Q: How can we apply conservatorship for small business owned by our son, who is currently hospitalized for mental illness?

A: Your post doesn't describe whether your son is the sole owner or whether he is in MD or DE. I presume that he is in MD.

If your son runs this business as a sole proprietorship a financial Power of Attorney should give persons of his choosing authority to manage his affairs, including his business interests. If the business is a Limited Liability Company, then the Operating Agreement would describe how the company is run and he could perhaps designate a Manager for the business in that Operating Agreement. Of course, these options require him to voluntarily give authority (and have sufficient capacity to do so). If he cannot or will not designate someone with legal authority to handle his affairs, the only option(s) would be to seek legal guardianship over his property (to include his business interests) and/or seeking a limited court order to approve a specific transaction while he is unable to manage his own affairs.

Guardianship can be filed in either the Orphan's Court or Circuit Court in the county where he resides and you'd need two doctors to certify that he could not manage his own affairs. Guardianship is not a quick process in Maryland in most cases as it requires an attorney be appointed for the alleged disabled (often a person seeking guardianship has their own attorney, whether or not they have an attorney the court appoints a separate attorney for the alleged disabled person). The Maryland Judiciary has some informational videos about guardianship which might be helpful to watch.

While not legal advice, I hope the general information above helps.