What Will Guardianship Law Do When You Can No Longer Stand Alone? Lessons from the Brooke Astor Case

by Philip C. Marshall

Summary 

• Socialite Brooke Astor, who at age 104 had Alzheimer’s, had a son who was convicted of 14 counts of elder abuse against her; now, her grandson advocates for senior lawyers to recognize and challenge when guardianship proceedings are protecting one’s legal rights or stripping them away.
• Guardianship can strip adults of nearly all legal rights through procedures that fall below the constitutional standards applied to far less consequential deprivations—a gap senior lawyers are positioned to recognize and challenge.
• The disability rights framework of supported independence—scaffolding without confiscating sovereignty—offers a principled standard for measuring whether the law is honoring or merely managing human vulnerability.
• Senior lawyers bring irreplaceable authority to guardianship reform: professional credibility, lived proximity to aging, and the persuasive precision of those who have insisted on reasoned process throughout their careers.

The system worked. That is what has troubled me ever since.

In 2006, I petitioned a New York court to protect someone I loved—my grandmother, Brooke Astor, then 104 years old. The court agreed. What I could not have fully articulated at the time, and what I have spent the years since trying to name, is this: The same system capable of protecting her was also capable of erasing her by removing her rights. The difference was not the law itself. It was who was present, who was credible, and who could afford to persist.

You already know how to spot when due process is being honored and when it is being performed. You have spent careers insisting on reasoned findings, reviewable records, and procedural integrity. This piece asks you to point that same professional discernment at a system you may not yet have examined closely—and at a life stage that is no longer abstract.

The System Lawyers Are Built to Question

Guardianship is widely understood as a protective remedy—a last resort, carefully applied. In practice, it can operate as a near-total reassignment of legal agency: control over residence, medical decisions, finances, relationships, and access to courts transferred to a third party, sometimes effectively permanently.

The doctrinal label is “protective.” But protection is a purpose, not a constitutional exemption.

When the interests at stake in other legal contexts are this sweeping—civil commitment, termination of parental rights, major deprivations of liberty—the system demands heightened procedural protection and reviewable reasons. Guardianship touches interests at least as foundational, and yet the procedural floor is often among the lowest the civil system tolerates: truncated hearings, conclusory findings, reliance on untested evaluations, and an appellate posture that treats judicial discretion as self-justifying.

A right without a workable remedy is not a right in practice. It is an aspiration. And the people most likely to need the remedy are often least able to use it—lacking funds for independent counsel, unable to initiate proceedings without access to communications or resources held by the very guardian they would challenge, and facing health timelines that outrun appellate calendars.

You recognize this pattern. You have argued against it in other courtrooms.

A Life-Course View that the Law Has Not Caught Up With

There is a structural gap in how the law thinks about personhood over time.

The law is strong in the middle—in the world of contracts, commerce, torts, and ordinary civil procedure, where the idealized independent adult is assumed. But the human life course does not stay in the middle. It begins in dependency. It often returns to dependency. Disability does not observe a schedule—it may be present from birth, arrive through illness or injury, or accumulate gradually with age. If the law protects autonomy only for the fully capable adult at full capacity, it is not a code of justice. It is a code of convenience.

The disability rights movement understood this before elder law did. Its core insight—that the problem is often not the person but the environment, and that impairment is a reason to provide supports rather than reduce rights—is the civil rights framework most explicitly built around the human condition as it actually is: interdependent, fluctuating, and embodied.

That framework has a name that is useful here: supported independence. Not substituted judgment, where the system replaces the person. And not only supported decision-making, which is already on the books in a majority of states as a less restrictive alternative, though chosen infrequently by courts, and tends to remain focused on the transaction rather than the person. Supported independence adds the relational dimension: the recognition that autonomy is not a solo achievement but a shared one, sustained by the people and institutions that surround us.

It is the proposition that the law should supply scaffolding without confiscating sovereignty. That vulnerability is not a reason for erasure but a reason for reinforced rights.

When the Preamble to the Constitution named among its founding purposes the obligation to “secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity,” the founders were not drafting a rule of decision. They were naming what the whole enterprise of law is for—the frame within which every code, every procedure, every adjudication should be measured. Supported independence belongs in that tradition. It is not a statute to be litigated or a mechanism to be administered. It is a standard—and the question this piece puts to the profession is whether the system we have built is finally ready to be measured against it.

What Senior Lawyers Already Know How to Read

This is not merely a philosophical aspiration. It has operational content—and senior lawyers are among the best-positioned people in any setting to recognize when it is being honored and when it is being ignored.

• Presume agency. Justify every restriction. You have argued this in other contexts. The burden belongs on the system to prove the necessity of limitations, not on the person to prove their worthiness of rights they have never forfeited.
• Offer supports before substituting judgment. Less restrictive alternatives—advance planning instruments, supported decision-making arrangements, limited financial assistance, care navigation, community-based services—must be real options, not rhetorical gestures. A system that names them without resourcing them has not offered an alternative. It has described one.
• Make findings specific and functional. Capacity is not binary. A finding that someone “lacks capacity” without specifying what they cannot do, which rights are affected, and why narrower measures are insufficient is not a legal determination. It is a conclusion dressed as one.
• Records should be reviewable, and reasons should be transparent. Confidentiality can be protected through proportionate means. Opacity that forecloses accountability has not protected the person. It has protected the proceeding.
• Appoint counsel that is genuinely independent. Counsel that is appointed but not resourced, present but not empowered, is a procedural gesture. The person’s voice is not a gesture. It is the constitutional center.
• Make the exit real. Restoration cannot be mythical. Periodic review, a meaningful path to modification or termination, and a presumption that rights return when justification fades—these are not generous additions to the system. They are what make it a legal system rather than an administrative one.

Why This Audience, and Why Now

Joan Erikson’s contributions to the developmental model she built alongside her husband Erik are too often absorbed into his name rather than credited in her own. In her nineties, after Erik’s death, she described what she called a ninth stage of life—an account of vulnerability and trust at the far edge of experience. At its center she placed gerotranscendence: a shift in very late life toward a more expansive orientation, freed from what no longer matters. It remains among the most courageous acts of scholarship in the field.

At its center is a question about trust—not the trust of infancy, which is a question of caregivers, but the trust of late life, which is a question of systems. Can I trust the institutions that claim to protect me? Can I trust that help will not cost me myself?

For lawyers in the Senior Lawyers Division, this is not an abstraction. It is either approaching or already present in the lives of friends, spouses, siblings, clients, and—with honesty—ourselves. The lawyer who has spent decades insisting on reasoned decision-making in other contexts is in the best possible position to bring that same insistence to this one.

Not from a podium. In conversation—at ABA gatherings, with family members navigating a diagnosis, with colleagues whose clients are aging, with journalists and legislators who have not yet heard the argument made with professional precision by someone who has lived it from the inside.

That is the generative move available to this audience. Not a new doctrine for its own sake, but a more honest continuity between what the law promises and what it actually delivers—to the clients you have served, to the people you love, and eventually, if you are fortunate to live long enough, to yourself.

The law’s highest function is not to manage human vulnerability. It is to honor it.

That is the kind of code worthy of the next 250 years.

Full Article & Source:
What Will Guardianship Law Do When You Can No Longer Stand Alone? Lessons from the Brooke Astor Case 

See Also:
Family, friends, and neighbors are at the heart (and the heart) of elder justice

‘The Ultimate Betrayal’: Grandson Of Victim Explains Signs Of Elderly Financial Abuse

Brooke Astor’s grandson makes case for ‘Elder Abuse’ postage stamp

Brooke Astor's Grandson Fights Against Elder Abuse

‘The Ultimate Betrayal’: Grandson Of Victim Explains Signs Of Elderly Financial Abuse

As the nation’s Baby Boomers age, more seniors are becoming vulnerable to various forms of financial exploitation.

According to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission report released in June, studies have found that 2.7 percent to 6.6 percent of the elder population are victims of such exploitation each year. The report adds that these studies likely underestimate the true extent of the problem.

One man with very personal experience in this area is Philip Marshall, grandson of the late New York City philanthropist Brooke Astor. In 2006, Marshall took legal action against his father, Anthony Marshall, accusing him, among other things, of illegally scheming to take control of Astor’s $100 million fortune. At the time, she suffered from the effects of Alzheimer’s disease.

Anthony Marshall was later convicted on grand larceny and other counts. The case helped raise awareness of elder financial abuse nationwide.

On Thursday, Philip Marshall will address the issue of elder financial exploitation during a conference in Charlotte. He spoke Tuesday with "All Things Considered" host Mark Rumsey.

Mark Rumsey: Philip Marshall joins me now by phone from his home in South Dartmouth Massachusetts. Mr. Marshall good afternoon.

Philip Marshall: Good afternoon, Mark. It’s great being with you here.

Rumsey: Your family's case was highly unusual in the sense that it was very high profile and involved tens of millions of dollars. What is the broader scope of the problem of financial exploitation of elderly people in this country? What are some of the forms that [the abuse] takes?

Marshall: Well what happens is there's a couple things that occur. Scams such as phone scams and what I'll call “pure financial exploitation” involves straight out theft of money or other assets by a stranger. But sadly, as I know from my grandmother sad circumstances, at least two thirds of elder abuse cases occur within a relationship where there's an expectation of trust. It's illegal, immoral and a betrayal of trust — the ultimate betrayal.

Frequently, seniors are poly-victimized. Basically, they endure more than one form of abuse and are re-victimized, especially when there's an intimate long term relationship between the victim and perpetrator.

Rumsey: How clear is the line between, perhaps, some form of inappropriate treatment towards an elderly person with regard to their finances and actual exploitation that would cross all ethical and legal boundaries?

Marshall: It's hard to draw the line but in essence, it's when finances are going to benefit the alleged or actual perpetrator and compromise the senior that the line begins to get drawn.

Rumsey: In your family's case, the key issue was the mental competence of your grandmother Brooke Astor when she signed a will in 2002, right?

Marshall: In my grandmother’s case, abuse and exploitation happened for several years and it started a bit before she was a hundred years old. My father basically used his power of attorney, and he used it as a weapon and a shield to steal — as chronicled by huge irregular financial transactions. After that happened, he became emboldened and he continued his sort of serial exploitation.

[He had] my grandmother sign three amendments to her will to transfer millions of dollars — which was to go to charity — to his control. But it happened three years after he claims that his mother was delusional in a letter to a neurologist.

One of my big pushes now is to connect healthcare and financial professionals because with communication between these professionals, and with mandated reporting and training, such acts could have been arrested early on. The financial industry can serve as an early warning system. Basically, our personal ability to deal with finances is the first thing to go when it comes to cognitive impairment.

Rumsey: Out of your own personal experience, is there a message for family members — children and grandchildren — to be alert to what would seem like the unthinkable possibilities that this kind of abuse could be taking place in their own families?

Marshall: Really have a conversation with seniors. Our silence protects perpetrators, not their victims. Today, victims of this crime might be strangers. Tomorrow, they may be our loved ones or ourselves.

Rumsey: Philip Marshall is the grandson of the late New York City philanthropist Brooke Astor. Mr. Marshall, thanks very much for talking with us.

Marshall: Thank you very much, Mark.

Full Article & Source:
‘The Ultimate Betrayal’: Grandson Of Victim Explains Signs Of Elderly Financial Abuse

Brooke Astor’s grandson makes case for ‘Elder Abuse’ postage stamp

The grandson of swindled New York philanthropist Brooke Astor still hopes to help “stamp” out elder abuse — with a fundraising US postage stamp.

Twelve years after he outed his own father for neglecting and stealing from the multi-millionaire Astor, Philip Marshall has joined with other elder abuse activists and two New York legislators to urge an “Elder Abuse” postage stamp.

“Those two words should never be paired together,” Marshall said of elder abuse, a cause he now devotes himself to full time. “But they are. One in 10 seniors is victim of elder abuse, which has many forms,” including neglect and financial exploitation, he said.

In a case that got national attention, Marshall reluctantly took his father, Anthony Marshall, to court in 2006 for secluding the dementia-suffering Astor in her squalid Park Avenue apartment while looting tens of millions of dollars from her fortune.

The grandson mustered support from Astor’s A-list of powerful pals, including David Rockefeller, Henry Kissinger and Annette de la Renta, and successfully had his father removed as Astor’s legal guardian — and prosecuted for grand larceny.

“I think the sad circumstance surrounding my grandmother informed a timely cause in elder justice, and increased awareness nationwide about elder abuse,” he told The Post.

Fundraising stamps must be approved by Congress, and have previously been issued to raise federal funding and awareness for Alzheimer’s and breast cancer.

The “Stamp out Elder Abuse Act of 2018” was introduced in both the House and Senate this week; among its bipartisan House sponsors were Reps. Peter King (R-Long Island) and Carolyn Maloney (D-Brooklyn).

Also pushing for the stamp is the Elder Justice Coalition.

“The EJC is proud to have worked closely on this legislation with the sponsors and advocates, including Philip C. Marshall, founder of Beyond Brooke, a cause-based campaign named to honor Philip’s late grandmother,” said the group’s national coordinator, Bob Blancato.

Under the bill, proceeds from the stamp would fund elder abuse efforts at the federal Administration on Aging and the Department of Justice.

Full Article & Source:
Brooke Astor’s grandson makes case for ‘Elder Abuse’ postage stamp

Brooke Astor's Grandson Fights Against Elder Abuse

Philip C. Marshall went to court to protect his wealthy socialite grandmother from being financially exploited by her own son. His crusade continues today.

Philip C. Marshall, grandson of Brooke Astor and founder of Beyond Brooke. Courtesy Financial Advisor Magazine, Alec Marshall

 

By Eleanor Laise, Senior Editor 

September 26, 2018

 
From Kiplinger's Retirement Report

The 2009 trial of Anthony Marshall, son of New York philanthropist Brooke Astor, brought nationwide attention to the issue of elder abuse. Marshall was found guilty of stealing millions of dollars from his mother and, along with a lawyer, fraudulently changing her will. Astor’s grandson Philip C. Marshall filed a guardianship petition in 2006 seeking to protect his grandmother—and today, years after the deaths of his father and grandmother, he continues to campaign against the financial exploitation of seniors. In this edited conversation, Marshall speaks with Senior Editor Eleanor Laise about how seniors and their loved ones can recognize and combat abuse.

Based on your experience, what are the key elder-abuse red flags that family members and friends should watch for?

Isolation of seniors is one of the biggest red flags. If a senior is isolated, that sets the stage for potential perpetrators to come in. Old friends vanishing, new friends—in quotes—showing up. This is what happened with my grandmother. New lawyer, new accountant, new best friend. All should signal possible warning signs.

In your case, combating the abuse meant testifying against your father. What’s your advice to people who suspect their close relatives are the perpetrators?

My inbox and my voice mail are full of people who are desperately trying to figure out what to do. Yes, there’s a huge angst about addressing abuse with a family member you’ve had a lifetime relationship with. But the angst is really among people who say, ‘I’ve gone to law enforcement and Adult Protective Services, and they say this is a family affair or a civil matter.’

Very typically elder abuse is criminal and needs to be treated as such. That’s one of the things that came out of my grandmother’s case: It wasn’t just a battle of the bluebloods—it was criminal.

You have founded an organization, Beyond Brooke, which seeks to provide elder-abuse education and empower seniors. What do you tell seniors about how to protect themselves against financial abuse? 

It’s back to engaging in relationships and making sure you’ve got people in your life who will watch your back. It sometimes takes just one person or three or five people in your life who are checking in—and cultivating those relationships.

Seniors are often encouraged to designate a power of attorney to carry out their wishes if they become incapacitated. Yet this can also open the door to elder abuse. What’s your advice on designating a power of attorney? 

I filed for guardianship because my father had power of attorney for his mother, which he was using as a weapon and a shield. I would say have two agents, for starters. It’s a check and balance system. And one could be a professional. If folks happen to have a trust or two, make sure there’s a professional fiduciary as a trustee, so you’ve got this check and balance.

There’s so much power of attorney abuse. And as a reminder, power of attorney abuse is criminal. People are being told it’s a civil issue, and that’s not true.

Your grandmother was abused while she was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. What should be done to protect people with dementia from elder abuse? 

That’s where folks in the financial industry and in health care need to talk. When someone has mild cognitive impairment, they’re potentially still able to do financial [tasks] and have testamentary capacity. But there’s this huge grey zone between mild cognitive impairment and advanced Alzheimer’s. It’s really difficult to figure out when to act.

There are three things we usually don’t like talking about: health, wealth and death. And perpetrators know this is to their advantage. So we have to throw these right on the table. Generally speaking, people are relieved when their families talk about these critical issues.

Full Article & Source:
Brooke Astor's Grandson Fights Against Elder Abuse

See Also:
From Whistle-Blower To Elder Champion

Too Sick for Court?

Brooke Astor heir Anthony Marshall leaves sons out of his will; millions will go to second wife and her children

Brooke Astor's Lasting Legacy

Settlement Reached in Brooke Astor Estate Battle

Astor's Son Found Guilty

Viewpoint: Supporting justice for elders

by Philip C. Marshall

I am the grandson of the late Brooke Astor who was a New York City philanthropist, summer resident of Northeast Harbor for over fifty years, and victim of elder abuse and exploitation by her son, my father.

In 2006, with the help of my grandmother’s staff, caregivers, and friends, I filed a petition for guardianship, which was awarded. This allowed us get my grandmother back to her country house in New York to spend her last days as, and where, she wished. My grandmother died peacefully at home and free from fear on August 13, 2007.

I am now advocating for elder justice, informed by hard-learned lessons and in recognition of the abuse and trauma imposed on millions of elders every day—with two-thirds of abusers being family, “friends,” or caregivers.

I was compelled to work on elder justice full time after testifying before Senator Collins and other members of the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging in February 2015.

I have traveled border-to-border, coast-to-coast, and have met face-to-face with elder-justice professionals who do so much for so many, sometimes with so little.

Elder abuse is the betrayal of trust. Elder justice is the restoration of trust through relationships and responsibility.

Our greatest resources and our first line of defense are the relationships in our communities, with programs and services that cultivate trust among seniors and their circles of support, including other professionals.

Should abuse occur, they demonstrate community concern and capacity, empowering individuals to come forward and act. This allows us to articulate our personal responsibility to act with our community “response ability” (ability to respond). We can act knowing our community has our back.

Our silence protects perpetrators, not their victims. Today victims of elder abuse may be strangers, tomorrow they may be our loved ones, and perhaps in the future they may be ourselves.

Seniors, and society, deserve more. Yet only one in 23 cases of abuse, and one in 44 cases of financial exploitation, are reported, according to a 2011 New York study, appropriately titled “Under the Radar.” Perpetrators know this, to their advantage.

On Aug. 29, I will join Maine elder-justice professionals for a program in Northeast Harbor, “How the Brooke Astor Story Can Help Our Communities Achieve Elder Justice.”

We will explore ways those who serve and save seniors are working together in partnership with their communities in detecting, responding to, and even preventing abuse. We will explore how Maine has taken a leadership role in protecting seniors’ net worth, self-worth, and lives—and how, “as Maine goes, so goes the nation.”

I look forward to returning to Mount Desert Island, hiking my grandmother’s favorite mountains and joining elder-justice professionals for the program.

Philip C. Marshall is the founder of “Beyond Brooke – Advancing elder justice.” He lives in South Dartmouth, Mass.

Full Article & Source:
Viewpoint: Supporting justice for elders

From Whistle-Blower To Elder Champion

Brooke Astor, the New York philanthropist, socialite and writer, wanted to leave her family fortune to charity as her legacy. She did that. But she has also touched the lives of many elderly people through the work of her grandson, Philip Marshall.

Marshall is using his experience in protecting his grandmother from abuse to help lead a crusade to protect all older people from financial exploitation, abuse and neglect. To do that, Marshall first had to confront his own father, Anthony Marshall, Brooke Astor’s son.

Thanks to Philip, who prompted one of the most well-known court cases involving elder financial abuse in U.S. history, Brooke Astor will go down not only as a patron of the arts and a philanthropist, but as a lead player in the fight for elder justice. That fight, which began on a very personal level, now has Marshall spearheading a movement more national in scope as he fights to protect vulnerable elderly people. And he says financial advisors and institutions like banks have a crucial and lead role to play in that fight.

Patrick T. Harker, president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, says financial exploitation of older Americans affects families, society and the overall economy. As the population ages and more retirees rely on their own personal savings and investments, elder fraud has the potential of becoming a full-blown national crisis.

Part of the problem with tackling elder financial abuse is that the size of the problem is not even known, Harker says. Also, many questions remain about how the brain ages and who is susceptible to cognitive decline. Estimates of the cost of financial abuse range from $3 billion a year to $36 billion, he says, and even those figures don’t take the social costs into account.

One of the major causes of cognitive decline is Alzheimer’s disease. Approximately 5 million Americans have the disease today, a figure that is expected to rise to 14 million by 2050, according to Patricia Boyle, a researcher at the Rush University Medical Center. Financial decision-making is often one of the first areas impacted by cognitive decline, she says.

Cognitive decline and elder financial exploitation and abuse are also issues that have to be addressed by financial regulators and the financial industry, as well as the medical, social and legal industries.

Philip Marshall, who is now 64 and lives in South Dartmouth, Mass., will relate his grandmother’s story to almost anyone if he thinks it will help the cause, and he recently told the story to Financial Advisor magazine.

He has been at it long enough that he talks in sound bites, but he is never glib. This is serious to him and to a growing number of other people.  (Click to Continue)

Full Article & Source:
From Whistle-Blower To Elder Champion

See Also:
Too Sick for Court?

Brooke Astor heir Anthony Marshall leaves sons out of his will; millions will go to second wife and her children

Brooke Astor's Lasting Legacy

Settlement Reached in Brooke Astor Estate Battle

Astor's Son Found Guilty

Stop Financial Crimes Against Older Americans

Bankers need to help monitor and curtail fraud and exploitation.  

Brooke Astor, famous victim.
Photographer: Robin Platzer/Getty Images

In 2006, Philip Marshall had to make a critical decision: turn in his father for exploiting Philip’s grandmother, or do nothing. Philip's decision to act revealed to the world what remains perhaps the world's highest profile case of elder abuse. Ultimately, Anthony Marshall was convicted of defrauding his mother, the philanthropist Brooke Astor.

While the million-dollar sums involved in the Astor case were unusual, elder financial abuse unfortunately is not. Greater data sharing among financial institutions, along with specific safeguards against financial fraud, could root out this kind of exploitation of our most vulnerable citizens.

As Americans live longer, more and more will experience cognitive impairment great enough to put them at risk of financial abuse. Consider that by 2030, 20 percent of the population will be at least 65 years old. About 12 percent of people have mild cognitive impairment or dementia by the time they're 70 to 74, and among those 85 and older, 64 percent do.

People with MCI face two big risks from the people involved in their lives: financial exploitation and outright fraud. Exploitation includes cashing someone’s checks without permission, forging signatures, or improperly using the authority of conservatorship, guardianship or power of attorney. Fraud involves efforts to deceive someone with promises of goods, services or financial benefits that may not even exist. Estimates of the extent of such abuse in the U.S. vary widely — from $3 billion to $36 billion a year — but whatever the present total, the problem stands to grow unless steps are taken.

Banks and other financial institutions can help prevent financial crime against elders at all levels of wealth and income, starting by raising awareness of the problem within their own walls. They should encourage their customers to plan for potential diminished capacity by designating one or more trusted emergency contacts, securing a power of attorney for finances, and consulting a financial manager. Financial institutions can provide read-only access to deposit accounts to enable people's trusted contacts or financial managers to monitor activity and detect anything improper. Banks should also make a habit of reporting suspicious activity to the U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. And they should help local adult protective services and law enforcement investigate and prosecute those responsible for wrongdoing.

Institutions may be understandably reluctant to put holds on suspicious electronic transfers and deposits, because they are legally bound to expedite those processes. What's more, federal and state privacy laws may discourage them from sharing with other institutions information about potentially suspicious activity.

Yet there is no real need for hesitation. When elder financial fraud or exploitation is suspected, banks and other institutions are free to share a customer’s personal information with federal, state and local investigators and still be compliant with privacy laws, according to guidelines issued by banking and securities regulators in 2013. Around that same time, a check box for elder financial exploitation was added to a federal financial crimes reporting system that links financial institutions with investigators. (The Philadelphia Fed recently established the Consumer Finance Institute, which will continue to investigate elder financial abuse.)

However, clarifying regulations are still needed to encourage and facilitate information sharing between the banks themselves. Lawmakers in Congress and state legislatures should give financial institutions specific permission to delay transactions and report suspicious activity to other institutions. They should also require that all instances of financial fraud and abuse be reported to a national database. This would help the federal government measure the extent and severity of elder financial abuse in the U.S. -- and thus strengthen the urgent nationwide effort to end it.

Full Article & Source: 
Stop Financial Crimes Against Older Americans

Brooke Astor heir Anthony Marshall leaves sons out of his will; millions will go to second wife and her children

Anthony Marshall, who died in November at 90, disinherited his sons, who accused him of abusing his philanthropist mother Brooke Astor. His second wife Charlene will inherit his millions.

The grandsons of philanthropist Brooke Astor say they won’t contest their father's will, which left his many millions to his second wife and her family.

"I just talked to my brother. We are moving on. We're not going to contest the will," Philip Marshall, 62, said in a telephone interview from his home in Massachusetts.

A will for Astor's son, Anthony Marshall, was filed Tuesday in Manhattan Surrogate’s Court.

Marshall, who died in November at 90, left everything to his wife, Charlene, and her three children from a previous marriage. He specifically says in the six page document that he is leaving nothing for Philip Marshall or his twin brother, Alexander, who lives in Vermont.

Philip Marshall — along with two of Astor's friends, society bigs Annette de la Renta and David Rockefeller — blew the whistle on his father in 2006, telling authorities that Anthony Marshall abused his mother, a beloved philanthropist who died a year later at 105.

An investigation led to the criminal prosecution of Marshall and Astor's estate planning lawyer. They were accused of manipulating Astor — who had Alzheimer's — into signing wills that took millions from public charities and put it in Marshall's pocket.

Ultimately, Marshall was convicted of stealing $14 million from his mother by spending lavishly on Charlene and paying himself millions in commissions to sell Astor's artwork and manage her affairs.

He served two months of a one- to three-year sentence, the sentence cut short because his bad health.

Philip Marshall said he tried several times to reconnect with his father after the criminal case but was not successful.

And he said he wasn't surprised by the terms of his father's will.

"I knew the minute I tried to help my grandmother that I would be disinherited ... it was of no consequence to me. I would do so again — I would help my grandmother irrespective of the consequences to me."

The value of Marshall's estate is unclear. In Surrogate Court documents, his lawyers say his estate is worth less than $10,000 but that does not include real estate or assets in trust funds.

Brooke Astor's $100 million estate was divided up in May 2012 when a Westchester court made Marshall accept a 50% cut in his share of his mother's estate. The other half went to pay restitution for his crimes. He was left with an inheritance of $14 million.

That same month, Marshall signed the will which disinherited his sons and their children, leaving everything to Charlene, her children and grandchildren.

Charlene Marshall's inheritance includes all of Marshall's books, artwork and jewels that he inherited from his mother. She also gets income from a trust fund and whatever was left in an alimony trust fund that was set up for Marshall's first wife, Thelma, who died in February.

Philip Marshall on Wednesday marveled at the fact that his grandmother, who used her money for years to try to improve the quality of life for people, is continuing this tradition by lending her stature to the cause of elder justice and quality of life at the end of life.

"All social justice causes need a narrative ... a face. My grandmother has given a face to elder justice," he said.

Marshall said that since her death, he has set up a website called Beyond Brooke to chronicle the work he is doing to give visibility and power to the elderly who are abused by loved ones, caretakers, lawyers and other professional on whom they depend and trust.
 
Full Article & Source:
Brooke Astor heir Anthony Marshall leaves sons out of his will; millions will go to second wife and her children

Emotional Wife of Anthony Marshall Breaks Down During Court Appearance

"You're not going to jail, honey."

The swindling son of famed philanthropist Brooke Astor shared a showily tender moment in Manhattan Supreme Court [April 19]-- his wife hugging him in his wheelchair and bursting into tears.

"You're not going to jail, honey -- it's alright," Anthony Marshall, 88, was told by his sobbing, twenty-years-younger wife, Charlene, after a judge agreed to a tentative June 17 date for Marshall's prison surrender.

"I love you too!" she cried, as she wrapped a gray scarf around his neck before rolling him out of the courtroom.

It's been three years since Marshall and his trusts and estates lawyer co-defendant, Francis Morrissey, were both sentenced to serve at least one year and as many as three.

The two pressured and tricked the Alzheimer's-afflicted doyenne out of some $60 million in bequests, with Marshall awarding himself a $2 million "raise" for administering her estate, and Morrissey forging her signature on a key 2004 will amendment.

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice A. Kirke Bartley is allowing the pair to remain free on bail pending their latest appeal effort -- an application to have their case considered by the state's highest court, the Court of Appeals in Albany.

If that court decides not to take the case, the pair must surrender June 17, said Bartley, who presided over the pair's 2009 trial.

"It's good to see you all again, three years plus," the judge told the eight lawyers in the room, and the brief hearing did have a reunion feel to it.

Full Article and Source:
Emotional Wife of Anthony Marshall Breaks Down During Court Appearance

Astor son, 88, loses appeal, could face prison

NEW YORK (AP) — New York philanthropist Brooke Astor's 88-year-old son has lost an appeal that kept him out of prison after he was convicted of plundering her fortune.

The state Supreme Court's Appellate Division ruled Tuesday that Anthony Marshall's 2009 conviction was based on legally sufficient evidence. Appeals judges also rejected Marshall's argument that his age and illness warranted sparing him prison.

Marshall was sentenced to at least a year in prison, but he was allowed to stay free on bail during the appeal. It's not clear whether Marshall will now have to report to prison or may appeal further and remain free on bail.

Lawyer John Cuti says Marshall is exploring his legal options.

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Astor son, 88, loses appeal, could face prison

Brooke Astor home auction fetches $18.8M in NYC

NEW YORK (AP) — An auction of the contents of philanthropist Brooke Astor's two homes brought in over $18.8 million, Sotheby's said Tuesday.

Sotheby's offered 901 objects in all, including European and Asian furnishings, Old Masters, Qing Dynasty paintings, tea sets, silverware, jewelry, a porcelain menagerie, more than 100 dog paintings and even the uniforms of her domestic staff at a two-day auction that began Monday.

Proceeds will go to institutions and charities, including the New York Public Library and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, under a settlement negotiated by the state attorney general's office.
The collection had expected to fetch just $6 million to $9 million.

The sale concluded Tuesday evening with a selection of jewelry from Astor's personal collection. Among the highlights was Astor's emerald engagement ring, which sold for more than $1.2 million.

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Brooke Astor home auction fetches $18.8M in NYC

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Too Sick for Court?

The Astor Settlement: Anthony Marshall’s Friends and Family React

As the only child of New York’s beloved white-gloved philanthropist Brooke Astor, Anthony Marshall spent years preoccupied with how much he would inherit from his mother, who eventually died at age 105 in 2007. He envisioned a life in which he and his much younger third wife, Charlene, would not only live well but also have the pleasure of passing out the tens of millions left behind by his stepfather Vincent Astor, wielding clout on boards like the Metropolitan Museum.

But on Wednesday, Marshall, who was convicted three years ago of defrauding his mother’s estate, agreed to accept a settlement of a relatively paltry (for him) $14.4 million. Not only is this less than half of the riches that he expected, but the 87-year-old former ambassador also gave up all rights to distribute his mother’s charitable legacy. Since the four law firms that handled his criminal trial and probate fight have filed judgments totaling $11.6 million against him, he will not be awash in cash. “Mr. Marshall is pleased that a settlement has been reached,” his longtime lawyer Kenneth Warner wrote in a statement. “He is almost 88 years old and much prefers closure to an expensive and protracted litigation over his mother’s estate.”

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The Astor Settlement: Anthony Marshall’s Friends and Family React

Settlement Reached in Brooke Astor Estate Battle

Brooke Astor’s only son saw his inheritance slashed in half and had his control of the estate’s powerful charitable contributions stripped away as part of a settlement that ended a bitter, five-year dispute over the family’s millions.

The settlement, ratified on Wednesday in Westchester County Surrogate’s Court, also lays out how Mrs. Astor’s roughly $100 million fortune will be distributed: $30 million will go toward the creation of a Brooke Astor Fund for New York City Education, and millions more will go to Prospect Park, Central Park, city playgrounds and various cultural institutions.

The settlement, which exposed bitter splits in one of New York society’s historically glamorous families, was most noteworthy for what it took away from Mrs. Astor’s son, Anthony D. Marshall.

Mr. Marshall, 87, who was convicted three years ago of stealing from her in the later years of her life, had his inheritance cut to $14.5 million from about $31 million. In addition, he and his wife, Charlene, will not be able to choose which charities receive bequests from Mrs. Astor’s estate or how those bequests are to be used.

The settlement, negotiated by the office of Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman, is binding, regardless of what happens with Mr. Marshall’s criminal appeal.

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Settlement Reached in Battle Over Brooke Astor's Estate

Anthony Marshall Appeals

Brooke Astor's 86-year-old son doesn't want to go to prison for stealing from his mom - and he's using her words to try and reverse his blockbuster conviction.

Anthony Marshall's lawyers filed an 89-page legal brief with a New York appeals court Monday [4/18/11]in an attempt to get his 2009 guilty verdict tossed.

Marshall, who is out on bail, was convicted of looting his famous mother's $185 million fortune so he could leave it to his wife, Charlene, who Astor despised.

He was sentenced to one to three years.

The appeal papers attempt to refute prosecutors' assertions at trial that Astor was so out of it by 2004 that she didn't know what she was doing when she signed money over to her son.

"Brooke told \[a member of her household staff\] that Mrs. Marshall would be a very rich woman one day," the papers state--suggesting that Astor was clear-headed at the time.

The beloved philanthropist was 105 when she died in 2007.

In the legal papers, defense lawyers John Cuti and Kenneth Warner seek to overturn the convictions of Marshall and his co-defendant, disbarred estate lawyer Francis Morrissey - and want the indictment lodged against them tossed out completely. "This trial resulted in a miscarriage of justice," the papers state.

The lawyers claim that sending "an old sick man" to prison is "out of all proportion to the offense, even assuming guilt." They called the crimes "relatively minor."

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Convicted Brooke Astor Son Anthony Marshall Fights to Overturn Guilty Verdict

Mickey Rooney Speaks at National Summit

Elder Financial Protection Network held its 8th annual Call to Action conference and awards ceremony at Mission Bay Conference Center at UCSF.

Veteran actor, Mickey Rooney, provided an emotional speech drawing tears and three standing ovations from the crowd of nearly 300 representatives of financial institutions, social services, law enforcement, legal professionals and elder justice advocates. “I am here today as the voice of millions of senior citizens to tell you that ending elder abuse is of critical importance.” Rooney said, “No one ever thinks they will be in this position in their lifetime, but the statistics are staggering, and they paint an unsettling picture. Whether the abuse is physical, emotional or financial, it is an unbelievable reality that often sneaks up on you without warning.”

Philip Marshall, elder justice advocate and grandson of New York philanthropist Brooke Astor delivered compelling testimony and called for increased national collaboration to fight this growing crime. He said, “While my grandmother was emotionally and financially abused and isolated, her case is far from isolated; there are millions of victims, today, suffering similar injury.”

Rooney read the Call to Action Proclamation which calls upon Congress to authorize the postmaster general to issue a special elder abuse postage stamp; to fund the Elder Justice Act and requests that the President issue a proclamation declaring June 15, 2012 World Elder Abuse Awareness Day and to light the White House Purple on this day. More than 200 participants followed Rooney’s lead and signed the poster-sized proclamation. An online petition was launched at the event through the EFPN’s website http://www.bewiseonline.org.

Full Press Release and Source;
Actor Mickey Rooney Speaks at National Summit on Elder Financial Abuse in San Francisco

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Elder Financial Protection Network

6th Annual 'Call to Action' Conference

Philip Marshall’s quest to protect his famous and wealthy grandmother Brooke Astor from devastating financial abuse put a national spotlight on a problem that a recent MetLife study, Broken Trust, found costs American seniors $2.6 billion annually.

Marshall will share his story in the keynote address at the Elder Financial Protection Network’s (EFPN) 6th annual Call to Action conference and awards ceremony on March 25, 2010 in San Francisco.

This year’s meeting comes at a time not only of increased attention to the problem of elder financial abuse, thanks to the media coverage of the Astor case, but also one of increased risk of financial abuse of seniors because of the current economic downturn. These factors combined with the progress being made toward passing a national Elder Justice Act, could make this year a watershed moment for the problem of elder financial abuse.

Marshall will join 10 other speakers at this year’s event, which will bring together experts and community advocates from across the country for a day-long learning experience on the growing crime of elder financial abuse. Several hundred representatives of financial institutions, law enforcement, elder justice advocates and the legal community are expected to attend the event.

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6th Annual Call to Action Event to Spotlight Prominent Elder Abuse Case of Brooke Astor

Anthony Marshall Sentenced to 1-3 years

Anthony D. Marshall, who was convicted of siphoning millions from his mother, Brooke Astor, was sentenced Monday to one to three years in prison.

Justice A. Kirke Bartley Jr. said Mr. Marshall, who is 85, must report to prison on Jan. 19.

The sentence was for the most serious of 14 counts on which Mr. Marshall was convicted: first-degree grand larceny, for giving himself a retroactive lump-sum raise of about $1 million for managing his mother’s finances. Justice Bartley also sentenced Mr. Marshall to one year on each of the 13 other charges he was convicted of, to run at the same time as the longer sentence.

If Mr. Marshall has a good record in prison, he is likely to serve roughly eight months behind bars. He showed no response as Justice Bartley read the sentence, although his wife, Charlene, was heard to sob from her seat in the courtroom.

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Brooke Astor's Son Sentenced to Prison

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Tony Marshall Sentencing Today

Tony Marshall Sentencing Today

If come Monday, Judge A. Kirke Bartley Jr. decides to sentence Tony Marshall, Brooke Astor's son, to prison for stealing from his mother, by law the 85 year old Marshall will have at least one year -- and as many as 25 years -- in the solitude of a jail cell (or hospital ward if his health is as precarious as his lawyer says it is) to contemplate where things went so wrong.

The People vs. Anthony Marshall and Francis Morrissey is a textbook case in how not to defraud your incredibly rich, famous and beloved mother's estate if you don't want to get caught.

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The People vs. Anthony Marshall and Francis Morrissey: The Butler Gives Notice

Elder Abuse not Limited to Just the Rich

An Associated Press story in The Patriot-News, “Case highlights elder abuse,” (Oct. 18) discussed how aging and wealthy New York socialite Brooke Astor was exploited by her son, Anthony Marshall.

In October, Marshall was convicted of defrauding his mother and stealing millions of dollars from her $200 million fortune as she suffered from Alzheimer’s disease. This case is a reminder that seniors are at risk for exploitation and abuse and might be vulnerable to the very people in whom they place their trust.

This risk is not limited to wealthy socialites. The physical, emotional and financial abuse of our elders is a state and national concern.

With two million residents over age 65, Pennsylvania ranks third in the country in senior population. We need our seniors, and we must exert attention and vigilance to protect this highly valued generation.

How can we prevent elder abuse? Fortunately, many resources provide protection for our older loved ones besides relatives, friends and neighbors serving as the eyes and ears on the front line of defense.

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Elder Abuse is not Limited to Rich Like Brooke Astor

Brooke Astor: Park Avenue Poster Child

To senior citizens' advocates, Brooke Astor is a Park Avenue poster child for an insidious kind of financial crime.

They kept close tabs as the late philanthropist's son and a lawyer were tried on charges of exploiting her mental decline to raid her nearly $200 million fortune. An article on the AARP's news Web site called it "the most infamous case of financial elder abuse in recent memory."

Advocates and legal experts saw last week's convictions as a high-wattage signal that such cases, often seen as difficult to prosecute, can succeed — even if few others spur a five-month-long big money trial with boldface names.

"To lose this kind of case would have sent a very discouraging signal" to prosecutors pursuing elder abuse cases, said Thomas L. Hafemeister, a University of Virginia law professor who specializes in financial exploitation of the elderly.

There have been plenty of prominent court fights over claims that elderly millionaires were manipulated into parting with money.

J. Seward Johnson Sr.'s children accused his third wife — and former chambermaid — of browbeating the dying drug company heir into leaving her nearly all his $500 million fortune; the 16-week trial in 1986 ended with a settlement giving the children and an oceanographic institute about $160 million. Former Playboy Playmate Anna Nicole Smith's inheritance tussle with her oil-tycoon husband's son reached all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court but continues years after both she and the son died.

But these and many other fortune feuds played out in civil courts — not in criminal cases carrying the prospect of prison time, which Astor's 85-year-old son now faces.

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Advocates: NCY Astor Case a Win on Financial Abuse