Category: NEWS

No comments

Netflix’s Dirty Money Dives Into Guardianships – Elder Dignity

  By ,

Netflix’s Dirty Money Dives Into the Tragic World of Guardianship Scams Netflix’s investigative docuseries Dirty Money, which examines financial misdeeds, is back for a second season. And one of the show’s most shocking new episodes, “Guardians, Inc.,” tackles abuses in the world of elder guardianship, a system that controls the lives of an estimated 1.5 million adults with estates worth more than $250 billion—and that is rife with financial fraud and elder abuse. When older or disabled adults are found to be unable to manage their affairs, the state may step in and and assign them a legal guardian to control their finances and medical decision making. It’s designed to protect the assets and well-being of those who’ve lost the ability to make sound decisions for themselves, but it gives those appointed guardians near-total control over those in their care, and can leave elderly people vulnerable to those who don’t have their best interest at heart. As Dirty Money revealed, in states like Texas, guardians are entitled to earn commissions on sales of their wards’ assets, on top of drawing wages for themselves, assistants, and lawyers. Abuses have been reported for decades; in 2001, the New York Times wrote of one lawyer who served as guardian for senior citizens. He brought a birthday cake to one ward’s nursing home and charged her estate $850 for the visit. On another occasion, he took her to buy an ice cream cone and charged her $1,275. Journalist Rachel Aviv, who’s featured in the Dirty Money episode, wrote an in-depth examination of guardianship abuse for the New Yorker in 2017. Her story focused on Rudy and Rennie North, a retired Nevada couple who were married for 57 years before professional guardian April Parks arrived… Read More

QUICK EASY SHARE OPTIONS PRESS + FOR MORE
No comments

Elder guardianship: A well-oiled machine

  By

Marie Winkelman, 89, had her rights removed a year ago at the request of her stepson-in-law, and is bewildered by the idea that she no longer has access to her own finances. She has hired two attorneys in the fight to have her rights restored, and yet the case drags on with little end in sight. (Staff photo / Thomas Bender) At 89, Marie Winkelman has long considered herself a fortunate woman — even though she lost her entire family except for one cousin in the Holocaust, was widowed twice and has no children. Her brave odyssey from wartime Poland to the United States would appear to have ended happily, with a comfortable retirement in Sarasota. But Winkelman’s faith in a nation that had been kind to her was shaken in July 2013, when she was stripped of her civil rights and declared a ward of the state of Florida. Now, strangers control her life savings, her worldly possessions and her medical care. The court has ordered a trust company to cut checks from her account for some $635,000 to pay attorneys, guardians and others involved in her case, with many more expenses pending. A professional guardian receives more than $1,000 a month, at $85 an hour, to coordinate Winkelman’s doctors’ appointments, help with financial transactions and communicate with her cousin and a family friend — who both sought unsuccessfully to free her from a legal status she finds expensive and intrusive. “I pay for everything, for lawyers, for everything,” Winkelman says. “Unbelievable! They know that I don’t need any of their help. Not that I am so smart — but I can handle certain things.” Her case is part of an accelerating national social phenomenon that has plunged aging… Read More

QUICK EASY SHARE OPTIONS PRESS + FOR MORE