Guardians for profit - More Thoughts

I was thinking about my post yesterday about conservators and their industry. I read read what I wrote this morning. I have the following points to add.

(1) I wish to clarify my point so that I do not hurt any of my family's feelings. In the post, I mention that the only alternative to public or professional conservators is family. In my particular case, I am blessed with a family I trust. My writing where meant not for me personally, but for the average reader who may not be as lucky as me.

However, I do mean it when I claim that I do not wish to be a burdon on anyone, especially my family. I do wish to be a burdon on any insurance company that I contract with for long-term disability.

(2) I worked for a bank for 12 years. The bank had a large and highly respected trust divison, and whom I got to know many of the staff and managers personally. I have nothing but praise for them. They were always extremely professional and diligant.

In addition to working for the bank, my ex-wife was a benefitiary of one the trusts that the bank managed. So I also got to see how it worked from the client side. As I mentioned before, I was deeply impressed with their work.

The bank's trust department is regulated by state and federal laws. In addition, they go to great lengths to be objective and prudent with the assets placed in the trust. The work they do is strikingly similar to the jobs of a conservator. The trust officers would have to take care of the day-to-day needs of the benefitiaries. They keep excellent records. They have strict rules and conflict of intrest guidelines. They are obligated by law to be fudiciary prudent.

Thinking about this, I came to two conclusions. One is that your best bet is to have a professional trust company be your conservator. Second, why do judges not appoint trust companies to do this job when they are asked to give control of someone's life to a total stranger? They do it now.

Their should be no middle ground. If the courts can't find a trust that wants to take the client (probablly cause they have little or assets), then the state needs to have a trust department that works in the exact same way that catches all the other clients.