LOS ANGELES – A judge has placed Beach Boys founder Brian Wilson under conservatorship to oversee his personal and medical affairs after the legendary songwriter’s doctor reported he has a serious neurocognitive disorder.
The judge on Thursday appointed two of Wilson’s longtime representatives, publicist Jean Sievers and businessman LeeAnn Hard, as his conservators. No significant objections were raised.
Wilson, 81, is the latest celebrity involved in a conservatorship case. Others include Amanda Bynes, the young actress who was placed under her parents’ control for nine years, and Casey Kasem, the radio and TV personality whose guardianship became part of a fierce struggle between his wife and adult children before his death. in 2014. Music legend Joni Mitchell was placed under temporary conservatorship following a brain aneurysm in 2015 before making a strong recovery.
The most famous was Britney Spears’ controversial conservatorship, which ended in 2021 after almost 14 years. The #FreeBritney campaign helped draw national attention amid the pop star’s attempts to regain control over her finances and livelihood. She claimed that she had been mistreated by her father, who was her conservator. James Spears and her lawyers argued that she was especially susceptible to people who wanted to take advantage of her fame and fortune.
Here’s a look at how conservatorships work, what led to Wilson’s case, and the #FreeBritney impact:
WHAT DOES CONSERVATION MEAN?
When a person is considered to have seriously impaired mental capacity, a court may intervene and grant others the power to make important financial decisions and life choices for them, sometimes without their consent. They most often involve people with developmental or intellectual disabilities, or people with age-related problems such as dementia.
California law says that a guardianship, called a conservatorship in some states, is warranted for a “person who is unable to adequately provide for his or her personal needs for physical health, food, clothing, or shelter,” or for someone who is “substantially incapable to manage their own financial resources or resist fraud or undue influence.”
The conservator can be a family member, a close friend, or a court-appointed professional. They can control a person’s life decisions, their financial decisions, or both.
While Spears’ case has drawn attention — much of it negative — to conservatorships, Wilson’s is closer to the typical use of a conservatorship, which is often installed for elderly people experiencing irreversible mental decline.
While a conservatorship can always be dissolved by the court, it’s rare for a person to achieve their own release from one — as Spears essentially did.
In another high-profile case, Cher is asking the court to place one of her children in a conservatorship that controls her money. The award-winning singer and actor argued in a petition that 47-year-old Elijah Blue Allman’s large payments from the trust of his late father, rocker Gregg Allman, are putting him in danger because of his struggles with mental health and substance abuse.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Jessica A. Uzcategui was not convinced that relief was urgently needed and in January denied the request for temporary relief. She is still considering a larger, long-term conservatorship and will hear more arguments at a hearing in June, but has indicated that she is not inclined to side with Cher.
WHAT LED TO WILSON’S CONSERVATION?
Wilson, who many praised as a musical genius and who wrote or co-wrote many of the Beach Boys’ biggest hits, including “Good Vibrations” and “God Only Knows,” struggled with mental health and substance abuse issues that hampered his career. in the 1960s.
He met his future wife, Melinda Wilson, when he was a customer at a car dealership where she worked in the mid-1980s. At the time, Wilson was under the supervision of psychologist Dr. Eugene Landy for years. Melinda and others believed that Landy was exploiting and mistreating Wilson, and fought with Landy for years before he was barred in 1992 from any contact with Wilson. The couple married in 1995.
Melinda Wilson died unexpectedly earlier this year. Wilson credited her with stabilizing his notoriously troubled life, and she managed his daily life in recent years.
“Our five children and I are crying. We are lost,” Brian Wilson wrote on his website. “Melinda was more than my wife. She was my savior.”
His mental decline and her death prompted Brian Wilson’s management team to petition the court in February to place him under conservatorship. The loss of a spouse in such circumstances is a common trigger for such legal agreements. The petition sought only conservatorship of Wilson’s person, saying he does not need a conservator over his finances because his assets are in a trust fund, with Manager Hard as trustee.
A doctor’s statement said Wilson has a “severe neurocognitive disorder,” is taking medication for dementia and “is unable to adequately meet his own personal needs for physical health, food, clothing or shelter.”
Wilson can move around with the help of a walker and caregiver, court-appointed attorney Robert Frank Cipriano wrote in a report. He said Wilson has a good sense of who he is, where he is and when he is, but was unable to name his children other than the two who live with him.
In approving the petition, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Gus T. May said the evidence shows Wilson consented to the settlement and lacks the capacity to make health care decisions.
WHAT IMPACT DOES THE #FREEBRITNEY MOVEMENT HAVE ON CONSERVATIVES?
Some fans opposed Spears’ conservatorship soon after it began. But the #FreeBritney movement and hashtag really took off in early 2019, when some believed she was being forced into a psychiatric hospital against her will.
Fans pored over his social media posts to extract clues about his well-being and protested outside the courthouse at every hearing. Spears’ father and others had long dismissed these fans as conspiracy theorists, but their influence on Spears’ case was undeniable in the end and she credited them for her success.
In 2022, California lawmakers revised the state’s statute to require judges to document all alternatives to relief before granting it. The update, which came into effect last year, gained momentum amid the #FreeBritney movement. Advocacy groups have argued that people like Spears could be trapped in a system that strips them of their civil rights and ability to defend themselves.
Several other states, including New Jersey, New Mexico and Oregon, have taken advantage of the attention that Spears and her followers have brought to the issue to change their own guardianship laws.
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