After the premiere of the New York Times documentary “Framing Britney Spears” there’s been a renewed interest in the battle for the conservatorship of Britney Spears. A conservatorship is a judge-appointed guardian who manages another person’s finances or even daily life due to the person’s mental state, physical limitations or old age. In this case, Britney Spears has been in a conservatorship for the past thirteen years under the care of her father.
COURTESY // MARC E.
What started off as a temporary conservatorship turned into a permanent one. At first, it might have been good, even a healthy idea for Britney Spears to be under a conservatorship due to mental health issues that led to multiple public breakdowns like her shaving her hair off in 2007.
However, after thirteen years of not being able to control her own assets or even choose her own appearances because she’s under the control of her father is wrong. Especially, when Britney herself has challenged her father’s role in her conservatorship. Entertainment Tonight found that James Spears “Business dealings lost her over $300,000,” and that he’d also been making business decisions without her knowledge involving TriStar Sports and Entertainment Group, Spears’ former management, who was being “paid 5% commission on her gross entertainment-related income” as well as a “$500k annual minimum which resulted in the loss of more than $300,000 after her hiatus since 2019.”
However, in that same Entertainment Tonight article, Jamie Spears and his legal team argue that all he’s ever done is in the best interests of his daughter and that he was responsible for getting Britney Spears to be worth $60 million rather than in debt and that Jamie wasn’t “obligated” to give” Britney or Sam Ingham Britney’s attorney notice of TriStar’s resignation as her management company.
According to Insider, Jamie Lynn Spears, Britney’s sister was secretly named “A trustee on Spears’ SJB Revocable Trust in 2018.” A trust meant to go to her children is now controlled by her sister without her consent and she has no power to challenge it. If anything happens to Britney, Jamie Lynn, who is now “requesting that the court move the assets into Fidelity Brokerage Services accounts with her as the custodian”, making it so Britney would have no authority over her accounts, only able to watch the money move. Jamie has absolute control over Britney’s children’s trust and wouldn’t even have to give them a penny.
Should Jamie Spears be removed as Britney’s conservator he stands to lose control of a public figure who is worth millions of dollars and having direct control of her finances and her appearances. When the control of millions of dollars is on the line the motivations of everyone involved should be put into question. What reasons are there that Britney would rather have Bessemer Trust Company as her sole conservator instead of her father raises questions about the care she may be receiving as well? Who truly has her best interest at heart; is it someone who doesn’t want to cede control of her assets despite her multiple attempts or is it someone else?
If Britney is capable of handling her own assets and her own life she should be in control and not have this conservatorship for the rest of her life. If she wants to remain in a conservatorship just with a different conservator that’s her decision. It should be with someone who has her best interest at heart and not a person who is using her for personal gain.
