Conservators’ Reach Can Be a Surprise

SEAL BEACH — Glen Hawkins, 89, had pedaled two miles from his Leisure World condo to his bank and was conferring with his investment counselor when he got the startling news.

Without legal notice or a chance to object, Hawkins had been declared too feeble and addled to manage his financial and personal affairs.

A Long Beach firm of caretakers had been called in because of Hawkins’ allegedly hostile remarks to a social worker asserting that he had no relatives. The firm had petitioned a judge and had been awarded virtually total control of Hawkins’ life.

He no longer had the right to touch his money, about $380,000 in all. He no longer had the right to make decisions about his medical treatment.

And unless something was done quickly, he would no longer have the right to decide where and how he would live. If the firm believed that he belonged in a nursing home, that’s where he would go.

All his mail was being diverted to the firm, which would use his money to pay his creditors--including itself, for the firm was charging him $75 an hour. It already had racked up almost $1,200 in conservator and attorney fees.

That was in February. Since then, Hawkins has suffered a heart attack and a stroke and has trouble speaking.

His relatives have spent an estimated $10,000 in legal and travel fees to wrest control of Hawkins’ life away from the firm. They have succeeded, but a court battle remains over whether they must pay the conservators’ legal fees.

In the process, they have learned what “conservator” means in California law.

Under long-standing provisions, anyone--friend or foe, relative or stranger--can petition a court alleging that you are incapable of taking care of yourself. If a judge agrees, your freedom and wealth can be turned over to a court-appointed conservator.

The conservator often is a relative or friend, but with increasing frequency it’s a professional who for a fee manages your life as a guardian manages a child’s.

Sometimes conservatorship is imposed because of mental illness or incapacitating accident. Most often, however, it is invoked when age has made a person feeble or feeble-minded.

Average life expectancy now is about 76 years and is expected to reach 80 in about a decade.

Many in the 85-and-older group are in nursing homes, but of those who are not, about half need help managing the details of everyday life, according to census estimates.

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A cottage industry has risen to meet the demand. There are about 80 professional conservators registered in Los Angeles County, 44 in Orange County. Many, perhaps most, are one-person firms conducting business from homes, attorneys say.

They fill the gap when there is no one else to turn to, said William A. McKinstry, the Alameda County probate judge who chairs the state Judicial Council’s task force on probate and mental health.

“The old-fashioned way of family caring for their people has changed,” he said. The professional conservator “addresses a change society’s been going through in the last 50 years.” In many cases, a conservator independent of the family is the best solution.

How do you become a professional conservator? It’s easy. Just declare yourself one and register with the local Superior Court.

The state, which regulates appliance repair and beauty shops, has no requirements for conservators, even though in California they control hundreds of millions of other people’s dollars. Attempts to legislate standards for conservators have failed repeatedly and been vetoed once.

“We have tried to get legislation starting back in 1984,” said Judith Chinello, a conservator in La Canada Flintridge and president of the Professional Fiduciary Assn. of California, a trade organization.

“We believe there is a real need because it is such an unusual industry, such a vulnerable class of client. . . . There have been unprincipled conservators, as with any business.”

Having private professionals available when family or friends are not is vital, said Don Green, former chairman of the State Bar of California’s probate section, which has repeatedly sought regulation of conservators. Cases of professional conservators misbehaving have occurred but have been rare.

“It’s still just a small, cottage industry that grew up when the banks became less interested in doing it and county social service budgets were being cut.

“But it’s crazy to put people’s welfare and their estates in the hands of private conservators who the state has screened less than it screens barbers,” Green said. “We badly need some laws here, but the Legislature’s not in the mood right now for more regulation.”

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At present, a conservator need only register with the Superior Court. He or she is fingerprinted and checked through criminal records, but if criminal acts are found, the registration must still be accepted. Even if the conservator is later disciplined or convicted by the local court, there is no system for informing other courts in the state.

Whether a particular conservator gets any work, however, is up to individual judges. If a judge believes that the private conservator is better qualified than the family to look after Uncle Joe and his money, he or she will probably get the job. The conservator must account to the court periodically, but typically only once every year or two.

According to state law, a conservatorship should be filed in the county where the disabled person lives, but there is room for exception.

Nowadays, Los Angeles County courts are getting a lot of Orange County filings, attorneys say. Los Angeles County judges are more receptive to professional conservators and allow them to charge $75 an hour, which is about the average for urban areas. Orange County has a de facto $35-an-hour ceiling, too low for professionals to make a profit, they say.

Though Hawkins lives in Orange County, his case was filed in Los Angeles County.

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Glen Hawkins and his wife, Mary, married 63 years, had told relatives they would stay together forever. Even when Mary’s osteoporosis made it nearly impossible for her to move or sleep, she kept firing the helpers a social worker found for her.

“It was denial, but mostly pride,” said the social worker, Janice Derderian, an employee of the Hawkins’ health clinic at the Leisure World retirement community.

By December 1996, eight years of single-handedly caring for his wife had taken its toll on Glen. Mary fell often, and unable to lift her, Glen repeatedly called 911 for help.

Finally, after she fell against her walker and badly bruised an eye, Derderian told Glen that his wife belonged in a nursing home.

Glen Hawkins’ hostile reaction is recorded in Derderian’s notes, which are part of the court record. He rebuffed her questions about money, and when she asked about relatives, he told her there were none.

“Later on he told me it was none of their business whether he had relatives or not,” said a niece, Mary Brim. “That was the flip remark that got him into deep trouble.”

Recording in her notes that Glen Hawkins was “quite delusional and hallucinatory,” Derderian had Mary transported to a nearby nursing home that day. There, relatives said, she refused to eat and died 19 days later, believing that her husband had betrayed her.

Derderian, accepting that there were no relatives, called in a firm of professional conservators, Ellman & Gladstone of Long Beach.

Alerted to Mary Hawkins’ death by a nursing home worker, Mary Brim called the social worker and said she was greeted with surprised silence. There were relatives after all.

A few days later, three of them gathered in Seal Beach to see what needed to be done.

Carl Hawkins, Glen Hawkins’ nephew from Victorville, said he spoke with one of the conservators, Meryl Gladstone, who “assured me that they were glad to see some family intervention and they’d drop everything,” said Carl Hawkins. “She said it had been called off and as far as she was concerned, everything would be handled by us.”

Instead, according to Ellman & Gladstone’s accounts filed with the Long Beach court, the firm conferred that same day with its attorney, who spent four hours that day drafting the necessary papers to become conservators of Glen Hawkins’ money and person.

Neither Ellman & Gladstone nor their attorney would comment on any aspect of Glen Hawkins’ case.

The firm referred queries to its attorney, Carol A. Churchill of Long Beach. Churchill said she would not “debate this case publicly.”

Unknown to Glen Hawkins or anyone in his family, a hearing was held in Long Beach on Jan. 28, and a judge granted a temporary conservatorship to Ellman & Gladstone.

Their petition stated that Hawkins did not need to be given legal notice because he was too ill to attend the hearing and too addled to understand what was going on. A standard court form filled out by Hawkins’ doctor testified to his incapacity.

Regarding relatives, the petition stated that Hawkins’ wife “died a few weeks ago and her relatives are trying to take over her affairs but [Glen Hawkins] has been married for over 40 years and he needs someone to preserve his rights in the estate.

“There is a potential for future problems because there are relatives on both sides of the family. Ellman & Gladstone do not care who is appointed permanent conservator, but they feel that a conservator should monitor Mr. Hawkins and make sure he is not being taken advantage of and his needs are met.”

The family learned of the conservatorship only when the court’s investigator visited Glen Hawkins’ condominium Feb. 3, a week after the hearing.

The investigator reported that Glen Hawkins “was able to give a valid and comprehensive definition of a conservatorship,” and he strenuously opposed it. “He spoke very intelligently and gave appropriate responses when interviewed.” The report said there were relatives at hand.

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Sometimes, having relatives at hand is not a blessing, said McKinstry, the Alameda County probate judge. He said families can exploit Uncle Joe as much as any outsider.

“If a son or daughter can do some maneuvering as conservator, they can come out hundreds of thousands of dollars ahead of their siblings,” said Ernest L. Hayward, a longtime probate attorney and estate planner in Orange. Such maneuvering can lead to all-out war among the relatives, he said.

Hawkins’ relatives “weren’t around before . . . but now there’s $400,000 [Hawkins’ estate] and they’re coming out of the woodwork,” Derderian said.

“We aren’t just Johnny-come-lately relatives here,” said Mary Brim. “To come down and start to try to help someone and to be treated like someone who’s just trying to steal money was really hard for us to deal with.”

Added Dan Ulrey, a nephew: “Glen’s sole occupation has been these [conservators]. It’s all he’s been talking about: They’re going to put him in the rest home.”

On March 10, five weeks after Glen Hawkins had been put in the hands of conservators, he, his lawyer and his relatives appeared in court to object.

The conservatorship was dismissed, but the matter is not settled. Another hearing is scheduled Tuesday in Orange County to determine whether the conservators’ attorney can bill Glen Hawkins’ new trust for her $2,746.75 in legal fees. The conservators have waived their $985 fee.

Now, nearly 11 months after his wife’s death and the entrance of the conservators, Glen Hawkins is on a steep decline. He suffered a heart attack in June and two months later a stroke. He can hardly complete a sentence, his nephew said.

“Mentally, it has been hard on me,” said Glen Hawkins before his stroke. “I’m still worried about it. I mean, it’s hurting me right now.

“I want this thing out of my way. I want it understood that I don’t need nobody.”