Cost of Guardianship More Expensive in Maricopa County

If Bess Christiana of Sun City West lived in Austin or Tampa, she would have more cash in her bank account today.

Over nine months in 2009, Christiana, 85, who suffered from dementia and couldn't take care of herself, paid $35,441 to a court-appointed private fiduciary to manage her health care and finances.

An examination of the fiduciary's itemized billings by The Arizona Republic indicates Christiana would have paid significantly less for fiduciary service in Austin and Tampa, where probate courts limit fiduciary fees paid by the incapacitated.

In Austin, the charges would have been about a tenth of what she paid in Maricopa County. In Tampa, they would have been 26 percent to 43 percent of what she paid.

The differences illustrate how Maricopa County Probate Court lacks certain safeguards found in other states that prevent significant charges from being run up by fiduciaries and attorneys in cases involving incapable wards of court or the deceased.

The measures, regarded as models by some national experts, include:

- Capping fees charged by court-appointed attorneys and fiduciaries, who manage a person's care or finances when no family member is available or willing to do so. Such caps can take the form of a limit on fiduciaries' hourly rates or a maximum percentage of a dead person's estate. Another approach is to require fiduciaries to establish and meet an annual budget.

- Court personnel who help judges control fees by red-flagging problems in billings, such as a run-up of charges caused by a family dispute.

- Computerized tracking of how an incapacitated person's money is spent, to spot patterns of abusive spending. Minnesota is rolling out an electronic tracking system next year.

Full Article and Source:
Maricopa County Probate Court - More Safeguards in Other Cities