SB 1284: Human remains: conservator of the person or estate.

Under existing law, if a decedent has not otherwise given directions, the right to control the disposition of the remains of the deceased person, the location and conditions of interment, and arrangements for funeral goods and services vests in, and the specified corresponding duty devolves upon, certain persons in a specified order of succession. Existing law lists these persons, in order, as an agent under a power of attorney for health care who has the right and duty of disposition, the surviving spouse, other specified relatives, and, when the decedent has sufficient assets, a conservator of the person, a conservator of the estate, and the public administrator.

Existing law requires, if the agent under a power of attorney, the surviving spouse, or any of the other specified relatives who have the right to control the disposition and arrange for funeral goods and services fails to act or cannot be found within a specified period, that the persons right to control the disposition and arrange for funeral goods and services be relinquished and passed on to the person or persons of the next degree of kinship in accordance with the above list. Existing law also provides that if any of those persons who would otherwise have equal rights to control the disposition and arrange for funeral goods and services fail to agree on disposition and funeral goods and services to be provided within 7 days of the date on which the right and duty of disposition devolved upon the persons, a funeral establishment or a cemetery authority having possession of the remains, or any person who has equal right to control the disposition of the remains, may file a petition in the superior court, as specified, seeking an order of the court determining, as appropriate, who among those parties will have the control of disposition and to direct that person to make interment of the remains. These provisions do not apply to a conservator of the person or a conservator of the estate that fails to act or cannot be found within the specified period.

This bill would add a conservator of the person and a conservator of the estate to the above provisions for purposes of relinquishment or petition, as specified.