Care Custodians as Beneficiaries

Under California law, “care custodians” are disqualified from benefiting from donative transfers from elderly or disabled persons.  In Bernard v. Foley, 39 Cal. 4th 794 (2006), defendant James Foley and his girlfriend Ann Erman had cared for the deceased, Carmel L. Bosco, in the two months preceding her death.  Three days before Bosco passed away, she executed the seventh amendment to her revocable living trust.  The amended trust made Foley and Erman 50% residuary beneficiaries. Neither of them had been named as beneficiaries in earlier versions of the trust.
   

In this case we determine whether close personal friends of a dependent elder who at the end of her life provided her with personal care, including health care, are “care custodians” for the purposes of statutory provisions that presumptively disqualify care custodians as beneficiaries of testamentary transfers from dependent adults to whom they provide such services.[***]
   

We conclude that when an unrelated person renders substantial, ongoing health services to a dependent adult, that person may be a care custodian for purposes of the statutory scheme at issue, notwithstanding that the service relationship between the individuals arose out of a preexisting personal friendship rather than a professional or occupational connection.