You must exercise reasonable care, skill and caution to invest and manage estate assets as a prudent investor would, considering the estate's circumstances. You must make a reasonable effort to verify relevant facts. Your investment and management decisions about individual assets must be evaluated in the context of the estate as a whole and as a part of an overall investment strategy having risk and return objectives reasonably suited to the estate. Circumstances that you should consider in investing and managing estate assets include the following:
general economic conditions and the possible effect of inflation or deflation;
the expected tax consequences of investment decisions or strategies;
the role that an investment or course of action plays within the overall portfolio;
the expected total return from income and the appreciation of capital;
the size of the estate, the need for liquidity, regularity of income, and preservation or appreciation of capital; and
an asset's special value to the purposes of the estate or to the ward.
In managing your ward's estate, you are required to take into account any estate plan. Your may examine your ward's will, including a will filed with the court for safekeeping. Utah Code Sections 75-5-427 and 75-2-901.
Unless your authority is limited by the appointment order, you may:
collect, hold, and retain estate assets;
invest in any kind of property or type of investment that is consistent with the standards imposed by the Utah Code;
allocate items of income or expense to estate income or principal;
acquire estate assets or take an option to acquire estate assets;
dispose of estate assets or grant an option to dispose of an estate asset;
invest and reinvest estate assets;
deposit estate funds in a bank;
continue or participate in operating any business or enterprise;
acquire an undivided interest in an estate asset in which the conservator holds an undivided interest;
manage, develop, improve, exchange, partition, abandon or change the character of, an estate asset;
repair, modify or demolish buildings, structures or improvements;
subdivide, develop, or dedicate land to public use; make or obtain the vacation of plats and adjust boundaries; adjust differences in valuation on exchange or partition by giving or receiving considerations; and dedicate easements to public use without consideration;
enter into a lease for a term within or extending beyond the term of the conservatorship;
vote a security;
pay calls, assessments, and other sums accruing on account of securities;
sell or exercise stock subscription or conversion rights; consent to the reorganization, consolidation, merger, dissolution, or liquidation of a corporation or other business enterprise;
hold a security in the name of a nominee or in other form without disclosure of the conservatorship;
insure estate assets against damage or loss and the conservator against liability with respect to third persons;
borrow money and advance money for protecting the estate or the ward, and for all expenses, losses, and liabilities sustained in administering the estate;
prosecute or defend actions, claims, or proceedings for protecting estate assets and you, as conservator, in the performance of your duties;
pay, settle or contest a claim by or against the estate or the ward;
release any claim of the estate to the extent that the claim is uncollectible;
pay taxes, assessments, your compensation, and other expenses incurred in the collection, care, administration, and protection of the estate;
pay any sum distributable to your ward or his dependent by paying the sum to your ward, to his guardian if there is one, or to the person with custody of your ward;
employ persons to advise or assist you in the performance of your duties and act upon their recommendation personally or by an agent;
execute and deliver instruments to facilitate the exercise of your powers;
spend or distribute income or principal for the support, education, care or benefit of your ward and his or her dependents;
if the estate is sufficient to provide for the support, education, care or benefit of your ward and his or her dependents and if the estate is that of an incapacitated adult, you may make gifts to charity as your ward might have been expected to make, provided the total does not exceed for any year 20% of the income from the estate; and
pay all just claims against the estate and against your ward.
As conservator, you may not:
commingle your personal funds with those of your ward;
pay your personal expenses from the estate (For example, do not use your ward's money to pay your personal bills.);
deposit estate funds into your account or your funds into the estate account;
borrow money or property from the ward's estate;
sell estate property for less than fair market value (For example, do not sell the property to family members at reduced prices.);
record your name on your wards property as though you are the owner (For example, do not record your name on your ward's bank account as if you owned the account. It is proper to record you name on an account as your ward's conservator).