Britney Spears asks for accountant to replace her father as conservator

Britney Spears on Monday formally asked a Los Angeles judge to remove her father from her conservatorship as she moved to regain control over her life and finances.

In a court filing on Monday, her lawyer Matthew Rosengart requested that accountant Jason Rubin be named the conservator of Ms Spears' estate, a post currently held by her father, Jamie Spears.

Mr Rosengart questioned whether Mr Spears was "guilty of misfeasance” as he argued that removing him was in the 39-year-old star's best interest.

Ms Spears' estate, which for the last 13 years has been controlled by Mr Spears, was revealed to include cash assets of $2.7 million (£2m) and non-cash assets of more than $57 million.

The lawyer noted that in light of the recent court ruling “that Ms Spears has sufficient capacity to choose her own legal counsel, she likewise has sufficient capacity to make this nomination”.

Ms Spears recently told the court she wanted her father immediately removed and wanted to charge him with conservatorship abuse.

She described at the hearing being forced into a mental health facility after a disagreement at a concert rehearsal. “I cried on the phone for an hour and he loved every minute of it,” she said.

“The control he had over someone as powerful as me - he loved the control, to hurt his own daughter, one-hundred thousand percent.”

The mother-of-two was placed under a conservatorship that controls both her personal and financial affairs in 2008 after she suffered a mental health breakdown. The details of her mental health issues have never been revealed.

Mr Spears, 69, has said instituting the conservatorship was necessary to save his daughter’s life and career during a period of concern about her mental health and substance abuse, and that he has acted out of love, working to protect her from exploitation.

Public support for the singer has swelled since her emotional address to the court in June in which she called the conservatorship abusive and humiliating.

Representatives for Mr Rosengart and Mr Spears did not immediately respond to requests for comment.