I have a mentally ill uncle that lives in the Nashville area. My grandmother passed away in December, she and my grandfather have kept him in line as best as they could over the years. Once my grandfather is gone there is a trust that is set up to assist in taking care of my uncle, and my mom will be the executor. She lives several hours away. My uncle is not good with money, on several occasions he's given large sums of money away and there has been a pattern like this over the years. He's given his car away back when he was driving. He takes his meds and eventually he thinks he doesn't need them and he goes off of them and that's when the trouble starts.

I would like to consult an attorney regarding conservatorship in the state of Tennessee. I understand that in Tennessee conservatorships are kind of tough to get, but I would still like to consult a lawyer and see what the options are. This is less about controlling what he spends his money on and more having visibility on what he spends his money on.

Would this fall under the purview of family law? If not, what kind of lawyer should I be looking for?

I would talk to somebody specializing in Elder Law.

Ditto, you need a lawyer who specializes in elder issues and trusts.

I have a sister in similar circumstances as your uncle. I am her Conservator. Generally you could expect a court hearing in front of a judge familiar with these sorts of issues. Your uncle would have a lawyer, possibly assigned by the court. If he is agreeable, you could be named Conservator voluntarily. In some states it is about the same as power of attorney but with a bit more responsibility to watch over him. In other states it is more akin to guardianship.

We have a 3rd party special needs trust. It pays for most of her expenses, while she collects social security disability. It was funded by our parents. There are very specific wording requirements, so you do need a qualified atty who is expert in these 3rd party special needs trusts.

It will be a firewall against him giving it all away. But, there are strict requirements to keep it a firewall. No $ can flow directly between the trust and him. The trust can pay his rent, and other expenses but he cannot get the $ directly.

You will need to revisit the trust every few years to be sure no laws have changed. We had to completely rewrite the trust for my sister, and it would have been a big problem had we not.

Tennessee law may require an evaluation by a clinical psychologist or psychiatrist to declare incompetency. In some state a regular MD can do it. It differs from state to state and you need an ELder Law attorney as stated above.

In Texas we would call what you need a guardianship. There may be a different term in your state. But you need someone who handles guardianships. Someone who practices Elder Law would have this in their tool bag.

Guardianships are hard to get, and should be, since you are seeking to limit an adult person's freedoms in serious ways. They do, in Texas, generally require medical testimony, annual reporting to the court, and sometimes a bond.

Thank you for all the input. I'll reach out to an Elder Law specialist.

You may need two.

One that specializes in elder law guardianship and one that deals with trusts and estates.

The lawyers I dealt with the ones that dealt with the mental health aspects were not the same as the ones that dealt with trusts and estates.

Your state may be different.

There are basically 3 levels of authority. Power of Attorney, Conservatorship, and Guardianship.

PoA just lets you legally sign for the person, but does not give you decision or override authority. This is for a competent person you are helping.

Conservatorship is, generally, the same as PoA plus you have a duty to steward their affairs responsibly for their benefit. You do not have override authority, and the other person has full authority to direct their affairs. Note that in some states they use the term "Conservator" to mean more than this. Also, Conservatorship can be restricted to certain things such as only finances or only medical.

In my experience, being Conservator is respected by various caregivers as nearly guardianship. That is, they refer to me rather than my sister for decisions even though my sister still legally has full decision rights. So far we have no conflicts between her desires and what I do for her. But if we did, she could legally override me. She has too much cognitive decline to know that or to organize different choices.

In our experience, the court monitors me to be sure I am not stealing all her money or putting her in terrible living situations. The judge quickly recognized her disabilities and easily granted Conservatorship.

Guardianship gives you full authority over the person, and so the person would have to be found mentally incompetent. This is a bigger issue all the way around. Your relative will likely resist being declared incompetent, and in fact the legal process is tougher. So it is confrontational with your relative and it takes a lot of your emotional energy to get through the process.

You might be able to put something in your relative's credit reports, especially if you are declared Conservator or Guardian, that he is mentally incompetent and will not be held financially responsible. This will stop him from taking out credit cards etc.

A properly designed trust will put someone else as Trustee, who will have full decision making authority over the funds. Thus your relative will have no access to the money. He can still waste whatever funds he has access to such as Social Security or any job earnings, but you just write those off in your mind as nothing you can control, so don't get worked up over it. The purpose of the Trust is to make sure he doesn't end up homeless or starving to death, so the Trust protects that money.

Good luck, this is a long hard road you are on.