Britney Spears’s father loses bid to keep control of delegating pop singer’s investments

Judge Brenda Penny stated that Bessemer Trust would continue to act as co-conservator with Jamie Spears

Britney Spears's father has lost his bid to keep control of delegating the pop singer’s investments, after a new court hearing.

A high-profile conservatorship case went back to court, where Judge Brenda Penny overruled the singer's father's objections to an order establishing financial company, the Bessemer Trust, as co-conservator of Spears's estate.

The conservator arrangement, which has been in place since 2008, originally gave the singer's father Jamie Spears control over her life and finances.

In the wake of the release of the New York Times documentary Framing Britney Spears, the "Free Britney" movement, which advocates to end the conservatorship, has found new traction.

As The New York Times speculated in the days prior, Thursday's hearing focused on the specific roles that Jaime Spears and the financial group Bessemer Trust now have in managing Britney's estate.

Overseen by Judge Brenda Penny, the brief hearing had arguments from Spears's lawyer Samuel D. Ingham and Jamie Spears's lawyer Vivian Thoreen.

In his arguments, Mr Ingham questioned how Mr Spears has "delegate[d] co-conservator responsibilities", while Ms Thoreen argued that it had originally been Britney herself who appointed her father as her conservator but that she was "happy to work" with Mr Ingham "on the language" surrounding the arrangement.

"There's no intent or desire to create unequal power or decision-making as between the two, your honor," Thoreen argued. "This is a way to make it consistent and to not take away powers that Mr. Spears as a conservator had."

"I appreciate what each of you have to say today," said Judge Penny before concluding that her November decision, that Bessemer should be added as an equal co-conservator and corporate fiduciary, would remain in place.

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From there, a representative from Bessemer urged that they and Jamie Spears should work on a proposed portfolio allocation... so that we all have a better idea of where this conservatorship is headed".

Britney Spears's next hearings around her conservatorship will take place on 17 March and 27 April.