AZ: Reform Weighed to Protect Life Savings

Arizona Probate Courts could start managing incapacitated individuals' health care and finances based on how much money they have and how long they expect to live if the Supreme Court accepts recommendations in a report being presented next week.

A committee weighing Probate Court reforms is calling for new rules to reduce fees, strengthen accountability and protect the assets of people deemed too ill to care for themselves.

Chief among recommendations in the committee's final 432-page report is a requirement that judges conduct "sustainability" reviews weighing potential future costs against existing assets.

If adopted, the change means the courts would - for the first time - consider how much money someone has when deciding how much of that money to spend on care and other services.

The current lack of attention to available funds has led to cases of people's assets being drained to pay for the services of court-appointed lawyers or fiduciaries, which manage an incapacitated person's health care or finances.

The probate-reform committee, made up of judges, lawyers and fiduciaries, was formed last year by Arizona Chief Justice Rebecca Berch following accounts in The Arizona Republic detailing how people placed under the court's protection were billed for hundreds of thousands of dollars in attorney and fiduciary fees.

Judges charged with overseeing the cases rarely stepped in to limit the fees.

The committee's report will be presented Monday to the Arizona Judicial Council, a panel of the state's top judges that establishes statewide court rules and sets the court's legislative agenda.

Other committee recommendations would establish fee guidelines, require court-appointed lawyers and fiduciaries to submit budgets, create a training program for probate judges and implement new processes for monitoring incapacitated adults under the court's care.

Some say these combined methods have never before been tried in any Probate Court and represent a new way of doing business.

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Reform Weighed to Protect Life Savings