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Pinellas County Internal Auditor Robert W. Melton lectured at
Eckerd College in St. Petersburg on: "Dirty Tricks of Guardianships –
The Need for Change."
Here are just 10 of the "dirty tricks," as outlined by Pinellas County
Internal Auditor Robert W. Melton taken from Justice for FL Senior's
website:
1) Guardian creation of a trust: Remove all oversight by the court as a
provision of the trust agreement; guardian becomes trustee; provide that
the trustee can do whatever they want at their sole discretion.
2) Sell real estate at lowball price: Use "lowball" valuations as a
benchmark; don't list property with Realtors; sell to a land trust,
where nobody knows the beneficiary; watch property resold a few months
later for a huge increase.
3) Maximize your (or your crony's) profit from investments: Hire money
manager for "financial expertise" and let the manager select an
investment broker; invest in volatile stocks and trade frequently to
generate commissions; if you run up a large gain, don't selectively
liquidate over time to pay the taxes but hold a "fire sale" to raise
funds all in one day.
4) Undervalue beginning inventory: Have a used-furniture "friend" value
a house full of antiques for $3,000; "forget" to put some of the more
expensive items on the inventory; "forget" to include a $40,000
certificate of deposit.
5) Pay yourself first: Make payment of guardian and attorney fees the
highest priority; disregard mortgage payments and let ward's home go
into foreclosure; squirrel away money in the attorney's escrow account
for possible future expenses.
6) Maintain guardianship at all costs: Keep family members uninformed;
if family members try to become guardian, accuse them of stealing; use
the ward's assets for legal fights to retain guardianship.
7) Improper financial reporting: Bury asset-management and brokerage
fees as aggregate capital losses "due to market fluctuations"; don't
classify disbursements separately; file incomplete or incorrect
safe-deposit box inventories.
8) Forced incompetency: Visit assisted-living facilities and establish
employee contacts; obtain voluntary limited financial guardianship; if
there is money in the estate, do paperwork to force an evaluation of
competency; get control over everything and the ward loses all rights.
9) Pay your attorney well: Let attorney bill full rate to shop for a
computer and set it up for the ward; let attorneys bill their full rate,
even if work is done by a paralegal or assistant.
10) Forget to file federal tax returns: Ensure there is a refund; wait
till the ward dies; get check without oversight.
Guardianship abuse and conservatorship
abuse IS elder abuse!
(c) 2006 NASGA
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