Section 16B Conservator for mentally retarded persons; appointment - Massachusetts Statutes

[Text of section effective until July 1, 2009. Repealed by 2008, 521, Sec. 21. See 2008, 521, Sec. 44.]

Section 16B. A parent of a mentally retarded person, two or more of his relatives or friends, a nonprofit corporation organized under the laws of the commonwealth whose corporate charter authorizes the corporation to act as a conservator of a mentally retarded person, or any agency within the executive office of human services may file a petition in the probate court asking to have a conservator appointed for such mentally retarded person. If, after notice as provided in section seventeen and a hearing, the court finds that the person is mentally retarded to the degree that he is incapable of making informed decisions with respect to the conduct of his financial affairs and that the failure to appoint a conservator would create an unreasonable risk to his property, it may appoint a conservator to have charge and management of his property, subject to the direction of the court. The court shall not so find unless the petition is accompanied by a report from a clinical team consisting of a physician, a licensed psychologist and a social worker or certified psychiatric nurse clinical specialist, each of whom is experienced in the evaluation of mentally retarded persons, that it has examined the person and has determined that the person is mentally retarded to the degree that he is incapable of making informed decisions with respect to the conduct of his financial affairs. In the case of a mentally retarded person of majority age who is wholly or substantially self-supporting by means of his wages or earnings from employment or other financial entitlement, the court may, upon the recommendation of such clinical team, exempt the property of the mentally retarded person from the powers of a conservator as described in section twenty to the extent of his wages or other financial entitlement, or three hundred dollars per month, whichever is less.