Sally W. Cicerone said she was planning to retire at the end of the year anyway and that the accusations are unproven
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| Sally Cicerone faces an accusation by state regulators that could take away her license. |
By Tony Saavedra
One of Orange County’s most prolific probate conservators, accused of transferring thousands of dollars without consent from the account of a dead client whom she no longer represented, has surrendered her state license.
Sally W. Cicerone of Laguna Hills must resign as a fiduciary from 43 existing cases and can no longer take any new clients under the agreement approved in April by the state Professional Fiduciaries Bureau.
The bureau, a division of the California Department of Consumer Affairs, accused Cicerone of repeatedly transferring money out of financial accounts for the Santa Barbara-based Brouhard Trust even though she no longer represented the client. She also failed to notify the probate court of the transactions. The agreement becomes effective July 27.
Planning to retire anyway
Cicerone, reached Wednesday by telephone, said she had been planning for six years to retire at the end of the year anyway. As for the state accusations, she said, “Nothing has been proven to be true.”
Fiduciaries are appointed by a judge to make decisions for someone who the court deems is incapacitated. The fiduciary typically has full control over the client’s finances as well as other aspects of his or her life.
State records show Cicerone managed $26.7 million in client assets in 2017.
The families of many of Cicerone’s clients have complained for years about her financial practices.
Transferred funds to attorney’s account
In the Brouhard case, Cicerone allegedly transferred more than $63,500 out of the trust and placed it in her attorney’s trust account without proper consent. She also closed out the client’s checking account and transferred the $33,574 balance to her attorney’s account. When notified of errors and poor record-keeping, she charged thousands of dollars to correct it, the complaint said.
The attorney was not named in the accusation but was identified as Jeffrey Vanderveen in a separate appellate court ruling. Together they charged the trust $3,425 in traveling fees to attend a court hearing on the improper transactions in Santa Barbara.
Vanderveen declined to comment.
Probate system abuse
Cicerone worked in a field that is unfamiliar to most people, the probate system. The court system, when operated correctly, protects the elderly or mentally disabled from being exploited. However, the system can be abused by high-priced conservators, lawyers and other professionals who drain the estates and isolate the clients from their friends and families.
Among those unhappy with Cicerone is the family of late Orange County Superior Court Judge Betty Lou Lamoreaux, whose name adorns the county’s family law complex.”Petitioner has already demonstrated that she inflates her time and thus fee requests, bills for services she has not performed, bills for services performed by others, intentionally and fraudulently falsified her time sheets … and neglected the conservatee,” Lamoreaux’s family alleged in a court declaration.
For instance, documents show Cicerone billed $250 to visit Lamoreaux and take delivery of a new leather recliner in April 2017. But in a sworn declaration, Cicerone contractor Julie Sebestyen testified that it was she who visited Lamoreaux and monitored the chair delivery, not Cicerone.
Duff McGrath, Lamoreaux’s nephew, said, the family was pleased with the outcome.
“However, we would have preferred it had gone to a hearing because
she would have been found guilty,” McGrath said. “Our aunt would have
been appalled at how her estate was treated by Sally Cicerone. She would
have been pleased that (Cicerone) can no longer commit fraud on the
elderly of Orange County.”
Wonder how she'll look wearing orange
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