Guardianship Revisited

My sister Karen and I started trying to get a guardian for our mother over two years ago.  After months of effort and an incompetent lawyer, our mother did give a downtown Seattle attorney  power of attorney to provide Karen and I with quarterly financial reports.  The attorney skipped the June report altogether until badgered into provide both the September and June reports this week.

I am unable to interact with my mother without relapsing.  Some seriously painful childhood issues have been worked through so that I am okay on my own.  Talking with my alcoholic demented mother is more than I can handle.  Fortunately, my sister has both an MBA and a CPA along powerful advocacy skills.

I could see why he skipped that last report.  Our seriously demented mother inexplicably cashed a $100k CD and put it into her checking account.  Since then, she has had two check books stolen from her room.  A check was written for $3200 to “customer service” going to an as yet unknown person.  Her broker at Morgan Stanley is a parasite preying on a defenseless old women churning her for $20k in brokerage fees this year.  Robert Zorich is parasitic pond scum.

While I can’t interact with my mother in a healthy way, I sure as hell don’t want to see her abused and impoverished by those hired to care for her.  My sister served as my financial guardian years ago when I first got to recovery.  She did an excellent job never charging me a penny and never taking any money from me.  She is doing a fantastic job advocating for our mother in difficult circumstances.

I am grateful that our mother has the money to live in a nice eldercare facility, has allowed at least some legal oversight of her finances and has my sister to mind the minders of our mother’s health and finances.  The minders would have assuredly plundered far more without oversight.