Guardians are supposed to care for our most vulnerable. Why are exploitation cases skyrocketing?

Volunteers reviewing annual reports filed by guardians identified issues including 9 unauthorized property sales and dozens of unexplained financial transactionsNJ.com photo illustration | Canva

By Ted Sherman

She told a horror story of being taken advantage of by a woman long believed to be a friend.

The victim of a traumatic brain injury from years ago, she found herself in need of help after her husband who served as her caretaker passed away from kidney disease seven years ago. The friend offered to be her guardian.

Over time, however she said tens of thousands of dollars were siphoned from her accounts by the guardian.

“She took $62-to-$63,000 of my money,” said the 67-year-old now being represented by Disability Rights New Jersey, a state legal advocacy group that serves people with disabilities. She asked not to be identified because of possible retribution.

Other court-appointed guardians followed and she was forced to leave her home after being involuntarily placed in long-term care, prevented from making decisions for herself. Tax bills went unpaid and someone broke into the vacant house, causing major damage.

Her story is far from the only one of its kind in New Jersey.

More than a decade ago, the state set up a volunteer watchdog team to monitor the work of those entrusted with the affairs of elderly and disabled people. In announcing the monitoring program in 2013, state Supreme Court Chief Justice Stuart Rabner — who noted the rapid increase in the number of court-appointed legal guardians in New Jersey — said while most were caring and responsible individuals, that was not always the case.

“Unfortunately, some guardians have exploited the very people they promised to help,” Rabner said at the time.

Today there are more than 37,000 guardianships in place in New Jersey, overseeing more than $1.2 billion in reported assets, according to state judiciary officials.

And an examination by NJ.com of the number of cases red-flagged by the court’s monitoring program suggested that concerns about guardians exploiting others remain very real.

New Jersey Judiciary officials said the Guardianship Monitoring Program’s volunteers reported 694 so-called “escalated concerns” to judges in calendar year 2025 — more than two and a half times as many in 2024, when 252 were reported.

Those issues in 2025 included nearly 90 cases brought to the attention of the court citing “inappropriate, un-itemized, or unexplained disbursements.” Another 80 cases involved inconsistencies in the reporting of income or assets and 30 which found incorrect calculations of fees or commissions.

There were nine reports of property sales without required court permission.

A guardianship is a legal relationship created when a judge grants a person or entity the authority and responsibility to make decisions in the best interest of an individual who may lack the capacity to make decisions concerning their living needs or property.

There are no court-set fees paid to guardians, experts say. However, guardians are entitled to take annual commissions from an incapacitated persons estate at a rate fixed by statute.

Guardianships are not typically a matter of public record. But they can come to light when they involve high-profile celebrities, such as former talk show host Wendy Williams, or when someone blows a whistle on questionable dealings.

In more recent remarks before the New Jersey Bar Association this past May, Rabner said there are still “too many reported cases over the years of guardians who commit acts of abuse and fraud.”

Rabner said 70 active volunteers review the annual reports filed by guardians with each county’s surrogate’s office.

“They have identified and escalated concerns that might require follow-up action,” he said. “Judiciary staff, in turn, relay problematic information to judges who can bring guardians into court, possibly replace them, and, in rare instances, report a matter to the prosecutor’s office.”

According to judiciary officials, improved reporting and data analytics methodologies could be behind the increased numbers of escalated concerns now being reported to judges.

Others who regularly deal with guardianship cases, though, were not so sure.

Attorney William Friedman of Gaeta & Friedman in Rutherford, whose practice includes estates and trusts, said he has watched the judiciary steadily try to put in more reporting requirements, “which indicated to me even before Justice Rabner acted that there’s a problem.”

At the same time, Friedman noted the population is aging.

“We’re getting more and more guardianships,” he said.

Among the more notorious past cases in New Jersey was an attorney-guardian who stole $2.6 million from nearly 60 incapacitated people and a minister serving as a guardian who embezzled $200,000 from 19 individuals.

Nationally, the Senate Special Committee on Aging raised the issue of guardianship abuse in a 2018 report that found some have used guardianship proceedings to obtain control of vulnerable individuals “and then used that control to liquidate assets and savings for their own benefit.”

The committee said once a guardianship is imposed, there are few safeguards in place to protect against individuals who choose to abuse the system. It called for greater oversight. At the same time, it said few states are able to report accurate or detailed guardianship data.

When Rabner announced the state’s volunteer guardianship monitoring program in 2013, he cited a national AARP survey that noted from 1990 to 2010, “hundreds of allegations of physical abuse, neglect and financial exploitation by guardians were reported.”

An AARP spokesman said the group has not revisited the issue in recent years.

The lack of information on guardianships was similarly highlighted in a 2016 report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, which said the extent of elder abuse by guardians nationally was unknown due to limited data.

New Jersey Assemblywoman and Deputy Speaker Carol A. Murphy, D-Burlington, who chairs the Assembly Health Committee, said more needs to be done.

Murphy has sponsored a bill for the past three legislative sessions, A4224, that would establish a guardianship monitoring program in Office of Public Guardian for Elderly Adults. Under the bill, that office would be designated as an “interested party” that must be served with the periodic reports that must be filed by a court-appointed guardian.

The measure has never made it out of committee.

One of her concerns is that a court-appointed guardian who is not a family member has no personal investment in the ward’s well-being.

“You want someone you know is going to take care of you,” said Murphy.

The woman being represented by Disability Rights New Jersey is no longer under the guardianship of her former friend. But she is still trying to recover from what she said was taken from her.

Disability Rights New Jersey, she said, succeeded in finally having her declared competent and she hopes to sell her damaged home, now worth far less than it once did, and move into her own apartment.

“All the money that was taken from me is just horrendous,” she said. 

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Guardians are supposed to care for our most vulnerable. Why are exploitation cases skyrocketing?