1. The court shall exercise the authority conferred in this chapter consistent with the maximum self-reliance and independence of the protected person and make protective orders only to the extent necessitated by the protected person's actual mental and adaptive limitations and other conditions warranting the procedure. 2. The court has the following powers which may be exercised directly or through a conservator, subject to section 30.1 -29-22, in respect to the estate and affairs of protected persons: a. While a petition for appointment of a conservator or other protective order is pending and after preliminary hearing and without prior notice to others, the court has power to preserve and apply the property of the person to be protected as may be required for the benefit of the person to be protected or the benefit of the dependents of the person to be protected. b. After hearing and upon determining that a basis for an appointment or other protective order exists with respect to a minor, the court has all those powers over the estate and affairs of the minor which are or might be necessary for the best interests of the minor, the minor's family, and members of the minor's household. c. After hearing and upon determining that appointment of a conservator or other protective order is appropriate with respect to a person for reasons other than minority, the court has, for the benefit of the person and members of the person's household, all the powers over the person's estate and affairs which the person could exercise if present and not under disability, except the power to make a will. These powers include power to make gifts, to convey or release the person's contingent and expectant interests in property, including marital property rights and any right of survivorship incident to joint tenancy, to exercise or release the person's powers as trustee, personal representative, custodian for minors, conservator, or donee of a power of appointment, to enter into contracts, to create revocable or irrevocable trusts of property of the estate which may extend beyond the person's disability or life, to exercise options of the disabled person to purchase securities or other property, to exercise the person's rights to elect options and change beneficiaries under insurance and annuity policies and to surrender the policies for their cash value, to exercise the person's right to an elective share in the estate of the person's deceased spouse, and to renounce any interest by testate or intestate succession or by inter vivos transfer. d. The court may exercise or direct the exercise of its authority to exercise or release powers of appointment of which the protected person is donee, to renounce interests, to make gifts in trust or otherwise exceeding twenty percent of any year's income of the estate, or to change beneficiaries under insurance and annuity policies, only if satisfied, after notice to those identified in section 30.1-29-05.1 and hearing, that it is in the best interests of the protected person, and that the protected person either is incapable of consenting or has consented to the proposed exercise of power. e. An order made pursuant to this section determining that appointment of a conservator or other protective order is appropriate has no effect on the capacity of the protected person. 3. Unless terminated earlier by the court, an order appointing or reappointing a conservator under this section is effective for up to five years. At least ninety days before the expiration of the initial order of appointment or any following order of reappointment, the court shall request and consider information submitted by the conservator, the protected person, the protected person's attorney, if any, and any interested persons regarding whether the need for a conservator continues to exist. If it is recommended the conservatorship continue, the court may appoint a guardian ad litem in accordance with section 30.1-29-07. The court shall hold a hearing on whether the conservatorship should continue. Following the hearing and consideration of submitted information, the court may reappoint the conservator for up to another five years, allow the existing order to expire, or appoint a new conservator in accordance with this section. The supreme court, by rule or order, shall provide for regular review of conservatorships in existence on August 1, 2017.
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