Complete Home & Office Legal Guide/Complete Home and Office Legal Guide (Chestnut) (1993).ISO/stat/mprc/prob6.asc

Text File | 1993-08-24 | 59KB | 1,255 lines

/* Part 6 of 7 */
Section 5-424.  (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 support, education, care, or benefit 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 dependent 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 care 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 support, education, care, or benefit
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.

 (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 Part, shall implement the
principles described in Section 5407(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 5401(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.

 (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 [as provided in Section
3-308 and Parts 6 through 10 of Article III], 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.

Section 5-425.  [Enlargement or Limitation of Powers of
 Conservator.]

 Subject to the restrictions in Section 5407(c), the Court
may confer on a conservator at the time of appointment or later,
in addition to the powers conferred by Sections 5423 and 5424,
any power that the Court itself could exercise under Sections 5-
407(b)(2) and 5407(b)(3).  The Court, at the time of appointment
or later, may limit the powers of a conservator otherwise
conferred by Sections 5423 and 5424 or previously conferred by
the Court and may at any time remove or modify any limitation. If
the Court limits any power conferred on the conservator by
Section 5423 or Section 5424, or specifies, as provided in
Section 5419(a), that title to some but not all assets of the
protected person vest in the conservator, the limitation or
specification of assets subject to the conservatorship must be
endorsed upon the letters of appointment.

Section 5-426. [Preservation of Estate Plan; Right to Examine.]

In (i) investing the estate, (ii) selecting assets of the estate
for distribution under subsections (a) and (b) of Section 5424,
and (iii) utilizing powers of revocation or withdrawal available
for the support of the protected person and exercisable by the
conservator or the Court, the conservator and the Court shall
take into account any estate plan of the protected person known
to them, including a will, any revocable trust of which the
person is settlor, and any contract, transfer, or joint ownership
arrangement originated by the protected person with provisions
for payment or transfer of benefits or interests at the person's
death to another or others.  The conservator may examine the will
of the protected person.

Section 5-427. (Claims Against Protected Person; Enforcement.]

 (a) A conservator may pay or secure from the estate
claims against the estate or against the protected person arising
before or after the conservatorship upon their presentation and
allowance in accordance with the priorities stated in subsection
(c).  A claim may be presented by either of the following
methods:

 (1) The claimant may deliver or mail to the conservator a
written statement of the claim indicating its basis, the name and
mailing address of the claimant, and the amount claimed; or

 (2) The claimant may file a written statement of the
claim, in the form prescribed by rule, with the clerk of Court
and deliver or mail a copy of the statement to the conservator.

 (b) A claim is deemed presented on the first to occur of
receipt of the written statement of claim by the conservator or
the filing of the claim with the Court.  A presented claim is
allowed if it is not disallowed by written statement mailed by
the conservator to the claimant within 60 days after its
presentation. The presentation of a claim tolls any statute of
limitation relating to the claim until 30 days after its
disallowance.

 (c) A claimant whose cla