U.S. Senate panel to investigate guardianship program practices nationwide

By Joshua Ceballos, Daniel Rivero 

WLRN Investigation: Unguarded

A key U.S. Senate panel has scheduled a hearing later this month to investigate guardianship programs across the nation and their role in managing the lives of tens of thousands of individuals deemed by courts to be unable to take care of themselves.

The March 30 hearing by the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging comes the same month that WLRN and Bloomberg Law published separate stories showing a lack of oversight and accountability in guardianships.

The Bloomberg Law investigation, In the Name of Protection, “explored the dark world of adult guardianships, where people placed under court-ordered control lose many of their rights while reporting to guardians rarely required to be formally trained or certified.”

The WLRN investigation found the Guardianship Program of Dade County, the biggest in Florida, sold 14 homes of those under its care to the same realty company, Express Homes, which sold three of the properties for profit within the same week — or even the same day. In two other instances, the properties were fixed up and sold within a year. The rest were sold more than a year later or are still owned by Express Homes.

The gains collected from those sales did not go towards the care of the program’s incapacitated clients.

Guardianship Program of Dade County Executive Director Carlos McDonald told WLRN that the nonprofit agency works with multiple realty companies to sell their wards’ properties, and does so with approval from the court.

Following WLRN’s investigation, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava directed the county administration to temporarily cease grant payments to the Guardianship Program and asked for an independent investigation of the agency’s sales of properties of its clients.

Advocates for the elderly and a former judge of guardianship cases told WLRN that the Guardianship Program of Dade County illustrates the lack of transparency of financial transactions and dire need statewide for more oversight of such agencies serving as public guardians.

The Guardianship Program, which is mostly funded by county and state taxpayers, takes responsibility for people who are declared "incapacitated" by the court system.

In some cases, the program sells the individual’s property so that the proceeds may go toward their care. County taxpayers, takes responsibility for people who are declared "incapacitated" by the court system. In some cases, the program sells the individual’s property so that the proceeds may go toward their care.

The Senate panel’s upcoming hearing in Washington, D.C., could lead to an overhaul of the guardianship programs nationwide, including Florida, and more oversight of its practices in caring for those deemed incapacitated.

“Guardianship is dangerous because of rampant guardianship overuse to abuse,” wrote Marian Kornicki, a New York woman who wrote to the Senate committee about her family’s horrific experience with the guardianship program in her state.

Kornicki later joined Victims and Families Harmed by Guardianship, whose mission is to protect older Americans and disabled individuals of all ages from exploitation by state probate guardianships.

Kornicki and other advocates had emailed the committee, urging it to hold hearings and citing the investigative stories by WLRN and Bloomberg Law.

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U.S. Senate panel to investigate guardianship program practices nationwide

Guardianship protections are inadequate

By Lorraine Mendiola

It is appalling that Susan Harris and her husband, Bill, formerly of Ayudando Guardians, failed to appear at their sentencing hearing in March.

Judge Martha Vázquez issued a bench warrant for their arrest, and they were captured in Oklahoma in April. They await sentencing for their crimes, accused of bilking clients of some $11 million. And the people whose money they took, and their families, still are waiting to see justice carried out — with little mention of restitution.

In New Mexico, vulnerable individuals under court-appointed guardians, in this case a corporation, lack adequate protection despite recent legislation being passed. Senate Bills 19 and 395, passed in 2018 and 2019, do not go far enough in protecting the rights of people.

Lengthening the annual report offers no accountability for the “protected person.” Providing a form for a family to file a grievance against a corporate guardian does little good — the judge who appointed the guardian decides the complaint.

There have been two recent cases in Las Cruces, another in Hatch and one in Santa Fe where a judge ordered what I believe were unwarranted guardianships. All four cases involved sizeable trusts. From my observations, these judges too often ignore the comments and supporting evidence of family members in regards to negligence, financial theft and other wrongs by corporate guardians. Yet it is the responsibility of these judges to ensure the safety and well-being of individuals who are placed under a court-ordered guardianship.

I believe judges who place individuals in situations where they are harmed by corporate guardians need to be held accountable. The judges should not be able to void wills, durable powers of attorney and other documents that should be binding. Judges should not be allowed to place “gag” orders on family members who report critical information during status hearings, either.

The courts do not monitor themselves, so there must be greater oversight by the attorney general, the governor, state legislators and state Supreme Court justices. Otherwise, the system — which I see as corrupt and failing to protect the vulnerable — will continue.

Lorraine Mendiola is a member of the New Mexico Family Guardianship/Conservatorship.

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Guardianship protections are inadequate

Florida Elder Affairs Chief on Guardian Complaints: We Dropped the Ball on This

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — In light of the ongoing investigations into a former state guardian's handling of hundreds of senior guardianships, the head of Florida's Department of Elder Affairs says action needs to be taken to fix the guardian program.

Spectrum News Watchdog reporter Curtis McCloud on Tuesday sat down exclusively with Elder Affairs Secretary Richard Prudom, who opened up about this investigation for the first time. 

He also shared concerns about a backlog of complaints against guardians in Florida that were only recently addressed. 

“We dropped the ball on this one. This will not happen again. This is a wakeup call, and we will actually do a better job,” Prudom said.

Prudom: We Need to be More Responsive

For weeks, Spectrum News has been sharing ongoing reports about embattled former guardian Rebecca Fierle. The professional guardian is now facing a series of state and criminal investigations. Those are focused on Fierle’s handling of finances and care of the seniors for whom judges appointed her to care.

Those same judges are now removing her from more than 150 cases, saying she abused her powers and had various conflicts of interests.

Prudom was apologetic, owning up to the mistakes he says his department made in handling complaints against wards across the state within the Office of Public and Professional Guardians. 

"We have made mistakes in our office. We have not processed these complaints as efficiently and quickly as we need to," Prudom said. "We need to be more responsive to the complainants and their rights. I take personal responsibility for that."

Prudom says there was a backlog of more than 80 complaints, which have since been closed out. 

In the wake of that backlog, Carol Berkowitz, the former director of the Office of Public and Professional Guardians, stepped down from her position in a one-page resignation letter.

“We have caught up with our backlog. We only have the outstanding investigations, and obviously, it takes the appropriate time to do that,” Prudom said.

The secretary says the backlog was discovered after an investigation was launched into Fierle.

Prudom apologized to those who have lost trust in the state's guardians because of the investigations.

“That’s the last thing I want to do is for them to lose trust in a program that is designed to protect the frailest of the frail, those incapacitated individuals who need our help," Prudom said. "And when the issue with guardian Fierle came to light, obviously I released the investigation to the judge who was holding a hearing to remove her from her cases.”

Fierle Case Exposes Oversight Needs

Prudom says the next likely action his office would have taken against Fierle is revoking her license, but she resigned as a state guardian in a letter to the secretary earlier this month. 

Still, many are pointing blame at his office.

“The misconception is that somehow we have oversight over day-to-day operation of professional guardians in their operation of a ward's supervision. We do not,” Prudom said.

Watchdog reporter Curtis McCloud asked Prudom, 

When asked whether there are oversight checks and balances as it relates to state guardians, Prudom said, "There is not, and there should be, and there will be.

"I think you know professional guardians register to be a professional guardian. There are supposed to abide by conditions of employment, standards of practice, and the judge, when they assign a guardian a ward, they expect those professional guardians to abide by those standards of practice. That is not being done. It needs to be done.” 

Because of state law, the most severe action that the Department of Elder Affairs can take against a professional guardian is to revoke their license. The courts and judges, however, can appoint wards to guardians — or, in Fierle’s case, take them away.

When asked whether someone is to blame for the wrong that has been done to wards, Prudom replied, “I don’t think there is any one blame, but I think it is actually a system that is not working the way it should. We talked early on about (how) these professional guardians are operating with no checks and balances. I think that is something that is obviously a system deficiency.”

That's a deficiency Prudom says he is working to help fix. 

Prudom says he is currently working with Gov. Ron DeSantis and his legislative team on a permanent fix to what is a flaw in the system with the state guardianship program. He says despite leadership changes in the Office of Public and Professional Guardians, his office doors are open, and he encourages anyone who has complaints to reach out to them. 

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Florida Elder Affairs Chief on Guardian Complaints: We Dropped the Ball on This