Photo: Retired Intel executive Bill Chalmers says he was forced into bankruptcy because of a failed system that didn’t properly establish a budget for his guardianship during a town hall Thursday, June 8, 2023. (Photo by Evelin Ruelas/Cronkite News)
Health problems forced Bill Chalmers into a guardianship after he retired from Intel as a senior engineering director.
“I suffered from sleep deprivation, and I have something called nocturnal epilepsy,” Chalmers told a group of state legislators and disability advocates at a town hall Thursday at Arizona State University’s downtown Phoenix campus. “It causes me to have disruptive sleep patterns that contributed to my erratic behavior.”
Deemed incapable of handling his own money, Chalmers’ attorney petitioned for an emergency conservatorship – a legal status in which a court appoints a person to manage the financial and personal affairs of an incapacitated person or a minor. Chalmers’ conservator charged him more than $400,000 over 13 months for services and withdrew $288,000 from his 401k account without paying taxes on the withdrawal, he said.
Chalmers shared his story as part of a town hall discussion on probate reform. His was one of nearly a dozen experiences that detailed abuses of conservatorships and the probate system.
Gov. Katie Hobbs on May 8 signed Senate Bill 1038, which creates a probate advisory panel to identify abuses in the probate system.
But legislators and disability advocates said more work needs to be done.
SB 1291 is a reform bill that would bring sweeping changes to Arizona Revised Statutes Title 14 guardianship and conservatorship laws. If signed into law, it would ensure people are kept out of isolation from their loved ones, given the right to a jury trial and guarantee that they are informed about any details or pending action pertaining to themselves and their case.
Sen. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, who sponsored SB 1291, said the bill adds supported decision-making, which allows a person to decide who will help them make decisions. It is an alternative to guardianship where a conservator is appointed for them. Legislation enabling supported decision-making has passed in 20 states.
“The whole philosophy behind supported decision-making is that it’s not a binary world,” Kavanagh said. “In the world of logic, there’s something that’s called a false dichotomy where you say to somebody, ‘Should we do this or that’ or ‘Are you this or that’ because the person who frames the question controls the debate. In a false dichotomy, they structure the debate so that you can only choose between two things, when in reality there could be a third, a fourth or a fifth possibility that’s even more reasonable than the other two.”
Kavanagh said supported decision-making simply says that maybe there is something in between. The person makes their own decisions without any restriction, he said. The bill is moving through the Legislature. Sen. Justine Wadsack, R-Tucson, who moderated the event, said she hopes the bill will be ready to go to the governor in the next few weeks.
Sherry Lund, founder of 5-14 Protecting Liberty and a presenter at the town hall, said she has been involved in a probate case involving her son where a trustee took financial advantage of him when a probate court would not protect him or his assets.
“The truth is these abuses do happen and worse, every day,” she said. 5-14 Protecting Liberty is a grassroots coalition of residents who have experienced abuse, separation from loved ones, the loss of individual liberty, personal property, due process and finances in the probate system.
“My family and my son went through a living hell for over eight years in Arizona, fearing my son would lose his freedom, lose control of his assets and possibly not be allowed to see his family again,” Lund said. “Our family was attacked with horrible lies conjured up by attorneys who didn’t see any benefit in telling the truth or finding the truth. There was never any evidence submitted to the court to support the allegations of the petitioners.”
Wadsack said she plans to continue advocating for probate reform. She said she hopes to propose a bill of rights during the 2024 legislative session, which would protect the constitutional rights of vulnerable people, making sure they are informed about the probate process and that they are protected from unscrupulous, unethical and immoral predators.
The bill of rights would allow vulnerable people to live as independently as possible, have medical directives and durable power of attorney respected, preserve family relationships and give them the right to participate in developing an individualized plan for their care, she said.
2 thoughts on “State legislators host town hall on guardianship abuses and hear brutal realities of probate court – Cronkite News”
As this article mentions, more needs to be done to rein in the abuses of the guardianship-for-profit industry. I have some experience with this. My family has been a victim of the guardianship-for-profit industry.
A good source for information on this subject is the book by Dr. Sam Sugar, “Guardianship and the Elderly: The Perfect Crime” available at Amazon.com. I will be quoting from it.
From Dr. Sugar’s book: “When we hear the word “guardian,” it conjures up images of superheroes, champions, or protectors. It may evoke images of nice people taking care of innocent children. One thing it does not do is set off alarm bells. Thanks, in part, to these reasons, this unfair system has been allowed to go unchecked for decades. Mainly, however, the subject of professional guardianship of adults with assets remains under the public’s radar because it is deliberately being kept secret by the countless court insiders who profit from the current system. It represents a sizeable and steady income for a great number of people who do not want it publicized for fear of losing a cash cow.”
The guardianship-for-profit industry thrives on secrecy and wants to keep the general public ignorant of their activities.
From Dr. Sugar’s book: “Court insiders are experts a finding new ways to extract even more money and assets at almost every stage of guardianship. Many of these “tricks of the trade” are examined in Parts 2 and 3 of this book. If a family wishes to protest guardianship proceedings, the guardian may hire a defense lawyer, who will be fully paid from the estate of the ward.”
The system is rigged in favor of the guardianship-for-profit industry. The family can hire a lawyer at their own expense but they will be fighting a battle that they will seldom win. The crooked courts frequently collude with the guardianship-for-profit industry against the wards and their families.
From Dr. Sugar’s book: “There are attorneys specializing in guardianship law, paid by the hour to represent the interests of the guardian, even if they conflict with the interest of a ward or family. Their fees are accumulated and presented to a judge for approval. The money to pay a private guardian’s attorney comes from the assets of the ward.”
The role that the corrupt courts play in guardianship and probate cases has been understated in this article by Cronkite News. The article mentions that possible reforms including allowing the right to a jury trial. In the current system, guardianships and probate cases are handled in “equity courts” where the judge is also the jury. Judges can and frequently do rule their courtrooms like their own little fiefdoms. This gives the judges unchecked power which they can easily abuse. A jury trial would bring outsiders into the system (the jury) which would expose abuses taking place in the crooked guardianship-for-profit industry.
So what happens when the lawyers and their co-conspirators in the guardianship-for-profit racket completely drain the assets of their wards? They drop them like hot potatoes. At this point the victims become wards of the state and are shifted to public assistance programs.
For further information on this subject:
National Association to Stop Guardian Abuse (NASGA) website:
https://stopguardianabuse.org/
Michelle Malkin: Blowing the Lid Off Probate Predators
https://www.creators.com/read/michelle-malkin/06/21/blowing-the-lid-off-probate-predators
OC Register: Money Draining Probate System
https://www.ocregister.com/2018/09/23/money-draining-probate-system-like-a-plague-on-our-senior-citizens
Americans Against Abusive Probate Guardianship Youtube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/@americansagainstabusivepro2349
Unlawful and abusive guardianships and conservatorships are a threat to a health and wealth of our elderly or disabled adults — and to every American Taxpayer forced to pick up the Medicaid bill for those who are “protected” into indigence.
Fortunately, not all guardianships are abusive or unlawful; but when they are, there is nowhere to go for help.
NASGA (National Association to Stop Guardian Abuse) supports SB1291 and looks forward to more legislation to protect those who are currently suffering in a system which is more protected than the very people the system was created to protect.
We hope Arizona (and all states) will consider introducing and passing the Uniform Guardianship Conservatorship and Other Protective Arrangements Act: https://www.uniformlaws.org/viewdocument/enactment-kit-25?CommunityKey=2eba8654-8871-4905-ad38-aabbd573911c&tab=librarydocuments
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