Britney Spears Conservatorship: Guardianship and Conservatorship 101
Britney Spears, an outstanding pop female singer hits headlines with her controversial conservatorship program. She has been having her father Jamie Spear as the conservator since 2008 when she was declared mental ill. Britney Spear has not been comfortable in this arrangement leading to the appointment by the court Jodi Montgomery in 2019, to act as a temporary conservator responsible for Spear personal endeavors. Her father Jamie Spears takes control of her entire life from finances, career and personal life. However, this is not how conservatorship is done as we will see below.
Provisions for Conservatorship
In a conservatorship, the conservator makes decisions on the affairs of the conservatee either financial, personal or both. However, a person (conservatee) does not lose all the rights over his or her affairs completely. Having some basic human rights, the conservatee’s rights need to be upheld by taking his or her wishes in consideration. A conservatee is always at liberty to recommend who to be their conservator or guardian.
The court has the responsibility of taking into consideration the recommendation of the conservatee. Having a family member as a guardian is good in most cases. This is because the family member can be in a better position to understand the conservatee. An institution guardian can also take over the matter and act as a conservator. This is a professional person who has expertise in conservatorship issues.
According to current laws, a conservatorship is needed to be a narrowly or specifically customized order. This means that the jurisdictions of the conservatorship should only be limited to those areas where the person cannot manage. The conservator is supposed to submit a report to the court annually to signify how the conservatee has regain capacity to manage his or her affairs and whether to terminate the conservatorship or not. Moreover, the conservatorship laws have provisions for a conservatee who wants to terminate the conservatorship.
Why Britney Spear’s conservatorship raises questions.
Britney spears conservatorship is unique. The court has approved conservatorships with very extreme conditions. She has been denied the rights of getting married or having any other kid. She has been put on a family planning program under duress by implanting UDI inside her and restricting her to get rid of it.
Even though Britney Spear seems capable to manage everything on her own, the conservatorship program appears not to have any limits in both her financial or property management and personal affairs, despite the current development in the conservative law which provide for guardianship be offered to the specific life affairs that the incapacitated cannot manage.
Nevertheless, she has proven not to be incapable as such, for she works perfectly fine in her field and succeed to provide enough money to pay other people. As it seems, Spear’s conservatorship is not a typical one, and she terms the whole idea as senseless. It is senseless indeed as she shows a level of capability that is not of match with the term “incapacity” defined by the law.
She has been denied the chance to end the guardianship with her father. Despite the provision by the conservatorship law, where the conservatee has a right to revoke the guardianship through her own defense, this chance has not been given to her.
Britney spear’s defenses and struggles in the conservatorship.
However, in some cases, a family member who has been given the task as a conservator may mix up the social relationship that they may have with the conservatee, with the conservatorship requirements which are legally binding as a contract. Jamie spear, as a conservator and a father to the conservatee is seen to be in a state of disequilibrium between the two duties. He certainly thinks he knows what is good for his daughter’s wellbeing. That is probably the reason of not stepping down as a conservator, despite Britney spear’s many attempts to remove him. His actions are therefore based on the social relationship that exists between them. The conservation mechanism is now rendered useless as said earlier by his daughter.
Britney spear’s case has been added a wealth management company. Though the company is not so impactful for it is just a co-conservator while the father, Jamie spear maintains to be the prime conservator.
Why terminating Britney conservatorship has been difficult.
Termination of a guardianship can be very hard. Although the guardianship laws provide for its termination, the process is always complicated and has too many bottlenecks. The conservatee is always given the burden of proving that he or she no longer needs a conservator as opposed to the ideal situation where the conservator should genuinely state why the conservatorship should continue or be terminated. Moreover, much guardianship do not honor the set time and fail to terminate it upon its maturity.
Termination of a conservatorship can also be set back by a conservator’s ill intentions of benefitting financially from it. Especially, where the conservatee has a continuous income. This is the case with Britney spear. The conservator may intentionally fail to admit on how the conservatee has regained capacity in annual reports, for him or her to continue getting income.
Conservatorship and Guardianship mechanism lacks a well-defined rule that governs execution of various activities. Rules need to be well defined and inexistence of necessary rules to be created and implemented. The duties and responsibilities of each party need to be properly defined, the conservator needs to take the conservatee wishes to his or her best interest and adhere properly to the rules that govern guardianship. This way, the conservatorship mechanism will be effective, and all the affairs of an incompetent person will be adequately and fairly taken care of.
