This Michigan nonprofit helped derail guardianship reforms, called AG effort a 'task farce'

It was supposed to be bi-partisan legislation that would help our state’s most vulnerable people. But instead of sailing through, several proposed guardianship reforms have stalled.

By: Heather Catallo

(WXYZ) — It was supposed to be bi-partisan legislation that would help our state’s most vulnerable people.

But instead of sailing through the state legislature, several proposed guardianship reforms have stalled.

In Michigan, if a court declares you legally incapacitated, a judge can appoint a guardian for you, which means you can no longer make your own legal, medical or financial decisions.

Back in 2021, Attorney General Dana Nessel’s Elder Abuse Task Force helped launch bi-partisan bills designed to better protect people who are put under guardianship.

But those bills never got signed into law thanks in part to professional guardians who did not want the same changes.

For 5 years, the 7 Investigators have been exposing problems in Michigan’s guardianship system.

“It's disgusting. Our elderly people shouldn't be a commodity and shouldn't be able to be trafficked by these people,” said Gretchen Sommer.

A judge appointed a professional guardian instead of family member for Sommer’s aunt, Barbara Delbridge, and her uncle, Bob Mitchell, back in 2018.

“Kept them hostage, took them from their families, locked them behind a six-and-a-half-foot privacy fence and just drained their estate, researched how to sell off their property,” said Sommer.

The guardian billed Bob and Barb’s estate for more than $376,000 in fees.

Our investigations helped fuel new reforms crafted by Nessel’s Elder Abuse Task Force, and in 2021, after years of work, they introduced four bills to change the state law.

“We felt as though it would completely change the face of protection of seniors in Michigan,” Nessel told 7 Investigator Heather Catallo.

Here are a few of the things the bills would have mandated:

- Certification for professional guardians

- Judges would have to better explain on the record why they’re appointing a professional guardian instead of a family member

- And they would have increased the number of times guardians have to visit their wards.

But the bills did not get signed into law.

One of the biggest opponents: the Michigan Guardianship Association, a non-profit advocacy group for professional guardians.

“The Guardianship Association especially kept moving the goalposts. So, whenever they would bring up a point and it seemed like legitimate point and that point would get addressed, they would say,’ well, that's not good enough. What about this other thing,’” said Nessel.

Even though members of the Michigan Guardianship Association (MGA) were on the Elder Abuse Task Force, the 7 Investigators have discovered audio recordings and photos that reveal just how hard the association was working against the legislation.

Pictures taken of a PowerPoint presentation at the MGA’s April 2022 conference reveal the MGA’s lobbyist, Robert Kennedy, referring to Nessel’s task force as the Attorney’s General’s Task Farce.

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This Michigan nonprofit helped derail guardianship reforms, called AG effort a 'task farce'