Connecticut conservator must forfeit $20K for fees collected after clients died, state says

By Bill Cummings 

A court-appointed conservator improperly billed the state’s probate courts for representing people who had died and improperly collected certain fees, a state investigation determined. 

Lisa Foy, a Canton attorney who worked in probate courts from Torrington to Niantic, forfeited $20,859 in fees that the state had overpaid her, after the investigation found this amount was over-billed and incorrectly billed, according to an agreement with the state. A review of Foy’s billing practices “revealed a pattern of billing for matters in which the protected persons have been deceased,” read a July 11 letter addressed to her. There were also instances in which she was collecting the full fee when she was not entitled because she had been appointed as conservator with one or more other people, according to Sept. 30 settlement with the Probate Court Administrator.

Foy, who began resigning from conservatorships last year while the state investigation was underway, expressed remorse over her actions.

“It is hard to imagine that my billing errors were errors but as hard as it is to imagine, I made mistakes,” Foy said in a statement to CT Insider last month. “There were many contributing factors but the only one that matters is that I failed to sufficiently review my bills to avoid the mistakes. I deeply regret and I am sorry that this happened.”

Foy said as soon as the mistakes “were brought to my attention, I engaged in a long and thorough review cooperatively, with the Probate Court Administration and immediately paid back all the funds that were paid to me in error.”

State records show Foy has earned $911,234 since 2016 for her work as a probate court conservator. Like many state-appointed conservators, Foy often represented clients unable to assist themselves or afford private representation and settled their estates after they died.

A letter from the Probate Court Administrator’s office shows the state last summer informed the Auditors of Public Accounts of its investigation into Foy’s billing, which began in April 2025.

“In reviewing the matters in which Attorney Foy was appointed as conservator, PCA determined that Attorney Foy billed, and was paid, for services provided to deceased protected person and billed at the full contract conservator rate when she was entitled to only one-half as there was another professional co-conservator,” Beverly Streit, the probate court administrator, told auditors in a July 15, 2025 letter.

“Attorney Foy is working cooperatively with this office to resolve the billing and overpayment issues,” Streit added. “We will keep you informed as to any such resolution.”

In response to questions from CT Insider, the probate court administrator’s office declined specific comment.

“Please know that this office’s statutory function is to support the operations of the Connecticut Probate Courts and to develop legislation, regulations, and policies to improve the Probate Court system,” the administrator’s office said in a statement. “We are unable to provide comment on matters pending before the courts.”

Conservator pay

Court-appointed conservators often make far less than private attorneys performing similar duties. The basic fee for a state conservator is set at $52 an hour, state records show, and there are caps on the amounts they can earn over certain time periods. As a result, court-appointed conservators often take on a large volume of clients to offset the earning restrictions.

For example, a conservator representing a person in a nursing home can earn no more than $600 over the first six-month period and $300 annually after that initial period. If a client has a psychiatric disability, the pay increases to $1,200 for the first six months of representation and then $1,200 annually after that initial period.

If a client does not reside in a nursing home or similar facility, the conservator can make no more than $1,200 during the first six months of representation and $600 annually after that initial period.

Resignation

A review of probate court records showed Foy began resigning from her conservatorships while the state investigation into her billing was underway, a fact Foy confirmed.

“In May of 2025, I began resigning from my files with the Probate Courts as the system could not pay me for services rendered while the review was ongoing and they couldn't guarantee when I would be entitled to and paid future payments for work that had been performed,” Foy explained in a statement to CT Insider.

“As a result, I pursued other opportunities,” Foy noted. “I was asked by the Probate Court Administration and the Probate Courts to remain as conservator on my files and to accept new files. Instead, I made the decision that this chapter in my professional life had regrettably come to an end.”

Foy added “as soon as the mistakes were brought to my attention, I engaged in a long and thorough review cooperatively, with the Probate Court Administration and immediately paid back all the funds that were paid to me in error.”

Court records show Foy often told the various courts where she was resigning that she had taken a new job or employment. Some of the courts where Foy represented clients included Torrington, Tolland, Hartford, Niantic, Mansfield, Litchfield, Bristol and Ellington.

Paper Trail

The letters from the probate court administrator show an evolving process that resulted in varying estimates for Foy’s overbilling, negotiations over invoices and acknowledgement by the state that some suspect invoices were legitimate. The final agreement between Foy and the state covered the period between December 2017 and December 2024, the settlement said.

In a July 11, 2025 letter to Foy, the probate court’s chief counsel, Heather Dostaler, listed the allegations in considerable detail. The letter also indicated Foy was actively auditing her own billing and had found additional examples of discrepancies.

“In the majority of these matters you failed to file any conservator reports, which are required to be submitted annually, and did not file an inventory or financial report unless faced with removal by the court,” Dostaler noted.

“In addition, there appears to be a pattern where you failed to timely notify the courts of the death of the conserved person, sometimes for years, and there were fee waivers signed under penalty of false statement on which you reported income after the person's death,” Dostaler said.

At the time of the letter, Foy was told she owed just over $16,000 to the state. That figure later grew to nearly $21,000, including deductions based on documents Foy submitted which the state agreed showed that certain suspected billing was proper.

An Aug. 20, 2025 letter from Dostaler established the final cost to Foy for the overbilling and how the matter would be settled.

“Based upon the foregoing review, we have determined that the total amount of $20,859.00 has been improperly paid to you as a result of your over- or incorrect billing,” Dostaler wrote.

The money, Dostaler explained, would be deducted from a scheduled payment to Foy.

Full Article & Source:
Connecticut conservator must forfeit $20K for fees collected after clients died, state says 

Parent Workshop: Supported Decision-Making, Guardianship, and Other Alternatives

Yonkers Montessori Academy

April 16, 2026

Parents and caregivers of students with disabilities are invited to attend an important virtual workshop focused on decision-making as students approach adulthood. This session will explore Supported Decision-Making (SDM), guardianship, and other legal and practical alternatives that help young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities make informed choices about their lives.

The workshop will also discuss advance planning tools such as health care proxies and durable power of attorney, and help families better understand the benefits and concerns associated with each option. This session is recommended for families beginning to plan for the transition to adulthood.

Date: Friday, April 24, 2026

Time: 10:00–11:15 AM

Format: Zoom (virtual)

Presented by: Community Support Network in partnership with the Yonkers School District

Registration: Click the Zoom registration link or scan the QR code on the flyer

Questions: csn@wihd.org

This workshop is presented by the Community Support Network at the Westchester Institute for Human Development, a trusted regional resource supporting individuals with disabilities and their families across the lifespan.

Source:
Parent Workshop: Supported Decision-Making, Guardianship, and Other Alternatives 

Former Hamilton County nonprofit bookkeeper to see prison time for stealing $79K

by Cameron Shaw 

A former Hamilton County nonprofit bookkeeper is set to serve 22 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to defrauding several of the organization’s incapacitated senior citizen clients of more than $79,000, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Indiana announced Wednesday.

District Court Chief James Sweeney II imposed the sentence on Brenda Walters, 57, of Nappanee, Indiana, after she pleaded guilty to 10 counts of wire fraud. Sweeney also ordered Walters to forfeit $79,272, roughly the amount she pleaded guilty to stealing from the individuals. Following her prison time, Walters will have three years of supervised release.

According to court documents, an unidentified Hamilton County nonprofit organization that provides programs and services for elderly adults hired Walters as a part-time bookkeeper around August 2023.

Walters managed the financial accounts of about 23 clients in the organization’s guardianship program, which, according to the government’s May 1, 2025, indictment against Walters, acts as a court-appointed legal guardian for incapacitated adults and manages the finances of those adults who are unable.

Walters specifically handled taking over clients’ financial accounts to pay bills and manage their money.

According to the indictment, for about a year from August 2023 to August 2024, Walters devised and executed a scheme to defraud her clients.

The indictment states that Walters transferred funds from the clients’ Horizon Bank accounts to her personal American Express, Capital One and other accounts.

Walters used the clients’ funds to pay her own expenses, including her electric and insurance bills, buying clothes, hosting parties and vacationing to places such as New York City, Florida and Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.

The government stated that, to hide the theft, Walters submitted false bank statements to her supervisors. Those statements did not show Walters’s personal transfers.

In one instance, Walters created a United Healthcare medical bill supposedly showing that a client had paid the same amount for which Walters had actually transferred to a personal Apple Card, according to the indictment.

In total, Walters stole about $79,000 from at least six of the guardianship program’s clients.

“Brenda Walters preyed exclusively on some of the most vulnerable members of our society—elderly Hoosiers who could no longer manage their own finances and entrusted her to safeguard their life savings,” said Tom Wheeler, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Indiana, in the Wednesday press release. “Her conduct was not a momentary lapse in judgment but a calculated scheme to enrich herself at the expense of people who had no ability to defend themselves. This office will continue to pursue justice for victims who are targeted because of their age, incapacity, or dependence on others.”

According to her December petition to enter a plea of guilty, Walters originally faced a maximum statutory punishment of 20 years’ imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.

The case is United States of America v. Brenda Walters (1:25-cr-00098)

Full Article & Source:
Former Hamilton County nonprofit bookkeeper to see prison time for stealing $79K

Waldo County Prosecutor Considers Charging Hancock County Probate Judge with Perjury

by Sabrina Martin/BDN

HANCOCK COUNTY—Waldo County’s top prosecutor may charge Hancock County’s suspended probate judge with criminal perjury after he lied under oath in October.

Earlier this month, a Waldo County judge found that William B. Blaisdell IV, who has faced multiple contempt hearings over overdue child support payments to his ex-wife, perjured himself during his sworn testimony about his finances, according to court documents.

Natasha Irving — district attorney for Waldo, Knox, Lincoln and Sagadahoc counties — said her office is at the “very beginning stages” of reviewing the case. Irving said she was in contact with the Attorney General’s Office, who oversees child support matters through the state’s Department of Health and Human Services.

Blaisdell’s divorce is being handled in Waldo County because of his role as a probate judge in Hancock County.

If Irving’s office does prosecute Blaisdell, he would be facing his first criminal charge; all of his divorce proceedings have been civil matters.

Criminal perjury, a charge brought by a prosecutor, carries a higher burden of proof than a family court factual finding: prosecutors must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the person knowingly lied under oath.

Perjury is a Class C felony and is punishable by up to five years of incarceration and a $5,000 fine.

Blaisdell, who has been suspended both from practicing law as an attorney and from his part-time job as Hancock County’s probate judge, faced an arrest warrant last month after failing to appear in a Belfast court. He later turned himself in at the Hancock County Jail and posted $16,929 bail, which was the amount of child support he owed.

A Waldo County judge wrote on April 2 that Blaisdell committed perjury when he testified on Oct. 29, 2025, about his depleted brokerage accounts, which he claimed left him unable to pay child support.

Just two days after his sworn testimony, Blaisdell, under a court order, provided his ex-wife’s lawyer with copies of his financial statements, showing he had $166,291 in his Charles Schwab brokerage account and $344,080 in a separate IRA account, according to court documents.

The court found that Blaisdell’s perjured testimony was “an attempt to avoid a suspended thirty-day jail sentence” for being found in contempt of court for not complying with the court’s child support orders.

The court said Blaisdell had a “history of noncompliance,” a “pattern of satisfying outstanding obligations only at the last moment to avoid jail sanctions” and has made “continued attempts to manipulate the Court,” according to an order on the court’s findings.

Full Article & Source:
Waldo County Prosecutor Considers Charging Hancock County Probate Judge with Perjury

Cher Seeks Conservatorship Over Her Son Elijah Blue Allman for the Second Time

“Elijah’s situation has become dire on multiple fronts,” the singer claims in new court filings

 

By Daniel Kreps, Nancy Dillon

Cher is once again seeking an emergency conservatorship over Elijah Blue Allman after back-to-back arrests in New Hampshire landed her 49-year-old son with Gregg Allman in a locked psychiatric hospital, court documents reveal.

“Elijah’s situation has become dire on multiple fronts. His mental health has severely deteriorated, his financial situation is terrible, and his drug dependency is at its worst,” the new filings made this week in Los Angeles County probate court and obtained by Rolling Stone allege.

Cher claims her son’s life has spiraled since she first sought conservatorship control over his finances in a December 2023 bid that ended with a private settlement. In her prior effort, Cher told the court that Allman “urgently needed” help managing his assets amid “severe mental-health and substance-abuse issues.” Cher was initially rebuffed by the judge and ultimately resolved the matter privately in September 2024, with Allman promising to hire a business manager. She says he never did. 

Since that time, Allman has been “living wildly beyond his means,” bouncing between “expensive hotels he cannot afford” and short-term rental homes, allegedly causing more than $50,000 in damage to one Airbnb, and purportedly racking up an $18,000 bill with a drug dealer, the new filings state. He also has an unpaid tax bill topping $200,000, Cher claims, and is facing a raft of criminal charges.

Allman was first arrested on Feb. 27 at St. Paul’s School in Concord, New Hampshire, on suspicion of trespassing, criminal threats, and simple assault, a bail order obtained by Rolling Stone confirms. According to WMUR 9 News, Allman allegedly slipped onto campus claiming he was a prospective parent, turned belligerent, and poked a student with his cane. Allman was booked and released, then arrested again two days later on a burglary rap in Windham, New Hampshire, after a woman called police saying someone had broken into her home, and she was “hiding in a closet,” according to a police affidavit obtained by Rolling Stone. Officers arrived to find a shattered glass door and Allman “seated on the living room couch smoking a cigarette,” the report says. 

“Since the proposed conservatee is currently in custody in a psychiatric hospital in New Hampshire, this application does not seek a conservatorship of the person. However, the facts underlying this petition are not only relevant to establish the proposed conservatee’s total inability to manage his finances, but the facts also establish that he is gravely disabled,” Cher’s conservatorship request states. It adds that a more thorough conservatorship over Allman’s personal life likely would be “appropriate for him once he returns to California.”

The new documents say Elijah still receives $120,000 a month via a trust that his father Gregg set up prior to the Allman Brothers Band singer’s death. That monthly payment is then “immediately squandered without regard for his liabilities or well-being,” the court filings say. 

“There is a clear pattern in Elijah’s behavior,” Cher alleged in the documents filed by her lawyer. “After he receives his trust distribution, he checks into a hotel, usually the Chateau Marmont, buys and does drugs until he runs out of money, ends up in the hospital, or overdoses. Based on this pattern, if Elijah were to receive his trust distribution, he will use it buy drugs.”

The conservatorship filings also detail other instances where Allman allegedly was a danger to himself or others, including an episode where he passed out in his car in the middle of traffic and ended up in a hospital, where he was administered Narcan. “There have been multiple occasions in which Elijah caused grease fires while cooking after zoning out and forgetting that food was on the stove,” the filing states. 

Allman’s sister, Devon Allman, submitted a declaration in support of the new conservatorship request. “It is my opinion that he is currently a danger to himself and unable to manage his life, and any funds that would become available to him,” she wrote. “My recent visit to check in on him brought me unfortunate and profound sadness that took weeks of my life to process. His condition, both physical and mental, was appalling and delusional, respectively.”

Devon said she previously was compelled to “negotiate with a heroin dealer for a five-figure sum of drug debts” because her brother was unable to pay. “That was very difficult to navigate. I felt compelled to help for his safety, though,” she wrote. “I strongly urge that Elijah be kept away from money until he has demonstrated a commitment to invest in his long-term physical and mental health.” 

When Cher initially filed for a conservatorship back in 2023, she asked to be named her son’s financial conservator. This time, she’s asking the court to appoint Jason Rubin, a licensed private fiduciary. She’s asking the court to grant Rubin the power to receive her son’s trust distributions and use them to pay Allman’s expenses at his discretion, pending the outcome of the proceeding.

Elijah has an arraignment in his Concord criminal case set for Monday, and a probable-cause hearing in his Windham case set for next Wednesday, a court spokesman tells Rolling Stone. It’s likely they will get continued to later dates, considering Allman’s hospitalization.

Full Article & Source:
Cher Seeks Conservatorship Over Her Son Elijah Blue Allman for the Second Time 

See Also:
Cher Begged Court for a Conservatorship Before Son Elijah’s Hospitalization

Cher Ends Conservatorship Battle With Son Elijah Blue Allman

Singer Cher Agrees to 'Pause' Fight to Place Troubled Son Elijah Allman Under Conservatorship After He Demands Sanctions Over Subpoenas

Cher’s Son Argues She’s ‘Unfit to Serve’ as His Conservator

Cher dealt another blow in her request for temporary conservatorship over her son

Look, I Don't Need Conservatorship ... Plenty Reasons Why!!!

Cher Files for Conservatorship of Son Elijah Blue Allman

Elijah Blue Allman Contests Cher's Request for Conservatorship

Cher's Son Elijah Blue Allman Looks Clean-cut in First Sighting Since Conservatorship Victory  

ABA Foundation testifies on protecting older Americans from financial exploitation

During a Senate hearing today, the American Bankers Association Foundation outlined the critical role banks play in protecting older Americans from fraud and financial exploitation while calling for strengthened national coordination, expanded financial literacy efforts and clear federal authority for banks to intervene when exploitation is expected.

The Senate Special Committee on Aging held a hearing on financial education tools to help prevent fraud. In prepared remarks, Sam Kunjukunju, vice president for consumer engagement at the ABA Foundation, explained that banks are uniquely positioned to help older customers recognize and avoid scams due to their trusted, long-standing relationships and daily interactions with consumers.

Still, banks can’t fight fraud alone, he said.

“While the banking industry is investing significantly in protecting older people, the scale and sophistication of today’s scams require a strategic and coordinated national response,” Kunjukunju said. “America needs a nationwide public education campaign that brings together federal agencies, nonprofits, and the private sector to deliver a unified, consistent message.”

Legislative tools

A national effort to fight fraud must be grounded in a broader commitment to lifelong financial literacy, and it should align with key life milestones, including entering the workforce, managing credit, starting a family, purchasing a home and planning for retirement, Kunjukunju said.

He also called on Congress to consider legislation that would provide banks with clear authority and safe harbor protections to delay or hold transactions when elder financial exploitation is suspected to help safeguard older Americans at moments of heightened vulnerability.

“Through sustained investments in education, training, cross-sector partnerships, and responsible innovation, we continue to strengthen the frontline defenses to combat elder financial exploitation,” Kunjukunju said. “But as our population ages and financial crimes grow more sophisticated, these efforts must be accompanied by a policy framework capable of meeting the moment.”

Full Article & Source:
ABA Foundation testifies on protecting older Americans from financial exploitation 

No capacity: State’s Public Guardian Office rejects nearly all requests to represent vulnerable Nebraskans

After a private guardian with dozens of clients was accused of financial abuse, the public office took on zero wards. The alleged abuser retained six. 

By Andrew Wegley

Jaclyn Daake looked everywhere. 

The Alma attorney’s new client, a western Nebraska man living with a developmental disability, needed a guardian, someone to manage his life and finances. His guardian for the past two years, a York County woman who served in the court-appointed role for dozens of vulnerable Nebraskans, had just been charged with stealing from one of her clients. Law enforcement was looking for other victims.

Daake scoured court records, searching for anyone who might be willing to serve as the man’s guardian. She wrote letters to 11 people. Eventually, she reached an old friend of the man’s grandfather, who despite the distant connection was willing to serve as his guardian, she said. He was appointed in February, three months after Daake started her search.

During that time, there was one place Daake did not turn: Nebraska’s Office of Public Guardian, the government office meant to serve as the last resort for Nebraskans deemed — often due to old age, disabilities or injuries — unable to care for themselves.

“It’s a waste of time,” Daake said.

When vulnerable Nebraskans don’t have any loved ones willing or able to serve as their guardians, judges often appoint private, for-profit guardians to fill the role. Lawmakers created the Office of Public Guardian in 2014 after one such guardian with more than 600 wards stole thousands of dollars from her unknowing clients.

But with constant demand and stagnant funding, attorneys say Nebraska’s guardian of last resort isn’t a resort at all.

The Public Guardian initially turned down 98% of appointments in the 12-month reporting period that ended Oct. 31, up from 77% in 2020, according to the office’s annual reports, most often because the office has no caseload capacity. State law prevents the office from accepting more than an average of 20 appointments per guardian on its staff.

The office’s inability to take on new cases has boiled to a point of frustration for attorneys like Daake — particularly after the November arrest of Becky Stamp, who wielded near total control over the lives and finances of vulnerable people across 18 counties before she was accused of stealing thousands from a man whose life she managed.

“I guess my ultimate question — and this is where I get on my soapbox — is why do we have this program if it’s kind of smoke and mirrors?” Daake said.

For more than a month after her arrest, Stamp remained the guardian for at least 25 vulnerable Nebraskans, the Flatwater Free Press reported in January. Advocates called it “a systemic failure” to protect the victims caught up in the sweeping abuse scandal, among the 10,000-plus Nebraskans who have been placed under guardianships or conservatorships. In at least some cases, the Public Guardian’s lack of caseload capacity helped leave Stamp’s authority in place for longer. 

Lawmakers and judicial branch leaders have implemented new regulations and safeguards this year aimed at private guardians like Stamp. But legislators, facing a budget shortfall this year, made no adjustment to the Public Guardian’s budget.

Nearly five months after her arrest, Stamp remains the appointed guardian for six vulnerable Nebraskans, according to a Flatwater review of court filings. In three of those cases, attorneys petitioned the Public Guardian to take over.

Each time, the response was the same: “The Office of Public Guardian is unable to accept the nomination due to caseload capacity limitations having been reached.”

‘There’s not the political will’

Michelle Chaffee led the Office of Public Guardian from its inception in 2014, when lawmakers made Nebraska the last state in the country to create a central office for guardianship.

“I started the office,” she said. “I built the office. I worked for it to be credible, (hiring) really high-performance individuals who would care for people who have no voice and make sure they were protected because they can’t speak for themselves.”

But she retired in 2024 after years of leading a staff of underpaid public servants, she said, and fighting legislative attempts to increase their caseload capacity. The job is “really, really tough” and turnover is high, she told a committee of lawmakers in 2023. “You can make a lot more money doing things with a lot less stress because of what our salaries are,” she said then.

Among the final straws that led to Chaffee’s retirement, she said: Gov. Jim Pillen’s decision in May 2023 to line-item veto $500,000 lawmakers had earmarked for the office over two years. Pillen argued Nebraska’s judicial branch, which oversees the Public Guardian Office, had “enough funding to manage potential increases in demand for these services.”

Before her retirement, Chaffee said she calculated the office would soon need up to 100 public guardians and an operating budget of about $6 million to meet the state’s needs. 

The office’s budget last year was $2.9 million — about $267,000 less than what the agency had sought from lawmakers, according to state budget documents. The budget paid for 30 employees, around 20 of whom were associate public guardians serving wards across the state.

“Bottom line,” Chaffee said, “there’s not the political will and commitment to provide services to the most vulnerable in Nebraska.”

Lawmakers in 2022 did allocate an extra $524,000 to the office, allowing the state to hire four more employees. But the office’s growth hasn’t kept pace with its demand.

The Public Guardian accepted more than 22% of the appointments to which it was nominated in 2020, but that rate plummeted to 1.6% last year, according to its annual reports, most often attributable to lack of caseload capacity. More than 75% of nominations have been declined due to lack of capacity since November 2021.

Most cases the office declines to take head to a waitlist, where wards can wait up to 90 days for a vacancy to open. If that doesn’t happen, they’re removed from the waitlist altogether, the fate most cases meet. Last year, the Public Guardian took on 32 of the 121 cases that had been referred to the waitlist.

No Capacity

Nebraska’s Office of Public Guardian has accepted fewer and fewer appointments to serve vulnerable Nebraskans since 2021, increasingly because the state-funded office does not have the capacity to take them on.

Year	Nominations	No Capacity*	Accepted
2025	124	103	2
2024	132	101	8
2023	115	83	14
2022	94	67	15
2021	112	76	21

* Cases in which the Office of the Public Guardian told the courts they did not have enough capacity to serve when nominated. Each “year” reflects a 12-month reporting period that ends Oct. 31.

Source: Office of the Public Guardian annual reports

Corey Steel, the state court administrator who oversees the operations of Nebraska’s judicial branch, said that once a ward is assigned a public guardian, they typically remain on the office’s caseload until a court deems they can care for themselves or they die. The rate at which either happens is far lower than how often the office is nominated to serve.

“And so that’s the quandary we sit in,” he said. “Without more associate public guardians … we’re at that capacity level.”

Sen. Wendy DeBoer of Omaha, who authored guardianship reform efforts before and after Stamp’s arrest last year, noted that she has tried to secure more funding for the office, including the $500,000 Pillen vetoed.

“But I don’t think it’s ever going to be the answer to fully do everything through the OPG,” she said. “We’re going to have to do some of it through private guardianships. It’s always a balance.”

‘You don’t want to overcorrect’

Nebraska’s legislative and judicial branches have both sought to reform the state’s guardianship system in the months since Stamp’s arrest. Lawmakers voted 49-0 last week to send to Pillen’s desk a bill that DeBoer sponsored preventing private guardians from taking on more than 20 cases at a time — the same caseload limit state law already puts on public guardians. Stamp had been nominated as the guardian for 42 wards.

The bill also requires private guardians to visit the Nebraskans they serve at least once every three months and guarantees wards the right to attend court hearings in their own cases virtually or in person.

Sen. Wendy DeBoer of Omaha sponsored a bill this year preventing private guardians from taking on more than 20 cases at a time, among other reforms. Lawmakers voted 49-0 last week to send the bill to Gov. Jim Pillen’s desk. Photo courtesy of Nebraska Legislature

Separately, the judicial branch in January began quarterly reviews of all cases assigned to guardians who have taken on five or more wards, reporting any red flags to judges overseeing the cases, Steel said.

Even with the new reforms, neither Steel nor DeBoer sees Nebraska’s guardianship system as a finished product, they both said. Nor does Amy Miller, a staff attorney at the nonprofit advocacy group Disability Rights Nebraska, which first publicized Stamp’s alleged theft in December and testified in support of DeBoer’s latest bill.

“Down the road, I think we’re going to need further legislative reform if we want to close the loopholes that have allowed financial abuse,” Miller said. She and other advocates hope the state considers less sweeping alternatives to full guardianships, which accounted for more than 97% of cases on the Public Guardian’s docket last year despite a state law that already requires judges to explore less restrictive alternatives.

DeBoer introduced a resolution calling for a study of Nebraska’s guardianship system, including whether judges get enough information to know whether someone should be placed under a full guardianship.

“This is one of those things where you take little bites at the apple and try to get it, because you don’t want to overcorrect,” she said.

For Molly Blazek, an Omaha attorney who founded the firm Nebraska Guardianship Counsel in 2018, the state may have overcorrected already.

Blazek said her law firm was initially “born to take over some of that overflow” from the Office of Public Guardian as its caseload began to rise. Now, Blazek is the guardian or conservator for 46 vulnerable Nebraskans, more than double the limit lawmakers put in place this month.

DeBoer’s bill prohibits guardians from accepting new appointments if they have 20 or more clients already. It’s unclear if the law will require Blazek to comply with the new limit retroactively — and where the wards in her care will end up if it does.

“If the change in law is going to say I can no longer help the 46 people that I’m helping,” she said, “my biggest concern is: Who’s going to help these people next?”

Full Article & Source:
No capacity: State’s Public Guardian Office rejects nearly all requests to represent vulnerable Nebraskans 

A Daughter’s Fight for Truth Turned into a Guardianship and Probate Nightmare

(By Pamela Locke Bimberg, Daughter) – My mother suffered a brain aneurysm in March 2005, and our family’s life changed forever. For years after that medical crisis, my father and I stood by her side, along with my siblings.

Before my mother became incapacitated, she handled all of the personal and business finances because my father was limited in his ability to do so. My father then insisted that I step into that role and do everything my mother had done, including helping manage their personal finances, her rental properties, and his road-building and land-clearing business.

I was not a stranger to my mother’s care, and I was not a stranger to my parents’ finances. My father and I were as close as a daughter and father could be from the day I was born. I was a true daddy’s girl. I was his favorite, and he made that known. CONTINUE

Source:
A Daughter’s Fight for Truth Turned into a Guardianship and Probate Nightmare 

Darke DD plans decision-making program

by Brittany Hill

GREENVILLE — Darke County Board of Developmental Disabilities is proud to announce a free, live presentation, “Supported Decision-Making and Guardianship” led by Attorney Derek Graham, an experienced advocate in special needs and estate planning law. This free, important event will take place on Tuesday, April 28 at 6 p.m. in Birchwood Training Center at 5844 Jaysville-St. Johns Road, Greenville.

This informative session is designed to help individuals and families navigate the complexities of future planning for loved ones with developmental disabilities.

Whether they are a parent, caregiver, or professional working with individuals with disabilities, this presentation will offer valuable insights and practical tools for ensuring security, independence, and peace of mind for the future.

Event Details:

– Date: Tuesday, April 28

– Time: 6 p.m.

– Location: 5844 Jaysville-St. Johns Road, Greenville, Ohio 45331

– Food: Pizza and beverages will be available

– Presenter: Attorney Derek Graham of Philipps and Graham, LLC

– Cost: Free to attend

Pre-registration is required! Call Joseph Badell, Darke DD Community Services Director, at (937) 459-4609 to register for this training.

Source:
Darke DD plans decision-making program