Incapacity, Business Transactions

Legally, several things happen when someone is adjudicated as incapacitated and a guardian or conservator is appointed for the protectee (i.e., the incapacitated person). Perhaps most significantly, the protectee loses his or her right to enter into business transactions. Instead, it is the conservator’s responsibility (usually with court approval) to enter into such transactions.
Section 475.345, RSMo states, in pertinent part, that “[a] sale, exchange, lease, gift, contract, release or other transaction affecting his [or her] estate entered into by a protectee at a time when he [or she]…lacks sufficient mental capacity to understand the transaction and its effect upon his estate, rights and future welfare is voidable at the option of the protectee or the conservator of his estate unless entered into with the consent of the conservator.” Moreover, a conservator has a duty to void certain transactions that are not beneficial to the protectee/estate.
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