GUARDIANSHIP is the 2016 Gold Medal Winner for Current Events II (Social Issues / Public Affairs / Ecological / Humanitarian) Excellence eLit Book Award. It's difficult to believe it happens, but forced guardianship fraud runs unchecked throughout the nation's probate courts. Deemed incapacitated by the courts, elderly citizens are robbed of all decision-making rights and assigned professional guardians whose only interest lies in profiting from their vulnerable charges' estates. Guardianship: How Judges and Lawyers Steal Your Money exposes a web of murderous profiteering, all sanctioned by a corrupt legal system. As guardians take everything they can, judges and attorneys turn a blind eye. Crooked cops harass family members into silence, while the very attorneys you hired won't help for fear of losing their licenses. These are the people who may one day control your loved one's health care, living arrangements, finances, and very life. Ostensibly created to prevent financial abuse by caregivers and family members, professional guardianship instead gave the legal system carte blanche to destroy lives-as author Michael Larsen discovered when family members tried to help a friend suffering under a corrupt guardian, attorney, and commissioner. Here is a guide for families to better understand a corrupt system, delineating what happens when a loved one falls victim to professional guardians, and offering suggestions to minimize your risk of what amounts to legally sanctioned abuse. GUARDIANSHIP includes articles by journalists, attorneys, advocates, and others who have given their permission to be used in this book. Our collective goal is for public awareness of this serious crime. "Outside of execution, guardianship is the most radical remedy we have." - Elias Cohen, Philadelphia Attorney and Gerontologist "Instead of serving to protect the assets of incapacitated persons, the existing guardianship system presents the opportunity for unscrupulous guardians to loot the assets of their wards and enrich themselves with impunity." - New York Grand Jury "You are a target because you have assets. You don't necessarily have to be very old. You can even be quite lucid. That won't stop these predators. When it comes to removing your rights and your money, these folks are experts." - Money Magazine "A simple slip-and-fall can put someone into the guardianship of unknown persons with no knowledge to family and friends until the deed is done. Forced incompetency; get control over everything and the ward (senior) loses all rights." Robert W Melton, Pinellas County Internal Auditor, "Dirty Tricks of Guardianship - The Need for Change," April 2004
Michael Larsen is a businessman whose family became embroiled in civil litigation regarding guardianship. In truth, the fraud, abuse, and court corruption should have made the matter a criminal case. After his family experienced the grief and fury professional guardianship fraud generates, Larsen realized tens of thousands of other families were experiencing the same heartache. He hopes Guardianship: How Judges and Lawyers Steal Your Money will increase public outrage against this common, court-condoned crime.
