I found Barney Brantingham’s column “Multimillionaires Living in Poverty” interesting because my mother, Patricia C. Rosen, was subjected to the same conservators network as Margaret (Peggy) Figg-Hoblyn.
Barney mentions how a court-appointed “attorney criticized an unnamed group of ‘do-gooders’ with ‘suspect motives’.” These people happen to be Peggy’s friends, some for many years, and myself and my mother.
Sadly, those who know Peggy best weren’t allowed any input by Judge Colleen Sterne in the March 15, 2012 court proceeding establishing Peggy’s conservatorship.
Those with suspect motives are the professional conservators, attorneys, and profit-making network who stand to make hundreds of thousands of dollars off Peggy’s estate. There’s a conflict of interest in having professional conservators in charge of our elders and their money.
The Public Guardian is a better choice.
When my mom was put under the Public Guardian after the professional conservators resigned, everything changed for the better. Unlike the conservators who continually portrayed her as going downhill, her caseworker treated her with respect and set her free. If only Peggy could be in such caring hands.