She told a horror story of being taken advantage of by a woman long believed to be a friend.
The
victim of a traumatic brain injury from years ago, she found herself in
need of help after her husband who served as her caretaker passed away
from kidney disease seven years ago. The friend offered to be her
guardian.
Over time, however she said tens of thousands of dollars were siphoned from her accounts by the guardian.
“She took $62-to-$63,000 of my money,” said the 67-year-old now being represented by Disability Rights New Jersey,
a state legal advocacy group that serves people with disabilities. She
asked not to be identified because of possible retribution.
Other
court-appointed guardians followed and she was forced to leave her home
after being involuntarily placed in long-term care, prevented from
making decisions for herself. Tax bills went unpaid and someone broke
into the vacant house, causing major damage.
Her story is far from the only one of its kind in New Jersey.
More than a decade ago, the state set up a volunteer watchdog team
to monitor the work of those entrusted with the affairs of elderly and
disabled people. In announcing the monitoring program in 2013, state
Supreme Court Chief Justice Stuart Rabner — who noted the rapid increase
in the number of court-appointed legal guardians in New Jersey — said
while most were caring and responsible individuals, that was not always the case.
“Unfortunately, some guardians have exploited the very people they promised to help,” Rabner said at the time.
Today
there are more than 37,000 guardianships in place in New Jersey,
overseeing more than $1.2 billion in reported assets, according to state
judiciary officials.
And
an examination by NJ.com of the number of cases red-flagged by the
court’s monitoring program suggested that concerns about guardians
exploiting others remain very real.
New
Jersey Judiciary officials said the Guardianship Monitoring Program’s
volunteers reported 694 so-called “escalated concerns” to judges in
calendar year 2025 — more than two and a half times as many in 2024,
when 252 were reported.
Those
issues in 2025 included nearly 90 cases brought to the attention of the
court citing “inappropriate, un-itemized, or unexplained
disbursements.” Another 80 cases involved inconsistencies in the
reporting of income or assets and 30 which found incorrect calculations
of fees or commissions.
There were nine reports of property sales without required court permission.
A
guardianship is a legal relationship created when a judge grants a
person or entity the authority and responsibility to make decisions in
the best interest of an individual who may lack the capacity to make
decisions concerning their living needs or property.
There
are no court-set fees paid to guardians, experts say. However,
guardians are entitled to take annual commissions from an incapacitated
persons estate at a rate fixed by statute.
Guardianships
are not typically a matter of public record. But they can come to light
when they involve high-profile celebrities, such as former talk show host Wendy Williams, or when someone blows a whistle on questionable dealings.
In
more recent remarks before the New Jersey Bar Association this past
May, Rabner said there are still “too many reported cases over the years
of guardians who commit acts of abuse and fraud.”
Rabner said 70 active volunteers review the annual reports filed by guardians with each county’s surrogate’s office.
“They
have identified and escalated concerns that might require follow-up
action,” he said. “Judiciary staff, in turn, relay problematic
information to judges who can bring guardians into court, possibly
replace them, and, in rare instances, report a matter to the
prosecutor’s office.”
According
to judiciary officials, improved reporting and data analytics
methodologies could be behind the increased numbers of escalated
concerns now being reported to judges.
Others who regularly deal with guardianship cases, though, were not so sure.
Attorney William Friedman of Gaeta & Friedman
in Rutherford, whose practice includes estates and trusts, said he has
watched the judiciary steadily try to put in more reporting
requirements, “which indicated to me even before Justice Rabner acted
that there’s a problem.”
At the same time, Friedman noted the population is aging.
“We’re getting more and more guardianships,” he said.
Among
the more notorious past cases in New Jersey was an attorney-guardian
who stole $2.6 million from nearly 60 incapacitated people and a
minister serving as a guardian who embezzled $200,000 from 19
individuals.
Nationally, the Senate Special Committee on Aging raised the issue of guardianship abuse in a 2018 report
that found some have used guardianship proceedings to obtain control of
vulnerable individuals “and then used that control to liquidate assets
and savings for their own benefit.”
The
committee said once a guardianship is imposed, there are few safeguards
in place to protect against individuals who choose to abuse the system.
It called for greater oversight. At the same time, it said few states
are able to report accurate or detailed guardianship data.
When
Rabner announced the state’s volunteer guardianship monitoring program
in 2013, he cited a national AARP survey that noted from 1990 to 2010,
“hundreds of allegations of physical abuse, neglect and financial
exploitation by guardians were reported.”
An AARP spokesman said the group has not revisited the issue in recent years.
The
lack of information on guardianships was similarly highlighted in a
2016 report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, which said the
extent of elder abuse by guardians nationally was unknown due to
limited data.
New Jersey Assemblywoman and Deputy Speaker Carol A. Murphy, D-Burlington, who chairs the Assembly Health Committee, said more needs to be done.
Murphy has sponsored a bill for the past three legislative sessions, A4224,
that would establish a guardianship monitoring program in Office of
Public Guardian for Elderly Adults. Under the bill, that office would be
designated as an “interested party” that must be served with the
periodic reports that must be filed by a court-appointed guardian.
The measure has never made it out of committee.
One
of her concerns is that a court-appointed guardian who is not a family
member has no personal investment in the ward’s well-being.
“You want someone you know is going to take care of you,” said Murphy.
The
woman being represented by Disability Rights New Jersey is no longer
under the guardianship of her former friend. But she is still trying to
recover from what she said was taken from her.
Disability
Rights New Jersey, she said, succeeded in finally having her declared
competent and she hopes to sell her damaged home, now worth far less
than it once did, and move into her own apartment.
“All the money that was taken from me is just horrendous,” she said.
