@cptofthehouse
I am so sorry about your friend and such a dreadful consequence to a child trying to do the right thing. My mother had LBD and it was horrendous, especially the ups and downs and ability to rise to the occasion, sometimes. I can see how LBD would make it especially difficult to gain conservatorship.
My FIL had some sort of mild dementia, we could tell more in hindsight, but he was such a overwhelming personality that the AL doctor was unwilling to certify him (for banking etc) because it would have been such an ugly scene. Things could have gone very badly, there was at least one time FIL told my DH, “if you leave this room, never come back” and he was constantly calling his accountant about assorted soap opera style fiddling with his will (he forgot he’d spent it all on home health care!)
People on forums will often chastise the family for not taking the car away, etc. And yet, the system does not make it easy. Conservatorship/Guardianship is difficult and ugly, plus if a person is not yet full on gone, they can pass for pretty normal for a while. You could take away their car and they could go buy another. We had no physician willing to certify FIL could not drive safely, they just don’t do that in his area. And when he moved to the home we simply did not take the car with him, he was furious and called the police on my husband (the son who had not been there in 6-8 weeks, but also the son who was most critical of his driving.) By the time DH got off the phone with the officer, the officer was telling DH how sorry he was that FIL was so hostile 