Protecting Our Most Vulnerable Wyoming Residents With Guardianship or Conservatorship

• Jurisdiction: Wyoming,United States
• Pages: 24
• Citation: Vol. 46 No. 4 Pg. 24
• Publication year: 2023

Protecting Our Most Vulnerable Wyoming Residents with Guardianship or ConservatorshipVol. 46 No. 4 Pg. 24Wyoming Bar JournalAugust, 2023

By Emily Smith

Guardianship and conservatorship are the legal processes utilized when an adult can no longer make or communicate safe or sound decisions about his/her property and/or estate or has become susceptible to fraud or undue influence as the result of a medical condition. Establishing a guardianship or conservatorship may remove considerable rights from an individual, so it should only be considered after all other alternatives have proven ineffective or are unavailable. To put it simply, when it is recognized that someone is no longer able to handle his own financial or personal affairs, the court can appoint an individual, professional or organization to act on behalf of the incapacitated person. As you might expect, this situation can become quite complicated, and it takes a considerable amount of time and care to determine if it is right for the person to be protected by a guardianship and/or conservatorship.

One of the most frequent questions asked of Wyoming Guardianship Corporation (WGC) is whether the person in question needs a guardian, a conservator or both. To make this determination, we need to look at the functions of each role. Guardians have control over the everyday decisions and care of the person under guardianship. These decisions could include but are not limited to deciding where the person should live, deciding what type of medical treatment the person should receive or not, determining if a person needs caregivers and who is the most appropriate to act in that capacity, and ensuring the person is safe and in the least restrictive environment. On the other side of the coin, conservators have control over the incapacitated person's finances and assets, which include but are not limited to managing income, real property, personal property and investments. Conservators are frequently paying bills, ensuring property is properly cared for, and coordinating with professionals, such as investment advisors, to ensure the incapacitated person's assets are appropriately being conserved while considering their debts, both current and future. Conservatorships can be both complicated and costly.

WGC advises taking care to assess whether the incapacitated individual truly has assets that need to be conserved as other options exist to manage the funds of an individual lacking the...