A Brooklyn family says they had no idea what they were getting into when they agreed to let an agency take control over an elderly relative. Now, the family is fighting to get control back. This is an issue faced by an increasing number of families. Older relatives who can no longer take care of themselves, who should become their guardian?Eighty-three-year-old Leola McAllister now lives in a sparsely furnished Brooklyn apartment. She's paying $1200 a month in rent, even though she owns a three-family home in Bed-Sty that she lived in for 30 years.
When the daughter and two aunts couldn't agree on who should become guardian, the family says they were referred to an attorney who recommended a court-appointed guardian, a non-profit agency called the Vera Institute, which has offices in the courthouse in downtown Brooklyn. "They convinced us, along with our lawyer and judge that they were the perfect people to take over that way we wouldn't be family conflicted."
But Mrs. McAllister's family says they became alarmed when the agency moved her out of the home she had shared with Tammy and placed her in a sterile apartment, and then started spending thousands on 24-hour home-health care aides - $66,000 in 2007 alone, plus more than $14,000 for rent. "Their whole aim was to get the property, sell it, and put her in a nursing home."
Full Article and Source:
The Eyewitness News Investigators-It's a controversy over a court-appointed guardian
Video Source: Losing Guardianship
6 comments:
LACK OF KNOWLEDGE AND INFORMATION =
Another perfect example of the bag of dirty tricks and lies of the trade, schemes that are used on innocent, uninformed families by the professional con-artists, the loop of crooks in the probate racket, which is run like organized crime. Once they, the judges and their guardians for profit pals and all of their buddies get their victims, their wards in their clutches, it's too late.
WAKE UP AMERICA! This could be your horror story.
Moral of the story - stay away from courts, judges, lawyers, fiduciaries, private or public guardians or any fee for service agency - and KEEP IT IN THE FAMILY.
If only the family had known before they took it to court, Anonymous.
I bet their attorneys led them to the slaughter!
Yes, "I bet their attorneys led them to the slaughter!"
And, how much $$$$$ was their bonus, their finders fee?
Always follow: the $$$$ and the votes, therein, lies your answer.
Seems to be a consistent pattern: sell property and liquidate assets to fund the guardianship and the attorneys who work on the case. When my family was in conflict over the care of my Grandma, the court also offered a "non-profit" guardianship agency (in Dade, FL). We were sold on the idea... until it became an apparent nightmare. The guardian agency didn't spend time caring for my Grandma or addressing her needs; rather, they cared about the money and their attorney cared about his billable hours. What's worse is that Grandma was held hostage in a nursing home, against her will - and they hampered her from having good care at home. The agency paid no attention to the Court's Order Appointing Guardian, which outlined the intention of the guardianship was to relocate Grandma to her home and when we went to the judge to bring the guardian's actions to his attention, he ignored us. We wondered if there was a conspiracy. It certainly was inhumane and smelled like organized crime. It's about money.
Tali, I am so sorry to hear about your grandmother.
It is insane that strangers in the court probate court racket and the buddies who need to profit from each case, are making all decisions for your family member that should be the responsibility of those who know her best.........you, and your family.
Yes, it's all about the money. This is BIG business, people turned into wards and wards are turned into products to generate income for the probate buddy system.
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