Category Archives: Guardianship
How Does Guardianship Work In Florida?
Quite simply, guardians act on behalf of people who, normally due to a disability, cannot act for themselves. Age, either extreme youth (under 18) or extreme age, is the most common guardianship disability. A guardian controls a person’s person or property, and sometimes both person and property. Any Florida resident who meets certain legal… Read More »
How Can You Tell Whether Seniors Are Capable Of Understanding Their Own Decisions?
Much of estate planning is an effort to avoid the things you fear, and one of the scariest parts of aging is losing the ability to make sound decisions or, even worse, knowing full well the implications of your decisions but having a court decide that you have lost your legal status as an… Read More »
How To Avoid Shady Guardians: Choose Someone You Trust
The idea of giving up control of your financial decisions because you are too ill to make these decisions on your own is scary, but no estate plan is complete until you have chosen someone that you wish the court to appoint as your legal guardian if you ever need one. If, while you… Read More »
Guardianships Can Protect Your Elderly Family Members From Financial Abuse
Forming friendships late in life can be a beautiful thing. Perhaps you saw your own grandmother become more social after your grandfather died, attending church choir practice several times per week and meeting her friends at restaurants for lunch, having more fun than she had had since the days when your grandfather was still… Read More »
Family Members Feud Over Cosmetology Tycoon’s Guardianship Fees
No matter how much money you save and invest during your working years, no matter how modestly you live after retirement, and no matter how big an estate you leave when you die, it can all go to waste if your family members spend it all on legal battles against each other during probate. … Read More »
Florida Hospitals Found Applying for Massive Numbers of Guardianships for Their Patients, seeking to Strip Away Their Rights
On October 21, ABC Action News broke news on an undercover investigation here in Florida involving a number of hospitals in Florida—including Miami, Naples, Orlando, West Palm Beach, and other cities—paying private attorneys to file hundreds of court petitions to place a number of their patients into guardianships. Specifically, the investigation found that hospitals… Read More »
Investigation Finds That Florida’s Court-Appointed Guardianship System Is Corrupt
According to a new investigation released by ABC Action News, court-appointed guardians are very rarely held accountable by the state agency in charge—the Office of Public and Professional Guardians (“the Office”)—when they commit serious violations. Since it was established, the Office has reportedly handed out less than 20 warning letters related to actions such… Read More »