Continued Rise In Judge-Appointed Guardianships Heightens Abuse Concerns Of Expanding Lucrative Court-Sanctioned Racket That Takes Over, Exercises Undue Control Over Disabled, Vulnerable Elderly (& Their Money/Assets)

Insurance industry publication Advisor News reports:

• Dave Demming says the rise in the number of court-appointed guardianships among elderly clients is a troubling trend that he has seen in his 37-year career as a financial advisor.
  
  “We have to submit documentation that supports the funding request then wait for the guardian’s decision to approve disbursement of funds from the estate,” said Demming, who manages some $350 million in assets near Cleveland. “Any time a funding request is submitted, legal fees are assessed, which eventually drains my client's estate.”
  
  Demming’s issue involves the resource-draining bureaucracy surrounding clients, but it is a small piece of a larger problem of abuse that led to the formation of the Americans Against Abusive Probate Guardianships (AAAPG) in 2013.
  
  Sam Sugar launched the South Florida-based advocacy agency due to the growing numbers of family members complaining about professional guardians and probate courts having undue control over their disabled and elderly loved ones.
  
  "Professional guardianship is a cottage industry emerging nationwide that is becoming more organized and powerful as lawyers and probate judges realize what a gold mine it is to take over the lives and assets of elderly Americans to the detriment of their heirs," Sugar said.
  
  Once a court-appointed guardianship is established, the elderly person's finances are under the complete control of the appointed-guardian who may or may not be a loving family member.
  
  Court-appointed guardianship over the elderly is on the rise. Some 37 percent of judges, court managers and clerks who responded to a Center for Elders and the Courts survey revealed that guardianship filings have increased over the last three years and 43 percent noted an increase in caseloads.
  
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  Among families where the patriarch or matriarch was born prior to 1946 there can be a substantial retirement nest egg at stake. In fact, boomers and Gen X-ers are expected to receive some $41 trillion from their World War II generation parents as they pass away.
  
  “Guardianship attorneys appointed by courts are stealing billions from vulnerable elders sometimes on their own and other times working with unscrupulous family members,” said Jack Halpern, CEO of My Elder Advocate, a national franchise that works with families to solve elder care-related issues. “This has happened to a number of my clients.”
  
  State courts have appointed guardians to oversee the finances, health care and other needs of older adults who are unable to handle their own affairs but several reports note a rising number of allegations of financial exploitation, physical abuse and medical neglect by guardians.
  
  “It's just another indication of how this racket has infiltrated and corrupted our most sacred judicial process and turned it into a cash cow for the stakeholders in this predatory legal system, which threatens every single older adult in America,” Sugar said.
  
  According to a survey in 2014 by the federal agency Administrative Conference of the United States, 60 percent of court personnel said they did not review credit or financial reports on prospective guardians.
  
  “In the instances where the judge and court-appointed guardian are conspiring financially, the care of my client does not tend to end well,” Demming said.

For more, see Rise In Court Guardianships Raising Abuse Concerns.