YOU!
That's right. You're picking up the tab - Mr. and Mrs. Taxpayer!
Our grandparents and parents are from a generation of savers; people who worked hard, sacrificed, and saved every possible penny for their golden years - and for their children. While not all wealthy, they have amassed enough funds to see them through their lifetime, with hopes and dreams of travel, spending time with family and friends, or pursuing new interests.
When the guardian/conservator has picked the Ward's financial bones, the Ward becomes a public charge, on Medicaid, for the remainder of his/her life.
In other words, the guardian and other fiduciaries pauperize the Ward and then leave the Taxpayers holding the bag while those fiduciaries are working with their headhunters to find new victims.
No one knows how many billions of dollars this "welfare racket" for unethical guardians and other fiduciaries costs the Taxpayers. If anyone is keeping track, no one has been concerned enough to end it - until now!
Not even the IRS. The NY Post's article "Judge Money Melee Guardians Lax on Tax" reports retired Judge John Phillips' two former guardians failed to file his tax returns for five years, running up a million dollar tax bill against his former ten million dollar-plus estate. Why? Because they wanted their share first! Judge Phillips, thanks to his court-appointed "protectors," only has a few hundred thousand dollars left and he's in pretty good health. So, who's going to pick up the tab for his care when they finish picking his financial bones? The guardian? The guardian's attorney? No way! You are!
See Also:
The Kung Fu Judge
Stop Guardian Abuse - Who Else is Paying the Price?
The statutes for guardianship and conservatorship were written to protect the wards - from hurting themselves or others; to conserve their assets; and to protect the citizens to assure that the ward does not become a public charge.
ReplyDeleteThat protective law is no longer working for the citizens; it is only working for the "professionals" who bleed the wards dry, turn them over to Medicaid, and quit protecting them, when they can no longer profit!
ARE THEY PAYING THEIR OWN TAXES? WHO'S CHECKING?
No one is checking because this would be front page news if the amount of owed taxes to the IRS was released.
ReplyDeleteMany Guardians are failing miserably in their responsibilities, apparently with court approval.
The Guardians are disgregarding the required task of filing mandatory taxes, each year, including the IRS. Many Guardians are not doing their fiduciary duties, leaving the heirs of the Ward, the family members receiving warning letters from the IRS and their respective states to pay all taxes, penalities and interst owed, during the guardianship.
The heirs and family members of the ward are most times left with $00.00 in the wards estate leaving them, the heirs and the family of the ward in financial ruins, while the Guardians are not held responsible for taxes owed after draining their wards estate.
I wonder why the family can't then sue the guardian for not paying the taxes all along -- and why the IRS lets this go on and on?
ReplyDeleteThe IRS is all over the average citizen over a pittance compared to what they're losing here.
Yes, why is the IRS blind to this issue?
ReplyDeleteWhy is the media avoiding this issue?
What will it take for the Feds to wake up?