voting and management rights on incapacity. If it is silent, the entity can stall even where the trust and the power of attorney work.

Can we fix the operating agreement later? Generally not, because amending it usually requires the consent of the member who has lost capacity. That is why this one closes earlier than the estate planning documents do.

Where would it be heard? Downtown at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse, 111 N. Hill Street. Los Angeles County centralizes probate and conservatorship there, and there is no Valley court for it. It is not one trip, it is years of them.

Where do I read the general explanation? On avoiding conservatorship in California, which covers what the process involves, why it is public and recurring, and the documents that prevent it.

Talk to Eric or call 805-244-5291. I serve Calabasas and the surrounding Conejo Valley communities.

The general explanation is on avoiding conservatorship in California. The planning starts with a funded living trust, a durable power of attorney and an advance health care directive. For the entity side, see entity formation.