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I volunteered for a short time with the AZ Guardianship watchdog program. We went to homes of people under guardianship, asking if they had any problems, concerns, etc. In nearly all cases, the guardian was present, a form was filled out and signed and the person had every right to end the guardianship if they so chose.
I cannot believe that Nevada can be so backwards as to allow this illegal situation to continue.
Unfortunately, this is not the first time I am reading about this situation. As I recall, about a year or so ago, this happened to a parent of someone on a different board. The daughter was telling us about how a court ordered a third-party guardian instead of the children who wanted to care for their parent. The guardian sold the parent's home and possessions and put the parent in some kind of care facility over the objections of the children. When the daughter took the guardian to court, the guardian and guardian's attorney billed the estate and essentially bankrupted it. She didn't get care of her parent until there was nothing left. The family was traumatized. I remember she said that when she got older, she would never use in-home health aids as they were the ones who started the processes in her parent's case. She also said that hospitals can and do start the process too.
It was her experience that got me started thinking that maybe a CCRC would be the safest bet. I'm just not sure how one protects themselves against this.
very, very unusual for the court to not let the kids be the guardian, unless the kids were druggies.
Quote:
Originally Posted by CindyRoos
This is absolutely horrible!! This really can't be legal.........OMG. :0
Now hold on here. Something is fishy. I smell scam and corruption.
I was a public guardian for a year before I retired. Before we conserved someone there had to be evidence of mental incompetence, documentation by a physician a court hearing with the person in question and a psychiatrist who had tested the person in question. The Judge questions the person in question and the psychiatrist must provide documentation and testimony under oath.
And yes, I removed two people from their homes over the course of that year. One lady had zero memory and required 24hr care and the conserved 92 year old gentleman who had severe dementia and his care givers could no longer care for him. He died 12 days later after he fell and broke his hip.
Beyond the initial court hearings, by law the person is have another court hearing each year so the judge can determine if the guardianship should continue or be terminated.
But the situation described in the article is flat out illegal!
1) You do not put your property in your name. You either put it in the name of an LLC, or into a trust.
2) You retain an attorney, and you get to know him very well. Notice I said "him", not "her". While lady attorneys can be very good at many things, they do not have the gravitas in court that a man would have. You also want an attorney who is at least a decade or two younger than you are, and who is familiar with many of the judges presiding in local courts.
People are most resistant to doing these things, esp #1 above. But think long and hard about that.
1) You do not put your property in your name. You either put it in the name of an LLC, or into a trust.
2) You retain an attorney, and you get to know him very well. Notice I said "him", not "her". While lady attorneys can be very good at many things, they do not have the gravitas in court that a man would have. You also want an attorney who is at least a decade or two younger than you are, and who is familiar with many of the judges presiding in local courts.
People are most resistant to doing these things, esp #1 above. But think long and hard about that.
Some comments I read on another site also added to these suggestions to also set up a "durable" power of attorney, obviously with someone you have absolute trust in.
This situation as disclosed in the New Yorker article is not so outrageous as one would think. Why would anyone think that elders would be treated any differently than minors?
I lost both parents 10 months apart in 1967-1968. I was 13 years old. I had three sisters. Even though my grandmother (mother's mom) was living with us at the time, a so called do-gooder from the St. Vincent De Paul society took it upon herself to challenge the guardianship. She got the state of Illinois in her corner and proceeded to terrify us for over 2 years. She insisted that my gram sell the family car because it would lead us 4 girls to become "promiscuous". The woman was determined to put us out of her home, sell it out from under us, and get us into the Roman Catholic orphanage system because there was MONEY to be made.
My dad was only 43 when he died so we were left in a tough spot. There were NO big assets, just the house, but the Catholic church was determined to have it.
When the local parish refused to get behind the De Paul Society, they went to the County. We spent the next 4 years never knowing if we were going to be split apart and lose the house. And NO ONE, not the social service agencies or the State e-v-e-r asked us what WE wanted.
After telling my kid about this story she wept.
I'll be 63 at the end of the month and would have never thought in my wildest dreams that I might have to go through this all over again as an adult.
This article was posted in Elder Orphans too. One thing that struck me right away was why were these people so willing to just be railroaded out of their home? Hardly any push back from them. If someone tried to do that to me I would be calling cops/media/everyone I knew/and reporting my own kidnapping! Next, they had to have been notified about the hearing for guardianship. Did they ignore it?
How does one protect themselves from this?
I keep a gun. The intent was for self-defense...oh, WAIT--that's exactly what killing one of these legally-protected "guardians" would be!
Seriously, the scammers in that article should get a double dose of their own medicine.
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