But when it comes to racking up those charges, no place in the Bay Area stands out like Santa Clara County.
An examination by this newspaper found that in Contra Costa, Alameda and Marin counties, court-appointed conservators wouldn't get very far if they tried to charge the $330 maximum hourly rate that turns up on one San Jose professional estate manager's rate schedule, or the $295 an hour described on a well-known Campbell conservator's fee list. That's more than double what other courts allow.
And if estate managers burned through the life savings of a dependent adult in San Francisco or San Mateo counties, they would be expected to stay on the job the rest of their client's life -- for free.
But in Santa Clara County, this newspaper found, these court-overseen services can come at exorbitant costs in a probate court system with few specific rules to rein them in. When families can't care for elderly and incapacitated adults, these private professionals can be assigned as conservators or trustees to arrange everything from complex money management to rides to the grocery store.In Santa Clara County, some work alone, charging top rates for their services. Others employ staff members, whose multiple tasks layered on top of fiduciary fees can also add up to astounding six-figure bills for a single year.
"The buck stops at the court, and we should have more guidelines and more factors to determine reasonable fees," said Victoria Tran Sood, a South Bay probate and trust attorney who represents the elderly and their families. "Here we don't have that, so people take their chances. The young fiduciaries charge according to what they're taught, and the older guys charge double and layer their bills because they can get away with it."
Full Article and Source:
Santa Clara County Lacks rules to Rein in Fees of Court-Appointed Conservators
See Also:
The Mercury News' "Loss of Trust" Series (Anchor article)
11 comments:
Elderly Care, is the domiciliary care or social care.Elderly care is provided in the patient's home by healthcare professionals (often referred to as home health care or formal care). It is our prime duty to take care of the elderly peope at home.
home care agencies,Irish home care services
Santa Clara County must have been cashing in on numerous estates and it appears their day is over!
It is greatly appreciated when there are journalist who still have their ethics in the right place which is to report the corruption within our courts and beyond. There are too many cases such as this throught out the country, like Texas we have judges creating their own guardianship programs and awarding the elderly and disabled to their own guardianship program, in addition appointing attorney's as guardian ad litems without any reporting of their fees to anyone. This is a system of a deception of protection as it is obvious with this case, that money was what it was all about and the victim was the last to be considered. Thanks to the reporter, keep doing your job the public depends on transparency and the truth, something that has been lost in our justice system throughout the country.
Oh I just love it when the good guys get the bad guys. And, I love it even more when the dirt hits the media, the power of the press is their nightmare. The sad thing is many reporters don't have the courage to take this on thereby enabling the criminals to continue with business as usual. We're next in line folks so wake up and pay attention to what's waiting for you unless big changes come fast. Thank you to the brave reporter.
It never will be over. Does anyone think that these reports and discoveries are going to change the way the "system" runs? Wake up and smell the roses. Nothing will change, The judiciary is not changing anything, they are untouchable. eb
Its like when they charge $65 /hr to open mail and another $75-$85 /hr to file a piece of paper. Its astronomical. Even with guidelines in place, they'll still find other ways to drain bank accounts. One way is by charging 1/10 of a $125 hourly rate to read a phone message then neglect to return the call, thus prompting another incoming call, which will result in another message and charge to read the message........it just keeps going on and on. Over time that will result in a pretty penny.
Its gotta stop. I commend the Santa Clara newspaper for looking further into it. They should review the articles that the AZ Republic printed last year regarding their investigation into the AZ Probate System.
Abuse of conservatees in Santa Clara County goes far beyond draining their estates. Some conservatees, like Gisela Riordan, are essentially held prisoner by the public guardian. Gisela has been almost comletely isolated from the outside world for over two years. Last Mother's Day, Gisela was allowed a rare 15-minute visit with her son in honor of the day. Since then, advocates have been unable to contact her.
This news article could apply to hundreds of counties within the USA. No oversight, no mandated procedures, laws are disregarded, no uniformity, no nothing that works in the best interest of the ward. Guardianship sounds warm caring and fuzzy that's the intent but dig further and you will see guardianship works in the best financial interest of the guardian at the expense of the ward then when the ward is flat broke with all their worth gone to the so called protector who do you think picks up the rest of the bills? Look in the mirror there you have it and you are next. Get the picture? Good. Now what are you going to do about it?
The judges who allowed this mass raping of estates should be disciplined.
Santa Clara County lacks rules to reign in fees? No, I don't believe that. Judges know exactly what they're doing when they rubberstamp exhorbitant fees.
you're right patti when cornered by someone with standing some judges will need to sound shocked respond with outrage which is an act that is needed so all the guilty parties will be pointing fingers at the others claiming not to have knowledge of the raping of the estates believe what you want to believe
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