Tuesday, October 27, 2009

From Wealth to Welfare

The old woman sits in the corner reclining chair, as she does most of the time any more, looking at, well, nothing. The smell — a stinging mixture of urine and ammonia — doesn't seem to bother her as it does a visitor to this Phoenix nursing home. Or maybe she's just accepted the fact that this is how she will live out the rest of her life.

Are you happy? I ask her, and her eyes cloud over as she hesitates, then shakes her head.

“No,” she says softly. “Are you happy?”

Not even close, I feel like telling her as I look around. But I don't. No need to pile more worry onto the frail shoulders of an 88 year old who already has far more than her fair share.

Not even four years ago, Marie Long had $1.3 million in assets, held in trust for her final years on this earth. Sometime in the next few weeks, she'll be tossed onto the state's welfare rolls. All of her money is gone now; much of it bled off by legal fees and guardian fees.

And the court that exists to protect her?

Simply put, it didn't.

Marie has no children to watch over her. Long ago, her daughter died of cancer at age 16 and the following year, her 20-year-old son was killed in Vietnam. When her husband Cliff died in 2003, he left Marie in decent shape, having put all they owned into a trust.

Two years later, Marie suffered a stroke and the beneficiary of that trust, her niece Genevieve Olen of El Cajon, Calif., took over managing Marie's money.

Court records paint a picture of the family squabble that ensued. Olen moved her aunt to a San Diego assisted-living center, reasoning that it would be best for Marie and cheaper than round-the-clock help in her own home.

But Marie wanted to come home to Scottsdale and her sisters fought to make that happen. Marie, meanwhile, removed Olen as her beneficiary though she remained as trustee, in charge of Marie's money.

For nearly two years, Marie would live at home, her care overseen by her court-appointed guardian, Tempe-based Sun Valley Group. Early on, another company supplied 24-hour companion caregivers to Marie, at a cost of up to $9,000 a month.

In April 2006, SVG installed its own caregivers and the cost jumped to $10,000 to $15,000 a month. This, on top of the thousands SVG was charging each month for serving as her guardian and despite a Supreme Court rule that bars guardians from “self dealing or the appearance of a conflict of interest.” If such services aren't available elsewhere, the rule allows a guardian to provide them but only after getting court approval.

There is nothing in the court file to indicate SVG notified the judge that it was also collecting on the side by providing Marie's caregivers.

Full Article and Source:
From Wealth to Welfare: How Much Court "Protection" Can One Old Lady Afford?"

9 comments:

  1. When siblings fight; lawyers bite!

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  2. this is no different than other scams crooks in the legal system learned how to support their expenseive life styles learned how to use the court turn into profiteers using a system (intentionally??) poorly designed without regulation (imagine that - no regulation turns into a free for all) to have effective oversight no different than the medicare fraud that was aired on 60
    minutes i noticed ag holder didn't look too upset or outraged which made me even more upset and outraged by the lack of emotion

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  3. From Wealth to Welfare says it all. This is what guardianship has become. Instead of conserving the vulnerable person's assets, the court-appointed "protectors" eat them up.

    And sadly, there's not a thing that the ward can do about it.

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  4. Good article - and it tells it like it is.

    The good guys - the honest and ethical lawyers and guardians and judges - should be outraged about this.

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  5. Can you imagine how the lawyers and guardians rub their hands together in glee when they see assets of over $1 mil and a helpless person?

    It's a sick, sick system.

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  6. Guardianship has become Medicare fraud.

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  7. I am so sorry for Marie Long, thinking that she ended up this way at the end of her life. It's heartbreaking.

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  8. Thank you for posting this story.

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  9. The vultures just can't resist. It makes me sick what they did to this woman.

    And it makes me sicker that the court allows it.

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