Fight over Former Presidential Press Secretary's Affairs Illustrates Need for Planning

A story in Sunday's Clarion Ledger shows just how important it can be to have your affairs in order to avoid family fights over your care and assets.  Mississippi native Larry Speaks, who served as Press Secretary for Ronald Reagan for 7 years, was diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 2008.  Speaks was taken by his children from his home in Virginia to Mississippi.  While here,, they obtained a conservatorship over his affairs, apparently without even providing notice to the wife.  Mississippi law only provides that one relative who is a resident of Mississippi be notified of a conservatorship, and since Speaks' wife resides in Maryland no notice was given to her.  The story also points out, however, that Speaks executed a power of attorney appointing his wife as his agent.  A well drafted power would also have nominated his wife to serve as his conservator.  Under Mississippi law, "The court shall make its appointment in accordance with the principal's most recent nomination in a durable power of attorney except for good cause or disqualification."  If so, we can only assume the judge found that the wife was disqualified due to neglect described in the article, or the judge was never shown the power, or perhaps the power simply was silent on the issue.  Now, the wife faces charges by her step-children that she has mismanaged her husband's money, and is limited to contact with her own husband by a visitation order.  This case is a sad example of of what can happen in the event of a loss of capacity.  Planning can be done to minimize the risk of much of the uncertainty created by court oversight over a ward's affairs through trusts and naming a preferred agent and incapacity trustee.  On the flip side, this case also illustrates how easy it is for families of this state of out-of-state parents to gain control over a parent's estate by simply bringing them to Mississippi.  They don't even have to tell the parent's spouse that they are doing it.