(1) Except as
otherwise qualified or limited by the court in its order of appointment and endorsed
on the letters, a conservator has all of the powers granted in this section and any
additional powers granted by law to a trustee in this state.
(2) A conservator, acting reasonably and in an effort to accomplish the
purpose of the appointment, and without further court authorization or
confirmation, may:
(a) Collect, hold, and retain assets of the estate, including assets in which
the conservator has a personal interest and real property in another state, until the
conservator considers that disposition of an asset should be made;
(b) Receive additions to the estate;
(c) Continue or participate in the operation of any business or other
enterprise;
(d) Acquire an undivided interest in an asset of the estate in which the
conservator, in any fiduciary capacity, holds an undivided interest;
(e) Invest assets of the estate as though the conservator were a trustee;
(f) Deposit money of the estate in a financial institution, including one
operated by the conservator;
(g) Acquire or dispose of an asset of the estate, including real property in
another state, for cash or on credit, at public or private sale, and manage, develop,
improve, exchange, partition, change the character of, or abandon an asset of the
estate;
(h) Make ordinary or extraordinary repairs or alterations in buildings or other
structures, demolish any improvements, and raze existing or erect new party walls
or buildings;
(i) Subdivide, develop, or dedicate land to public use, make or obtain the
vacation of plats and adjust boundaries, adjust differences in valuation or exchange
or partition by giving or receiving considerations, and dedicate easements to public
use without consideration;
(j) Enter for any purpose into a lease as lessor or lessee, with or without
option to purchase or renew, for a term within or extending beyond the term of the
conservatorship;
(k) Enter into a lease or arrangement for exploration and removal of minerals
or other natural resources or enter into a pooling or unitization agreement;
(l) Grant an option involving disposition of an asset of the estate and take an
option for the acquisition of any asset;
(m) Vote a security, in person or by general or limited proxy;
(n) Pay calls, assessments, and any other sums chargeable or accruing
against or on account of securities;
(o) Sell or exercise stock subscription or conversion rights;
(p) Consent, directly or through a committee or other agent, to the
reorganization, consolidation, merger, dissolution, or liquidation of a corporation or
other business enterprise;
(q) Hold a security in the name of a nominee or in other form without
disclosure of the conservatorship so that title to the security may pass by delivery;
(r) Insure the assets of the estate against damage or loss and the
conservator against liability with respect to a third person;
(s) Borrow money, with or without security, to be repaid from the estate or
otherwise and advance money for the protection of the estate or the protected
person and for all expenses, losses, and liability sustained in the administration of
the estate or because of the holding or ownership of any assets, for which the
conservator has a lien on the estate as against the protected person for advances
so made;
(t) Pay or contest any claim, settle a claim by or against the estate or the
protected person by compromise, arbitration, or otherwise, and release, in whole or
in part, any claim belonging to the estate to the extent the claim is uncollectible;
(u) Pay taxes, assessments, compensation of the conservator and any
guardian, and other expenses incurred in the collection, care, administration, and
protection of the estate;
(v) Allocate items of income or expense to income or principal of the estate,
as provided by other law, including creation of reserves out of income for
depreciation, obsolescence, or amortization or for depletion of minerals or other
natural resources;
(w) Pay any sum distributable to a protected person or individual who is in
fact dependent on the protected person by paying the sum to the distributee or by
paying the sum for the use of the distributee:
(I) To the guardian of the distributee;
(II) To a distributee's custodian under the Colorado Uniform Transfers to
Minors Act, article 50 of title 11, C.R.S., or custodial trustee under the Colorado
Uniform Custodial Trust Act, article 1.5 of this title; or
(III) If there is no guardian, custodian, or custodial trustee, to a relative or
other person having physical custody of the distributee;
(x) Prosecute or defend actions, claims, or proceedings in any jurisdiction for
the protection of assets of the estate and of the conservator in the performance of
fiduciary duties; and
(y) Execute and deliver all instruments that will accomplish or facilitate the
exercise of the powers vested in the conservator.
(3) Except as otherwise qualified or limited by the court in its order of
appointment and endorsed on the letters, a conservator may exercise any of the
powers enumerated in the Colorado Fiduciaries' Powers Act, part 8 of article 1 of
this title.
(4) The court may confer on a conservator at the time of appointment or
later, in addition to the powers conferred by sections 15-14-425, 15-14-426, and 15-14-427, any power that the court itself could exercise under section 15-14-410. The
court may, at the time of appointment or later, limit the powers of a conservator
otherwise conferred by sections 15-14-425, 15-14-426, and 15-14-427, or previously
conferred by the court, and may at any time relieve the conservator of any
limitation. If the court limits any power conferred on the conservator by section 15-14-425, 15-14-426, or 15-14-427 or specifies, as provided in section 15-14-421 (1)
that title to some but not all assets of the protected person vest in the conservator,
the limitation shall be endorsed upon the conservator's letters of appointment.
(5) In investing the estate, and in selecting assets of the estate for
distribution under section 15-14-427, in utilizing powers of revocation or withdrawal
available for the support of the protected person and exercisable by the
conservator or the court, and in exercising any other powers vested in them, the
conservator and the court should take into account any known estate plan of the
protected person, including his or her will, any revocable trust of which he or she is
settlor, and any contract, transfer, or joint ownership arrangement with provisions
for payment or transfer of benefits or interests at his or her death to another or
others which he or she may have originated. The conservator may examine the will
of the protected person.