Conservatorship of the Person and Estate of Mercado CA4/1

background facts and procedure are taken from the register of actions. 2 In December 2022, the court appointed appellant, then represented by attorney Merianne Dean, as the limited conservator of the conservatee’s estate. In March 2023, appellant substituted Dean out as counsel and began representing herself. At the same time, the court appointed counsel for the conservatee. In September 2023, appellant filed a petition for a “substituted judgment to create and fund [a] special needs trust and [to] execute [a] new will.” At some point thereafter, the court appointed a guardian ad litem for the conservatee. In December 2023, appellant filed an amended petition for a special needs trust. At that time, the court set a March 6, 2024 hearing on appellant’s petition. In advance of the hearing, both the conservatee’s guardian ad litem and court appointed counsel respectively filed their second

and third reports.3 Observing that the conservatee’s estate contained approximately $90,000, the conservatee’s attorney recommended it was in his best interest to establish a special needs trust, and that there were two proposed versions of such a trust. Counsel recommended that the “first version…