Bill passage could help protect vulnerable adults

State Representative Marcus McEntire

The Oklahoma Legislature has passed a bill establishing the Commission on the Prevention of Abuse of Elderly and Vulnerable Adults. House Bill 3328 bill was signed into law last month by Gov. Mary Fallin.

Rep. Marcus McEntire, R-Duncan, the bill’s author, said it is time Oklahoma begins looking into abuse and scams elderly adults face.

“So what we’ve done is we’ve created a commission to look at the laws concerning court-appointed guardianship of elders and vulnerable adults. And so, what we’re trying to do is make sure that we can head off any kind of fraud that occurs in that relationship. And, of course, it’s going to be much broader than that.”

According to the National Council of Disability, an estimated of 1.3 million adults are under guardianship across the nation.

Oklahoma is not a state that requires guardians to be certified. In most states, guardians also are not required to go through criminal or financial background checks.

The bill brings attention to the lack of regulations involving guardianships and the fraudulent activities that come from the lack of oversight. Guardians have legal power over their wards. In cases where the guardian has full guardianship, they have complete access to their ward’s bank account and health records. Under guardianship, wards are no longer able to manage their finances, buy or sell property, make medical decisions, marry and vote.

“What you’ve had in other states is you have a court-appointed guardian and a judge who maybe is in cahoots, and so basically the court-appointed guardian handpicks who they want to be guardian of and then strolls into their house, tells them, ‘Hey, I’m your guardian. We’re gonna move you out,’ and they move them to a nursing home somewhere and then they sell their assets,” McEntire said. “Just liquidate them, and say those are fees. It’s happened in other states, and we’re gonna make sure it doesn’t happen here.”

McEntire is going to a symposium Tuesday in Oklahoma City at the Oklahoma Bar Association to look into how to combat elderly exploitation.

“Other states are ahead of us,” he said. “We’ve got to get working on this as quickly as possible to make sure we can prevent further exploitation of elderly adults.”

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Bill passage could help protect vulnerable adults