ProbateWatch.org

Probate Watch was founded by people whose lives and loved ones have been impacted by the probate court and guardianship system.

Notice: Our web site hosting company recently went out of business without notice. Please be patient with us while we rebuilt our site with a new provider.

“It was once said that the moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children;
those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped.”

Hubert H. Humphery

Guardianship Corruption

Laws for establishing guardianship and/or conservatorship have been established across the United States as a means to protect vulnerable adults and safeguard their best interests when they can no longer do so themselves. Unfortunately, corruption and conflicts of interest within the guardianship industry are leading to a rise in professional guardianships that prioritize the financial exploitation of seniors’ estates over their well-being.

Contrary to popular belief, these laws aimed at safeguarding vulnerable adults do not provide the expected level of protection. Despite their claims to prioritize the best interests of these individuals who are unable to care for themselves, the presence of corruption and conflicts of interest within the guardianship industry has resulted in a surge of professional guardianships that prioritize the financial exploitation of seniors’ assets rather than their overall well-being. Consequently, those whom these laws were originally designed to safeguard now experience significant financial, psychological and physical harm.

Many states have organized enterprises comprised of professional guardians, attorneys and Probate Court officials who have been operating for years, using corrupt tactics to imprison vulnerable adults in professional guardianships and conservatorships. Their main aim is financial gain, but the harm inflicted on vulnerable adults, their families, and loved ones cannot be understated – it is tantamount to human trafficking.

Many organizations that purpose to support vulnerable adults, are actively participating in forcing seniors and other vulnerable adults into professional guardianships or otherwise enabling and covering up those actions. Occasionally individual guardians/conservators are identified as acting corruptly and are removed by the courts. However, the systematic exploitation and racketeering still continues under the radar.

Industry Corruption:

These racketeering enterprises exists because of the efforts of industry professionals that have been corrupted.

Professional guardians are shielded against investigations of abuse of wards and mismanagement of their estates due to their connections within the Probate court systems and State Department of Human Resources.
Court officials, who frequently include attorneys with previously professional connections to the professional guardians they are meant to oversee, are not impartial.
Court-appointed attorneys, who are supposed to act in the best interests of their clients, often push for external guardianship, even if there is no verified wrongdoing by the ward’s POA or healthcare representative, and may not even meet with their clients beforehand.
The guardianship industry successfully lobbied for legislative changes that have enhanced guardianship powers and made it more difficult for families to get help, resulting in families being unable to protect their loved ones.
The industry works with insiders who provide false or perjured testimony about the wards’ capacity to support being placed under guardianship. These insiders include psychologists, medical professionals, social workers, APS workers, senior care facilities, care giving agencies, and other professionals.

Abuse of Rights:

Vulnerable adults are placed under professional guardianship and conservatorships due to actions that violate their rights as well as the right of family and loved ones.

Wards are often placed under guardianship without proper evaluation of capacity, leading to potential harm and abuse.
Wards’ pre-existing legal documents such as durable POA, health care directive, and estate plan are usually not respected, eroding the legal rights of individuals.
State laws which talk about implementing Least-restrictive means are not followed in practice. Instead, the wards are which fully incapacitated, robbing them of their autonomy and independence.
Wards are stripped of their legal rights, not allowed to testify on their behalf, and are not allowed to hire an attorney, which places them in a vulnerable position that is worse than before guardianship.
Guardianship hearings are designed to be intimidating, and many families give up fighting the guardianship due to the potential trauma to their loved ones and the financial costs.
If the potential ward tries to fight against guardianship/conservatorship, they are subjected to a trial where they are cross-examined by skilled guardianship attorneys whose job is to make them appear vulnerable.
Many times, attorneys that are assigned by the court to represent the ward, also work for professional guardians.
Wards are often denied the right to attend their own guardianship hearing, and in some scenarios, citizens are placed under emergency guardianships without their or family’s knowledge, leading to a lack of transparency and accountability.

Financial Exploitation:

The primary motivation for this racketeering enterprise is the financial exploitation of the vulnerable adults which are targeted and forced into the professional guardianship and conservatorships using the judicial system in willful and deliberate patterns.

Wards’ estates are consumed by excessive guardianship and attorney fees, leading to financial ruin and exploitation.
State expenses for proposed guardianship/conservatorship actions are funded from the “ward’s” assets, even if family members object to the proposed action.
Wards are often prevented from hiring an attorney by the conservator who controls all finances, and since they have been legally incapacitated by the court, they cannot sign a contract with an attorney, leaving them defenseless.
Conservators often sell off family homes and dispose of personal property and personal keepsakes without involving family members.
The estates of wards are often consumed by the guardianship system which forces the ward into Medicaid or other government assistance.
Guardianship firms use discord within families to justify escalated billable hours.
Family trusts are often taken over by the courts and placed under the control of professional conservator which continue even after the ward has passed away. There is little oversite on how trusts are managed which can lead to financial exploitation.
Once the wards estates are consumed, the guardianship/conservatorship case is often transferred to successor guardians with little or no experience.

Emotional and Physical Harm:

Another outcome of this exploitation of the vulnerable adult, is the catastrophic emotional and physical harm done to them and the people that love and care about them.

Wards are often forced out of their homes and into care facilities against their will, causing emotional and physical harm. For many, this occurs less than 3 months after the guardianship takes effect.
Professional guardians make all decisions for a ward while often rarely visiting them.
Family members who try to expose guardian misconduct are often persecuted with retribution, including restricted access to their loved ones, robbing them of their support system.
Guardians often blame family members for the ward’s unhappiness and use that as justification for isolation from family members, leading to further emotional harm.
Wards may be over-medicated to make them compliant, and their medical care may be compromised due to family members being prevented from knowing about current medical care.
Friends and family of the ward are often prohibited from discussing the guardianship/conservatorship with the ward, leading to further isolation and emotional harm.

Please take our guardianship survey:

Survey: https://probatewatch.org/survey/

If you have had personal experience with guardianship/conservatorships, we want to hear your story of how the probate court system has affected your life and the life of your loved one. These family’s stories and data are needed to expose what is happening to our vulnerable adults and help lobby our legislatures and state organizations to drive change. We need help to show the need for additional legislation to protect our seniors, respect their rights and show how existing laws are being violated. Our on-line survey is intended to help identify areas where there needs to be reform in the guardianship/conservatorship system. The survey is designed to collect statistics supporting the need for reforms and also provide details on how seniors and families have been affected. Your input is valuable to us and we encourage you to participate.

Survey Link: Guardianship and Conservatorship

Note: Our surveys use Google form documents. Some company IT systems block access to these documents. If you have problems accessing the survey, please try using a different computer, tablet or smart phone.

Contact us: ProbateWatchMN@gmail.com

Information on guardianship/conservatorship corruption that has been collected by many dedicated people. The goal of this web site it to provide a starting point that you can use locate a wealth of information that others have created to expose and educate you on the corruption.

Articles from BuzzFeedNews:

This series of 3 articles from BuzzFeedNews highlights how guardianship exploitation extends well beyond what is in the news about Britney. Several professional guardians are exposed including one from Minnesota who is responsible for many vulnerable adults but had pleaded guilty to domestic assault of her own son in 2004.

http://Beyond Britney: Abuse, Exploitation,
And Death Inside America’s Guardianship Industry They Both Fought To Break Free From Guardianship. Only One Escaped. M
y Human Rights Are B

Here Are 8 Major Takeaways From BuzzFeed News’ Investigation Into Guardianships

Beyond Britney

The #FreeBritney movement had done a lot to help expose the abuses by the guardianship/conservatorship systems. However, this is not limited to just celebrities with massive estates like Britney. Every day seniors and other vulnerable adults are being forced into court ordered guardianships and conservatorships. Most of this goes on without the public even knowing that it is happening. Too often families go looking for help after it is too late. People do not realize that almost everyone is at risk. We need help from everyone to share this information through social media and demand that our elected officials and law enforcement act to truly protect our loved ones.

Please listen to and share these links:

Deception of Protection:

This video produced by Teresa Kennedy, co-founder of Elder Dignity, explains how seniors and other vulnerable adults are placed under professional guardianships/conservatorships.
Deception of Protection: Anatomy of an Involuntary Guardianship – YouTube

Slam the Gavel:

Sam Sugar, M.D. Speaks Out On The Beginning, The Middle And The End Of Abusive Guardianships
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1364944/10246548

Sam Sugar, M.D., Discusses How To Prevent Guardianships, What To Do To Prevent And When You Can’t
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1364944/10310872

Sam Sugar, M.D., Sam Sugar, M.D. Discusses THE EQUITY COURT MEAT GRINDER
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1364944/10382476

Rick Black Speaks Out On Guardianship Abuse And The Exploitation Of The Vulnerable
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1364944/10804375

US Senate hearing on “Toxic Conservatorships: The Need for Reform”.

On Tuesday, September 28, 2021 the US Senate Subcommittee on The Constitution held a hearing on “Toxic Conservatorships: The Need for Reform”. There hearing was held by senators Cruz and Blumenthal and testimony was given by individuals with experience dealing with guardianship/conservatorship abuses including a guardianship victim who was placed under guardianship after an automobile accident.

Senate page with transcripts of testimonies:

https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/meetings/toxic-conservatorships-the-need-for-reform

Youtube Video of Hearing:

Exploitation by the Guardianship Industry

There is beginning to be more and more exposed throughout the country on how professional guardianships are exploiting and causing harm to the very vulnerable adults that they are supposed to protect. If you are able, we recommend you watch the following stories.

Brittney Spears Documentaries:

The New York Times has released multiple documentaries on the Brittney Spears conservatorship. They can be watched on the New York Times web site and a variety of other streaming services. Framing Brittney Spears

Framing Brittney Spears: https://www.nytimes.com/article/framing-britney-spears.html
Controlling Brittney Spears: https://www.nytimes.com/article/controlling-britney-spears.html

Guardians Inc.: (Netflix- Dirty Money series) This Netflix episode on guardianship abuse has been removed from Netflix due to a defamation lawsuit by one of the attorneys featured in the episode.

Trailer – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8a9fyAcM8I

I Care a Lot: (Netflix) While this is a fictional story and the plot line related to a family connected to the Russian mafia is not realistic, the first part of the movie does depict things that are actually happening to seniors by the guardianship industry across the country.

Trailer – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D40uHmTSPew
The Guardian Article: 99% Of the world has no idea

Edith and Eddy: (Amazon Prime) This is a true documentary about an elderly interracial couple that were married in their nineties after being together for 10 years. However, they were separated by a court ordered guardian.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kz_A8LqcNEw

Guardianship Advocacy Web Sites

There are multiple organizations that have formed across the United States with the goal of informing the public about the systematic guardianship abuse occurring across the country and help drive change. Most of these organizations have been formed by people that have personally experienced the abuse of family members or other loves ones by professional guardianships.

NASGA – National Association to Stop Guardian Abuse: The NASGA web site also has a “Victims” page where you can read the stories about many guardianship victims and also add the story of your loved one.

NASGA Website: stopguardianabuse.org

AAAPG – Americans Against Abusive Guardianships. Founded by Dr. Sam Sugar who authored an extensive book about how guardianships exploit vulnerable adults. Amazon: Guardianship and the Elderly – The Perfect Crime Dr Sugar has retired and shut down his AAAPG organization. However, an archive of his web site along with a lot of his information can be found at:

AAAPG Website Archive: aaapg.net/

CEAR – Center for Estate Administration Reform Founded by Rick and Teri Black after Teri’s father was taken hostage, isolated from family and eventually died under a professional guardian in Las Vegas. Rick also appeared in the documentary The Guardians.

Elder Dignity Co-Founded by Teresa Kennedy after her mother was placed under guardianship.

Elder Dignity Website: https://elderdignity.org

Kasem Cares This organization was founded by the daughter of Casey Kasem.

Kasem Cares Website: https://www.kasemcares.org

Coalition Against Senior Exploitation and Abuse

Guardian Abuse Cases: http://www.guardianabusecases.com/

YouTube vides on Guardianship Abuse

The Probate Mafia – YouTube

Blogs and Social Media About Guardianship

There are also numerous blogs, Radio shows and Facebook pages dedicated to exposing the exploitation and abuse of seniors and other vulnerable adults.

Boomers Against Guardianship Abuse:

Facebook Group: Boomers against Guardianship Abuse

Elders Against Guardianship:

Facebook Group: Elders Against Guardianship

Families Against Court Embezzlement Unethical Standards F.A.C.E.U.S:

Facebook Group: Families Against Court Embezzlement Unethical Standards F.A.C.E.U.S.

Marti Oakley/TS Radio:

BlogtalkRadio: Marti Oakley & TS Radio Online Radio | BlogTalkRadio

Guardianship Reform Advocate:

Facebook Group: Guardianship Reform Advocate FB Probate Warriors
Facebook Group: FB Probate Warriors

Murdered By Hospice

Facebook Group: Murdered By Hospice

End Fraudulent Guardianships

Facebook Group: End Fraudulent Guardianships