§ 26-2A-153 — Distributive Duties and Powers of Conservator

(a) A conservator may expend or distribute income or principal of the estate without court authorization or confirmation for the health, support, education, or maintenance of the protected person and dependents in accordance with the following principles:
(1) The conservator shall consider recommendations relating to the appropriate standard of support, education, and benefit for the protected person or dependents made by a parent or guardian, if any. The conservator may not be surcharged for sums paid to persons or organizations furnishing support, education, or maintenance to the protected person or a dependent pursuant to the recommendations of a parent or guardian of the protected person unless the conservator knows that the parent or guardian derives personal financial benefit therefrom, including relief from any personal duty of support, or the recommendations are clearly not in the best interest of the protected person.
(2) The conservator shall expend or distribute sums reasonably necessary for the health, support, education, or maintenance of the protected person and dependents with due regard to (i) the size of the estate, the probable duration of the conservatorship, and the likelihood that the protected person, at some future time, may be fully able to be wholly self-sufficient and able to manage business affairs and the estate; (ii) the accustomed standard of living of the protected person and dependents; and (iii) other funds or sources used for the support of the protected person.
(3) The conservator may expend funds of the estate for the support of persons legally dependent on the protected person and others who are members of the protected person’s household who are unable to support themselves, and who are in need of support. In expending funds under this division, the conservator shall consider and apply the criteria considered in subdivision (a)(2).
(4) Funds expended under this subsection may be paid by the conservator to any person, including the protected person, to reimburse for expenditures that the conservator might have made, or in advance for services to be rendered to the protected person if it is reasonable to expect the services will be performed and advance payments are customary or reasonably necessary under the circumstances.
(5) A conservator, in discharging the responsibilities conferred by court order and this division, shall implement the principles described in Section 26-2A-136(a) to the extent possible.
(b) If the estate is ample to provide for the purposes implicit in the distributions authorized by the preceding subsections, a conservator for a protected person other than a minor has power to make gifts to charity and other objects as the protected person might have been expected to make, in amounts that do not exceed in total for any year 20 percent of the income from the estate.
(c) When a minor who has not been adjudged disabled under Section 26-2A-130(c) attains majority, the conservator, after meeting all claims and expenses of administration, shall pay over and distribute all funds and properties to the formerly protected person as soon as possible.
(d) If satisfied that a protected person’s disability, other than minority, has ceased, the conservator, after meeting all claims and expenses of administration, shall pay over and distribute all funds and properties to the formerly protected person as soon as possible and petition the court for a termination of the conservatorship in accordance with Section 26-2A-158.
(e) If a protected person dies, the conservator shall deliver to the court for safekeeping any will of the deceased protected person which may have come into the conservator’s possession, inform the executor or beneficiary named therein of the delivery, and retain the estate for delivery to a duly appointed personal representative of the decedent or other persons entitled thereto. If, 40 days after the death of the protected person, no other person has been appointed personal representative and no application or petition for appointment is before the court, the conservator may apply to exercise the powers and duties of a personal representative in order to be able to proceed to administer and distribute the decedent’s estate. Upon application for an order granting the powers of a personal representative to a conservator, after notice to any person nominated personal representative by any will of which the applicant is aware, the court may grant the application upon determining that there is no objection and endorse the letters of the conservator to note that the formerly protected person is deceased and that the conservator has acquired all of the powers and duties of a personal representative. The making and entry of an order under this section has the effect of an order of appointment of a personal representative, but the estate in the name of the conservator, after administration, may be distributed to the decedent’s successors without prior re-transfer to the conservator as personal representative.

Legislative History

(Acts 1987, No. 87-590, p. 975, §2-324.)