How do you get conservatorship of adult son with autism?

Answer 1

I'm going thru this process now with my daughter who will be 18 in November. We went to a conference thru our local Family Resource Center where we heard information about trusts, wills and conservatorships. We ended up hiring the attorney that gave the conference because we trusted him and he also has a son with special needs. It runs about $1500 if you go thru an attorney. You can file a conservatorship on your own but it can be complicated and if you leave out a step it takes a lot longer to complete the process.

There are two types of conservatorship; limited and general. Limited is for those individuals that are higher functioning and can maintain some independence from their family. General is for those that are lower functioning and will never be able to make decisions on their own maybe because they can not speak or don't understand what's going on or for some other reason will not be able to speak or make decisions about their life, finances, etc. I recommend that you get a consult from an attorney who specializes in special needs law. There are many that will do free consults. I would use someone that you trust and feel comfortable with. Ask for references.

You can also ask other parents of special needs adults in your area where they went, sometimes you can network with other families via parent support groups in your area or by contacting your local Family Resource Center and see if they have a family network program in which they give out phone numbers of other families with kids/adults on the spectrum and you can contact some to see what they did and if they used an attorney, who they used.