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*How to Recognize Inheritance Theft Cons Hiding in Plain Sight
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*Attention Grabbing Accounts of Real Inheritance Theft Cases
*The Types of Documents Cons Love

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Free download of "Stealing Home: A Con's Guide to Inheritance Theft

Cottage industry of guardians, conservators and caretakers can quickly drain estates

Editor’s note: Investigative journalist Diane Dimond, whose weekly syndicated column on crime and justice appears in the Journal, is preparing a book on the nation’s elder guardianship system. It’s a system designed to protect the elderly from the unscrupulous. But as Dimond discovered, it can be dominated by a core group of court-appointed, for-profit professionals who are accused of isolating family members and draining the elders’ estates. New Mexico is no exception.

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This is the second installment of a five-part Albuquerque Journal series - Who Guards the Guardians?

When a family dispute over what to do with an elderly parent winds up in a New Mexico court, the lives of all involved can change dramatically.

It begins when a lawyer representing a family member, often a son or daughter, who is seeking the court’s involvement files a petition asking a district judge to appoint a guardian and a conservator to take over the elder person’s affairs.

What many families don’t initially realize is just how much power these court appointees have over the elderly “wards of the court.”

During a 10-month investigation of elder guardianship cases in New Mexico, the Journal heard consistent complaints.

Family members who did not initiate the proceeding said they were shut out of the process and their loved one was almost immediately isolated by court-appointed strangers. These adult children of wards were stunned to learn their parent’s hard-earned estate was used to bankroll the entire process, a cottage industry of for-profit elder care service providers.

Fee after fee

Among the first bills paid for by the incapacitated elder is the hourly fee for those newly appointed to run his or her life. It is routine for a New Mexico attorney associated with this type of case to earn $300 an hour or more, a guardian and conservator about $200 an hour each.

According to lawyers familiar with the system, the elder – frequently pre-diagnosed with some sort of diminished mental capacity – also must pay for his or her own neuropsychological exam by what’s called a qualified health care professional. That routinely costs close to $1,000.

The costs for a court visitor, the court appointee who helps investigate the family dynamic, can run about $2,000 a month. Payments to one court visitor reviewed by the Journal topped more than $14,400. Initial costs for all these professionals add up quickly, and the appointees become inexorably enmeshed in the elder’s care.

Once those for-profit professionals are in place, they communicate with the judge about their findings and ask permission to take certain major actions, such as liquidating the senior’s stocks or moving the ward to a different living arrangement.

In some cases, the elder’s house is sold and the person is moved to a care facility, chosen by the court appointees. If they are allowed to stay in their home, they then must pay the cadre of support personnel the guardian and conservator are allowed to hire: in-home caretakers, personal shoppers, dog walkers, landscapers, pool maintenance companies and messenger or delivery services.

In one case reviewed by the Journal, a daughter of a now-deceased elderly man who became a ward of the court says her father was charged for both a dog walker for his tiny Yorkie and a separate service that picked up the dog’s waste. She says he also paid for pool maintenance for a backyard pool no one used and a messenger service to pick up his prescriptions at a nearby pharmacy that offered free delivery.

Several family members say supervision of the extra personnel is lacking.

“My mother was routinely fed a diet of McDonald’s and Taco Bell,” one woman said about her now-deceased mother. “Where the hundreds of dollars in groceries we paid for went is anyone’s guess.” She also complained that of the dozens of caretakers in and out of her mother’s home, “some fell asleep on the job, items disappeared from the home and some even wore Mom’s clothes. There was no one to complain to because the guardian and the conservator wouldn’t talk to me.”

The conservator handling the estate of a 78-year-old woman who lived on a ranch in Albuquerque’s bosque used her money to install satellite TV after caretakers complained the elderly woman’s television didn’t get enough channels. Conservator records reflect the monthly charge of nearly $90.

Nancy Oriola is the CEO of Decades LLC, an elder care agency that accepts court appointments to act as elder guardians and/or conservators and handled that case. She told the Journal that Decades hires various outside caretaker agencies and admitted that “from time to time, we may encounter a problem with an employee from an agency. But when those problems occur, we try diligently to rectify the issues.”

It is not unusual for in-home care to drain an estate of more than $120,000 a year. One attorney claimed the cost of care for his client’s wealthy parent who had been declared incapacitated topped $600,000 in one calendar year.

“The home care costs were absolutely unconscionable, insane,” according to this Albuquerque lawyer, who is familiar with the process. “The annual cost was in the hundreds of thousands of dollars for this woman to stay in her own home,” he said. An example he offered were the supermarket bills – “$400 worth of groceries a week … for a 98-pound lady,” he said. “That’s $1,600 a month!” (Click to Continue)

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Cottage industry of guardians, conservators and caretakers can quickly drain estates

See Also:
Who Guards the Guardians, Part One

Defining the players

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — It is important to understand the various players in a case involving an incapacitated person. Among the positions a New Mexico District Court judge appoints:

Guardian Ad Litem 

The court appoints an attorney to represent the person alleged to be incapacitated. They are present at court proceedings to speak on behalf of the potential ward and inform the court as to what they believe is in the potential ward’s best interest.

 

Court Visitor

This person is usually a social worker or for-profit care manager who evaluates the potential ward, determines what they are capable of doing and what daily activities they need help with. They present their findings about family dynamics to the court and make a recommendation on whether a permanent guardian should be appointed.

Qualified Health Care Professional

A physician, nurse practitioner, psychiatrist or a neuropsychologist is assigned to determine the level of mental and physical impairment and make a report to the court. In New Mexico, such a report is routinely ordered even if the elder has already been determined to have dementia.

Permanent Guardian

This person is appointed after an initial 60- to 90-day assessment to make decisions about a ward’s medical care, where they will live, what kind of care they will receive and who will provide that care. After hiring in-home caregivers, the guardian often relies on their firsthand reports about conditions in the home, especially family relationships with the ward. A guardian can be a for-profit corporation or an individual, such as a family member.

Conservator

This appointee can be a bank, corporation or an individual. The conservator handles all of the ward’s finances. They pay the monthly bills, maintain the ward’s home and property, manage the estate investments and make decisions about what the ward’s future care needs might be, ensuring there are enough assets in place to pay for that care. The conservator, working with the guardian, can also hire companies to provide services for the ward.

Caregiver

This position is determined by the guardian, who hires the necessary number of staff to provide the ward with in-home care. Caregivers are assigned to wide-ranging tasks, from providing simple companionship and light meal preparation to constant bedside monitoring with responsibility for dispensing medicines. They are usually provided by a company, which bonds the employees and conducts background checks.

Full Article & Source:
Defining the players

Who guards the guardians?

On the late afternoon of Jan. 8, 2010, Mary Darnell was in her small ranch home in Albuquerque’s bosque, indulging a cousin who was practicing her sales pitch for Ginsu knives.

Mary, one of four Darnell children, had moved back to the 17-acre horse ranch where she had grown up to become the on-site caretaker for her 78-year-old mother, Blair Darnell, who had been experiencing memory problems.

As the cousin wrapped up her cutlery presentation, Mary noticed several cars parked in front of the larger home where her mother lived about 500 feet away. Bracing the cold, Mary, then 45, headed out to check on her mother and see who had come to visit. What she encountered would change their lives forever.

In her mother’s house, around the kitchen table, sat a group of unfamiliar women from an elder care company called Decades LLC.

“All these people were walking around (Mother’s) house looking at everything, and I thought, this is weird,” Mary said. “They hand me a stack of papers. A woman named Nancy Oriola from Decades told me there had been a court hearing and (Mother) was being put under temporary guardianship and conservatorship.”

Mary Darnell

Mary said she had no idea what the woman was talking about, but among the group of strangers in the room she saw a familiar face. Mary remembers the moment precisely. “My older sister, Kris, was there, and I was, like, ‘What have you done?’

Unbeknown to the rest of the Darnell family, Kris Darnell-Kreger’s attorney, Gregory MacKenzie, had filed an emergency petition with the court two days earlier. In it, MacKenzie asked District Judge Beatrice Brickhouse to appoint professional outsiders to handle Blair’s affairs – both an attorney to act as guardian ad litem to look out for the elderly woman’s personal protection and a financial conservator to control her estimated $5 million estate.

MacKenzie alleged both financial and medical improprieties, primarily against Mary Darnell, as reasons for court intervention. A review of the court docket from that time period does not list an actual hearing being held.

The next day, Jan. 7, 2010, Judge Brickhouse signed an order granting the appointments MacKenzie sought. MacKenzie’s petition cites no law to substantiate the need for an emergency intervention or for it to be granted without a hearing. But the wheels of New Mexico’s elder guardianship system had been set in motion, and for the next 90 days three court appointees, including a qualified health care professional, were instructed to assess Blair Darnell’s situation.

District Judge Beatrice Brickhouse granted a petition to appoint professional
outsiders to handle Blair Darnell’s affairs. (Morgan Petroski/Albuquerque Journal)

Although the case was presented as an emergency, a full court hearing would not be held for nearly six weeks. Nontheless, according to court documents reviewed by the Journal, Blair Darnell was already being referred to as an “adult incapacitated person.”

On Feb. 16, Mary Darnell, two of her other siblings and their mother went to that initial hearing to try to understand what was happening. None was allowed to address the court to defend against the allegations made in MacKenzie’s petition. The siblings’ motion to remove the temporary guardian and conservator so they could continue to care for their mother was denied. At this hearing, Mary says, Judge Brickhouse received recommendations from her three temporary appointees and without speaking directly to Blair Darnell or any of her four adult children made the temporary guardianship a permanent arrangement.

District Judge Nan Nash, chief of the 2nd Judicial District Court in Albuquerque, responded to written questions from the Journal about the initial steps in the guardian system. Asked whether a judge requires a petitioning attorney to substantiate allegations made against family members, she wrote, “The guardianship petition is not taken at face value. The statutory framework includes precautions to keep that from happening.”

Nan Nash

Asked under what circumstances a judge decides the potentially incapacitated person need not be present in court, Judge Nash wrote, “Considerations include extreme physical or mental disability.”

Mary Darnell insists her mother, who she says was suffering from early stages of dementia at that point, was perfectly capable of appearing in court.

 Oriola, CEO of Decades LLC, which was brought in for Blair Darnell’s case, said in an email response to the Journal her firm provides high-quality care and defended the professional guardian system, saying it was created to protect elders from abuse by family members.

‘Ward of the court’

The legal effect of Brickhouse’s ruling was to immediately reduce Blair to protected-person status, a “ward of the court,” and strip her of all her civil rights. Blair Darnell lost her right to manage her own money, sign a contract, vote, marry, decide where she could travel, who could come into her home and what doctors and medicines she could use. Every aspect of her life was to be decided by court appointees who were strangers.

Suddenly, Blair Darnell had fewer rights than a convicted murderer.

“Everyone was being very quiet and hush-hush and scurrying around,” Mary remembered of that January afternoon she stumbled upon the baffling scene in her mother’s home. “And then they whisked Mother off because they thought my sister and I were going to get into an argument and they didn’t want her to be affected by our conversations. I’m, like, ‘Where are you taking her?’ And they said, ‘We don’t have to disclose that.’ ”

Close examination of the secretive court process that overtook Blair Darnell in her final years is both illuminating and frightening because it could happen without notice to any family with an elderly parent. It is a process designed to protect the elderly, but many New Mexico families say it does the opposite, draining hard-earned estates and often isolating seniors from the loved ones who are most familiar with their wishes.  (Click to Continue)

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Who guards the guardians?

In many cases, guardians meet a need

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Professionals who are regular participants in New Mexico’s guardian/ conservator court system say they are a necessary part of protecting the rights of the elderly from unscrupulous or abusive relatives and outsiders.

To be certain, there are many elderly people who are unable to fend for themselves, have no close relatives and need a court-appointed guardian relationship.

Ruth Pregenzer, whose law firm deals extensively with elder issues, told the Journal, “Guardian and conservatorships have grown up to meet a need,” a reference to the aging baby boomer generation.

 “We’re not living anymore in a society where families take care of each other,” she said. “Oftentimes, families are all over the country.”

There are many kind and trustworthy lawyers, guardians, conservators and caretakers who operate with compassion and good intentions within New Mexico’s elder care system. In addition, cases involving elders often include courtroom discussion of their mental competence and medical conditions that must, under law, be kept confidential.

As for some families’ contention that there is a cottage industry of for-profit professionals who control much of the business within a tightknit group, Nancy Oriola, CEO of elder care firm Decades LLC, told the Journal, “I believe that the professionals who refer Decades make a conscious effort to not engage in the activity you describe.”

“We rotate the work of all professionals we hire — be it attorneys, Realtors, caregiving agencies, estate liquidators, etc.,” she said.

According to a 2013 task force report prepared for the New Mexico Senate, there could be as many as 10,000 guardianships and conservatorships active in the state courts.

During an interview in her chambers recently, 2nd Judicial District Judge Shannon Bacon indicated the number is much higher now.

Referring to the 10 civil court judges who handle those cases in Albuquerque, Bacon said, “Eight of the 10 have over 1,000 (total) cases each.”

Full Article & Source:
In many cases, guardians meet a need

I-Team Update: Broken System, Call to Action

"I'm hopeful to still get her released, but I'm not deceiving myself either."

Two of her family members petitioned a Scott County court to make her a ward of the state and since then three of her daughters have been working to get it terminated. We've been following the tale of Pauline Williams' guardianship for more than two years.

But now, Williams' story and others like it have a pair of local lawmakers ready to help.

Mainzer and other concerned family members recently sat down with State Senator Wayne Wallingford and State Representative Holly Rehder.

"They were both very interested, very shocked at what they learned. And both said that they were willing to talk together and see what the pathway was”, Mainzer said.

"There are so many families in Missouri that are experiencing these same problems," Representative Rehder said during a recent interview on her meeting with Mainzer and efforts to reform Missouri’s Guardianship system.

Rehder and Wallingford will both pre-file bills in December that aim to improve the process. The measures would start by bringing in the Health Department on home screenings.

"It requires the Department to also have the Health Department come and present another signature,” Rehder explained. "So, instead of just one signature, just one person making that decision making that call to remove someone from a home, it also takes the Health Department to also come in, do an inspection, and say yes this home is unfit or unhealthy, or to say no it isn't."

The bills also put the wishes of the ward first.

"So, if I'm being removed from my home and I'm elderly and I say, well I want my daughter to take care of me, then the court has to allow that if the daughter is willing."

Rehder also questioned the process that has family members face the same judge each time they petition to have a loved one removed from a guardianship.

"I find it very concerning that family members who have the means to take care of their parent and are petitioning the court and getting it denied by the same judge. It seems to me there should be another path, another look, another set of eyes on that previous case,” Rehder said.

In the meantime, Mainzer continues documenting her mom's condition in photos and videos and facing more accusations of invading her mother’s privacy.

It happened at the Sikeston Convalescent Center last month.

"I had been taking video of her and I was approached by four staff,” Mainzer recalled. “And one of them had a piece of paper in their hand and said we have a report that you're videotaping. And we're going to have to report that because that's a form of mental abuse. And you're not allowed to do that in this facility."

Mainzer then showed me a copy of the notice staffers gave her. It is a notice posted for staff members, not for visitors.

“Each resident must be free from all types of abuse, including mental abuse,” it reads. “Mental abuse included, but is not limited to, abuse that is facilitated or caused by nursing home staff taking or using photographs or recordings in any manner that would demean or humiliate a resident.”

Mainzer believes staffers gave her a copy of their own video policy for one reason.

"To intimidate me, to tell me to stop."

We went to the Sikeston Convalescent Center to find out what the actual picture and video policy is.

We met with the administrator, who asked us not to use his name.

He showed us a framed notice just inside the front door.

It was the same staff notice given to Mainzer.

When we questioned him on this, he then gave us a printout from the home’s policy manual.

It reads as follows:

“Written consent must be obtained from the resident or representative prior to photographing the resident for all purposes except abuse, neglect or emergencies, and photography obtained for personal/family use."

The administrator said, since Mainzer has posted pictures and videos of her mom online, he believed she must have signed consent from her mom's guardian, Public Administrator Paula Scobey.

His staff, he said, should have given Mainzer a copy of this policy. He said they are doing their best to maintain Ms. Williams' right to privacy.

"She's been terribly abused. My opinion, as an advocate, she's been terribly abused," Carole Herman said of Pauline Williams.

Out in California, Herman's Foundation Aiding the Elderly filed a second complaint against the nursing home on Williams’ after dehydration and other medical issues led to two more hospital stays. Herman said Scobey should be doing what she's doing.

"Absolutely! She is responsible for Ms. Williams' care. I'm concerned about the state, and I'm also concerned about the guardianship and how Ms. Scobey is not living up to her duties."

Teala Mainzer's not giving up.

She's hoping interest in Jefferson City can lead to needed changes in a broken system.

But, she wonders if those changes will come in time for her 87-year-old mother.

"Time is not on her side. Time is not on my side. Time is on the court's side because if things are delayed, if things continue, then she will languish in guardianship until she dies."

We sent a list of questions to Public Administrator Paula Scobey the week prior to this report.

Does she believe Pauline Williams is getting proper care?

Does Williams tell her she wants to be with her family?

We received a letter from her attorney in response. You can read it here.

Source:

Broken System, Call to Action

7 Surprising Early Signs of Alzheimer’s Disease

Click

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7 Surprising Early Signs of Alzheimer’s Disease

Young Caregivers Get an Assist

Imagine you're a teenager. You want to hang out with your friends, but you have to go home, clean the house, cook dinner and take care of your sick parent or family member. It's a lot. You want to do it. You love them and you’d do anything for them. But still, you're just a teen  An assist here and there would be nice...

I'll help with your appointment.

I’m cooking tonight! 

I did the laundry, dishes and cleaned the house today.

I love you mom! I’m always here for you!

These are commonly heard statements in the Cuco house. Dianne and Tanya Cuco have been caring for their mom since her leukemia diagnosis in 2008.

“It was so hard. Our dad left the house one year before my mom got ill,” says Dianne. “At first, my older sister and I didn’t know what to do.”

They quickly learned to care for their mom even while they were going to school and work. Both sisters do housework. They give their mom medication and take her to buy groceries.

Tanya is now a college sophomore studying to be a radiologist. Dianne, a ninth-grader, wants to be a veterinarian or marine biologist someday.

“Hopefully I can do something bigger for my mom when I grow up, like buy her a house,” says Dianne.

Caregiving youth, like Dianne and Tanya, help their relatives deal with physical or mental illness or disability. This help is significant and often on a daily basis, according to the.American Association of Caregiving Youth (AACY), a support organization for youth and their families.

These eight to 18-year-olds often forgo their education, health, and childhood to take on the responsibilities of an adult caregiver.  (Click to Continue)

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Young Caregivers Get an Assist

Hundreds of local vets misdiagnosed in Veterans Affairs traumatic brain injury exam mishap

DETROIT (WXYZ) - In a letter, sent to 25,000 vets nationwide, the Department of Veterans Affairs admits traumatic brain injury (TBI) examinations between 2007 and 2015 were mishandled.

They were not conducted by properly qualified neurological and psychiatric specialists, resulting in not only potential misdiagnosis, but disability compensation claims that may have been unfairly denied.
  
"It doesn't surprise me at all," says veteran Kenneth McDonald, who detailed the trouble getting a diagnosis at Detroit's VA. "I knew they weren't gonna recognize it."

The 7 Investigators learning the Detroit region ranks in the top 15 nationwide for those affected - nearly 500 vets (485 to be exact) got the letter.

It has led to lawmakers on Capitol Hill raising questions.

"Do you think sending one letter to veterans about this is enough?," asked U.S Rep. Dina Titus.

For the VA right now, it appears it is.

We don't have numbers on how many of those contacted have actually shown up to get retested. We've also learned, vets have less than 7 months from today to do so and apply for benefits if rediagnosed.

"TBI is caused by trauma to the brain and can be mild or serious," says Rep. Ralph Abraham.

It is the signature injury of the Iraq and Afghanastan wars.

"TBI is also referred to as the invisible disease, because it can be difficult to detect," says Abraham.

Making the proper diagnosis, by the proper doctor, is essential.

If you are a veteran concerned about your original TBI exam, you can call the VA hotline at: 1-800-749-8387.

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Hundreds of local vets misdiagnosed in Veterans Affairs traumatic brain injury exam mishap