Warning to Seniors: Rich or Poor, You’re Worth a LOT to Lawyers, Courts, and Service Agencies!
by Lonnie Brennan
In our prior edition, we briefly outlined how retired Boxford attorney Marvin Siegel had established a plethora of detailed estate planning documentation with the intention of protecting his approximately $9 million estate from predators, interlopers and other nasties.
Mr. Siegel failed.
He specifically failed to consider one important fact: At any time, a gaggle of lawyers, with the aid of friendly Massachusetts judges, can almost seamlessly have an elderly gentleman declared a ward of the state, and swoop in and begin to draw off his assets.
We’ve collected quite a lot of documents since last month, with details on just some of the billings of Attorneys Brian Cuffe, Marsha Kazarosian, James Feld, and others. Billings of sometimes in excess of $200,000 per year, and collectively resulting in the draining of millions from the estate.
The beef: two of Mr. Siegel’s daughters – one a lawyer – were named by Mr. Siegel to take over the custody of his estate in the event of illness, but instead, were cast aside by the courts, and others were given full control.
To the right, a few of the photographs printed here show the drilling of Mr. Siegel’s safety deposit box, Attorney Feld counting the content’s money, Feld and Kazarosian taking a break at approximately one-third of the way going through the cash and contents, then the pair packing things up after more than 4 hours and 30 minutes of documenting the valuables.
But this opening of the box and cataloguing of the contents was just one of many measures allowed by the courts to place the assets of Mr. Siegel in the control of court-appointed guardians for Mr. Siegel.
At press time, a further appeal by Mr. Siegel’s daughters on the draining of their father’s accounts by court-appointed lawyers and others, was denied.
Most interesting, Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly announced an award for Kazarosian, complete with a video of her, alongside an article terming the daughter’s appeals too confusing and wordy to comprehend.
The despicable actions inflicted on Mr. Siegel were not just directed to draining his lifetime of accumulated wealth. In an upcoming issue we’ll provide extensive details of how the state-appointees even terminated Mr. Siegel’s regular doctors and caregivers … stay tuned. ¨
One of the biggest problems of adult guardianship as practiced today is that no one is looking out for the ward (protected person) except family who has to litigate to protect their loved one in cases of abuse, neglect, or financial exploitation. Families often go broke (and bankrupt) trying to protect their loved one (usually futilely) whereas the guardian and guardian’s lawyers’ fees are paid by the estate. And as this case so clearly points out, a contested guardianship can be a windfall for an unscrupulous guardian and his/her attorneys. And the ultimate salt on the wound is that the guardian blames loving family for the dissipation of the estate.
A system so dependent on litigation to make the judge aware of problems is not fair to the ward and is detrimental to the ward’s estate. Guardianship was created for the noble purpose of guarding incompetent people and conserving their estates. Over the years, the good intent has been usurped by greed.
Join the national movement to reform unlawful and abusive guardianships and conservatorships. Join NASGA!
I found it VERY helpful to get familiar with http://www.StopGuardianAbuse.org and learn how the rotten guardian and conservators operate in order to stay one step ahead of them (even then, it’s still hard, they’re almost unstoppable, ALMOST). There are good ones, though, so if you have any say so and can find one and get that one in place, the ward is safe.
At Stop Guardian Abuse (SGA) are stories of nightmare proportions. I found them insightful in fighting a guardian, going to court (which is USUALLY unsuccessful, expensive, and makes things worse, but I was successful because I was a pit bull), and cannot emphasize enough to DOCUMENT, document, document!!! by email, letters, video, corroborating witnesses, recorded phone calls.
SGA also has a page asking for information — that’s all, just info — of people in various states, some with known titles of guardians or conservators. If you know anything about those people, it is SO helpful to contact SGA with that info.
File a police report. Contact every protective service you can — get all contacts documented, in writing or record it. Write your Congress person about any abuse you see. S/he may only alert Protective Services, and if already in court, there’s little they can do, but the words gets out and what if whispers in courts get around naming abusers?