Elder Abuse and Financial Exploitation under Guardianship is Corruption and a National Disgrace

elder-abuse

Elder abuse and financial exploitation under guardianship is corruption and a national disgrace!

Lives are stolen; rights are stolen; estates are looted, families are ruined; extortion is committed; elders are abused and neglected — all under the guise of protection and the color of law in guardianships.

Please sign the petiiton — www.endguardianshipabuse.org.

ELDER ABUSE VICTIMS ADVOCATES are CALLING FOR AN END TO ALL FORMS OF ELDER ABUSE, GUARDIANSHIP ABUSE, AND FINANCIAL EXPLOITATION OF THE ELDERLY!

Guardianship Elder Abuse is a terrible, exploding, and silent crime. It is a crime that occurs under the guise of protection and the color of law and is one of the worst kinds of elder abuse.
Guardianship abuse occurs when people use a system setup to protect vulnerable citizens to steal their lives and their assets when they are powerless to defend themselves because they have been deprived of all civil, constitutional, and human rights in a guardianship.
This crime is perpetrated against vulnerable citizens because of pure greed, and it can happen to anyone because it is done under the guise of protection and under the color of law.

WE ARE ASKING OUR STATE AND NATIONAL LEADERS…WHY?

Why is it legal to abuse and rob the elderly in guardianships?
Why is it legal to force an â€œallegedâ€ incapacitated person into guardianship with an emergency or some other hearing without due process of the law where the ward is not present and/or not represented by counsel?
Why are our constitutional due process rights under the 14th amendment not protected in guardianships?
Why is it legal to isolate a ward, to over medicate, to chemically restrain, to sterilize, and even authorize an early death through hospice in guardianships?
Why do the advance directives of these dear elderly citizens appear to mean nothing? The designation of a pre-need guardian, a power of attorney, or health care surrogate are routine ignored in the incapacity process.
Why is it legal for one person (a judge) to give one human being to another private citizen (â€œthe guardianâ€), then walk away, and let that person have their way with the incapacitated person and their estate?
Why are there no jury trials?
Why are these wards of the State in guardianships not being protected by the Stateâ€¦ are they not wards of the State?
Why is it that when someone allegedly steals from an elderly or vulnerable person that the alleged victim can be sent into a guardianship instead of the crime being investigated by the criminal justice system and adult protective services? The victim is forced to pay for the crime in a probate court instead of it being handled by the criminal justice system where the victim doesnâ€™t have to foot the bill to get justice. Furthermore, rarely are the allegations of wrongdoing that create the need for guardianship ever proven in these guardianship cases. Instead, they are being used as an excuse to take over the life of the person and their property. Why do the American Rules of Civil Discovery not apply to guardianship proceedings?
Why do we need to have emergency hearings for guardianships when Adult Protective Services should be able to do their job and protect the vulnerable alleged incapacitated person until they can be afforded due process?
Why is it legal to bill tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars to a ward for services that do not benefit them in breach of any fiduciary duty and yet it is not called a crime, it is called protection of the ward ?
Why is it legal for a guardian to deny visitation to a ward, to allow them to be isolated from their community and their loved ones ?

GUARDIANSHIP ABUSE IS THE WORST FORM OF ELDER ABUSE AND MORE

All over America in our state courts everyday American citizens are being stripped of their civil and constitutional rights in some probate or similar court. Once in guardianship those with assets are loosing all of their property to perpetrators who have learned to use a system intended to protect to unjustly enrich themselves. The National Organization to End Guardianship Abuse was founded by a group of concerned citizens who have witnessed first hand the horrors and abuses of this legal black hole they can never get out of. Guardianship abuse is what happens when perpetrators use the guardianship system to loot a vulnerable persons estate while the neglect or abuse the person they should be protecting.

In order to be put into guardianship a citizen must be declared incompetent or more recently just have a diminished capacity in many States. It is so easy now to get a person put into guardianship that I worry one day when I cannot bend over and tie my shoes that they could say I am incapacitated and put me into a guardianship somewhere. Many stories in the media and victims accounts are surfacing where private citizens are being forced into guardianship for ulterior motives. AND that motive is greedâ€¦ outright greed.

Once in guardianship a citizen faces civil death and has essentially has less rights than a prisoner on death row. They are so powerless that they do not even have the right to be heard if they cry out for help and have no right to speak for themselves anymore. What kind of people would use a system that was intended to protect those who need a helping hand to instead abuse, neglect and for all practical purposes rob them?

Elder Abuse and financial exploitation is a crime that is poorly addressed in our society. But this form of abuse and exploitation, carefully hidden from the public eye and disguised as a form of protection, is being purposely ignored by the criminal justice system and is destroying the lives of thousands of vulnerable citizens and the lives of their family members. It is being perpetrated by unscrupulous professionals and private citizens in guardianships and conservatorships in and through Americaâ€™s State Courts. Under guardianships vulnerable citizens can be and often are striped of their civil rights, robbed of their property, abused, neglected and even hidden from or prevented from seeing their family and loved ones. THIS IS A TRAGEDY AND AN AMERICAN DISGRACE.

WE ARE ADVOCATING FOR AND DEMANDING CHANGE

We are the family members and friends of people who have been victims or guardianship abuse and we ourselves are secondary victims to this crime who have become Advocates for Victims of the Abuse & Financial Exploitation of Elderly and Disabled Persons that is occurring in guardianships and conservatorships in our State Courts and in the Community. Most of us have suffered from the ravages of legal, fiduciary and elder abuse in the Adult Guardianship system. We are here to create a unified voice calling for meaningful reform and real change to address the abuse and exploitation of our most vulnerable citizens.

Many family members are eyewitnesses to a silent and horrible crime being perpetrated against seniors and disabled people. Guardianships that were originally developed to protect have become a tool that can be and is used by perpetrators to get rich quick of the property belonging to vulnerable wards that has been entrusted to their care for protection.

We have heard hundreds of stories of abuse and exploitation and there is a pattern of wrong doing that is amazingly similar in every jurisdiction. It is time for the American People to stand up to the abuse of our most vulnerable citizens and demand action to end it. We Need A Guardianship Bill of Rights (click here to read more)

HOW DOES GUARDIANSHIP FRAUD AND ABUSE HAPPEN?

1. First, usually an unsuspecting family member files for guardianship at the advice of an attorney or APS who convinced them this is the best way for them to help their loved in need or it could be family member or friend concerned that an elderly personâ€™s assets are at risk who gets an attorney to help them file for guardianship. There are also cases were a professional guardian trolling for clients or a nursing home that may initiate the petition for guardianship.

2. Once a person is placed into involuntary guardianship they will lose all of their civil rights and essentially face civil death. They cannot vote, marry, contract, divorce, decide where they live, what medical care they can get, what drugs they can take or refuse to take and even if or when they will die. All of these decisions are assigned to a stranger in most cases who will run the personâ€™s life.

3. Most importantly to the perpetrators of financial abuse, the person they will protect looses complete control of their money and property. The Guardian or the Conservator gains full control over every single dime of money that belongs to the incapacitated person and they donâ€™t even have to tell the person that they are controlling their money or what they are doing with it.

4. This carte blanche handing over of an incapacitated personâ€™s money to guardians appears from many of the stories we have heard to be a key component behind the motivation to seek out lucrative guardianship cases of elderly persons with assets. It also appears to be the primary reason why many family members and heirs are not be awarded the petition they originally filed for. After all the heirs and loved ones would most likely object to the fleecing of the estate that everyone know is to come.

5. What come next are lots and lots of bills from attorney and guardians racking up enormous fees all to be paid from their newly acquired wards estate without his or her knowledge. The professional guardians will never object to the attorney fees that are higher than a kite on a windy day. The Judges are routinely rubber stamping anything that comes across their desk. So why would anyone appoint a family member to be a guardian when it is so very easy to steal the estate?

6. What is happening to the family members is equally damaging. Innocent and unsuspecting family members are accused of anything under the sun from being thieves to greedy kids to elder abusers to criminal all to keep them at bay and prevent the court from appointing them as the guardian. Hundreds of family members suffer for years from the litigation abuse in this system and from the character assassination and outright defamation, slander and liable that flies in the face of justice.

7. The trick is that the family member â€œhas no standingâ€ or that is what the Court will say so they must endure the horrific abuse that destroys their lives, their family lives and their lifelong friendships. Most friends cannot believe the courts are doing this and believe that the family member did something wrong. While grandma may be in a nursing home suffering from dementia and unaware of what is happening to her estate her children are being lynched by the Court.

8. Why doesnâ€™t the family member speak up more is a question that is asked. Well many do but the guardians have the most powerful weapon to use to silence the family members and it is a fact that many who speak up about the silent crime are ostracized by the court and denied the right to even visit their own loved ones.

9. It is this fear and abuse that silences the voices of many who would fight if they could until it is too late and their loved one is gone. By that time the family member is so damaged and torn up by the legal abuse and guardianship abuse that they donâ€™t even have the energy to fight back or speak out. Many suffer from post traumatic stress disorder and the aftereffects of the abuse and many can barely speak of the harm personally done to them and their loved ones. Others live a silent life filled with a silent killing rage and suffer physical and emotionally from the permanent scars.

WHO PICKING UP THE TAB ?

In the end it is the American Taxpayer (John Q. Public) who picks up the tab. Today when a wardâ€™s money is gone everyone including the judge knows that the taxpayers will not let that person starve to death and Medicaid and Social Security Dollars will be paid to take care of them.

In addition to the elderly person the heirs will also become a burden on the system when the inheritance they were counting on for retirement is gone. Many a baby boomer nearing retirement has seen estates that they would have inherited at least part of decimated to make rich lawyers and professional guardians. These baby boomers will very soon add even more burden to our already stress Medicare and Medicaid system.

This is outright theft and it is time to call a crime a crime and stop this terrible travesty and national shame.

The denial of justice, the denial of due process, the denial of 14th amendment rights, and exploitation must stop and the horrific legal abuse in the guardianship system must be stopped or we will all suffer immense pain and suffering in the years to come.

We as family member have united and we intend to change this. We will work hard and we will speak for those who have no voice. We will write to and call our leaders until they will finally hear and believe the horrors of this system that denies citizens their civil rights, that robs them of the property while destroying the lives of their families and loved one.

It should never take a battery of lawyers and professionals and tens, hundreds and millions of dollars to lend a helping hand to a elderly or disabled person in need.

WE ARE CALLING FOR NATIONAL REFORM:

We need National Reform and Legislation from our leaders in Washington that calls on the State to guarantee Justice and Accountability for millions of vulnerable people and their families. These people are being denied their civil and constitutional rights and due process in and through the Guardianship System Crafted in various jurisdictions across America. We believe that no-one should be denied their 14th Amendment Rights and the right to their property and due process just because they are old and need a helping hand. Guardianships must be abolished until they can get it right and we have rights and laws that protect and do not harm.

YOU CAN HELP

Join our group and be part of the voice for change.

Read about some of the changes we believe are needed HERE

Sign our petition at www.endguardianshipabuse.org

CHANGES NEEDED:

Ensure that ALL other options for the care of the person and their property have been exhausted before a guardianship can be ordered

Ensure when a family member is willing and able to care for their loved one that they be recognized as the surrogate decision maker unless they have a felony record or are under criminal investigation and no guardianship will need to be ordered.
Ensure that no human being can be placed into guardianship just because they have some incapacity or diminished capacity where other protections through family, friends or APS.
Ensure that unless a person has been legally found to be mentally incompetent by mental health professionals they should not be put into guardianship even then only after the family is afforded the opportunity to seek a second opinion by a physician of their choosing.
Ensure that there is an immediate moratorium on all plenary guardians and all emergency guardianships. Any guardianship that strips human rights should be crafted with details delineated each specific area of incompetency remedies. There should never be an emergency that warrants removal of all rights. APS should be involved to protect the incompetent person until they and their loved ones can get due process.
If a person is not mentally incompetent and has some diminished capacity then we need some other method for surrogate decision making first by any willing family member or friend and only if none is available the an appointed agency or person charged with assisting the person with decision making in the area of incapacity.
Guarantee that any interested family member or friend is notified in advance of any guardianship being ordered and that they are given an opportunity to be heard in Court before a loved one is put into Guardianship. Ensure due process for the ward as well as the family members and friends throughout guardianship litigation.
Any living trust, power of attorney and other advanced planning documents must be honored and may not be overridden unless the persons involved have been indicted by a grand jury and convicted of a felony.
Honors family members and friends as the defacto guardians in all cases wherever possible. Ensure that Family and heirs have full visibility to the accounting.
Ensure that family members are never denied visitation or knowledge about the whereabouts of their family members.
Provide restitution to family and friends who are abused by the legal professionals and guardians in adult guardianships.

Attribution: National Organization To Stop Elder Abuse and Guardianship Abuse

William M. Windsor

I, William M. Windsor, am not an attorney. This website expresses my OPINIONS. The comments of visitors or guest authors to the website are their opinions and do not therefore reflect my opinions. Anyone mentioned by name in any article is welcome to file a response. This website does not provide legal advice. I do not give legal advice. I do not practice law. This website is to expose government corruption, law enforcement corruption, political corruption, and judicial corruption. Whatever this website says about the law is presented in the context of how I or others perceive the applicability of the law to a set of circumstances if I (or some other author) was in the circumstances under the conditions discussed. Despite my concerns about lawyers in general, I suggest that anyone with legal questions consult an attorney for an answer, particularly after reading anything on this website. The law is a gray area at best. Please read our Legal Notice and Terms.

{jcomments on}