Lawyer goes to Jail for Stealing from Estate
Lou Ann Anderson writes for the Bell County Michigan Legal News Examiner. See her article about an attorney who stole $800,000 from the estate of a now deceased client. More details form Danielle Quisenberry writing for the Jackson Citizen Patriot here.
Anderson says: "Using the probate system or probate instruments (wills, trusts, guardianships, powers of attorney) to steal assets is a growing problem. Many of these actions are fueled by a sense of entitlement, others by plain greed. Sometimes, as with guardianships, the asset owner is alive, but a person can be posthumously victimized by probate theft through estate planning
For more on this uplifting topic, see Estate of Denial - Shining Light on the Dark Side of Estate Management. Anderson includes a post about "Legal industry silent on Astor estate attorney culpability."
Since no attorneys or trustees steal from estates without adequate knowledge, jail may be too good for them. Society looks upon estate stealing as petty theft or sanctioned theft, but in fact, underlying ever estate theft is an elderly person exploited.
Allowing elderly to be exploited is the equivalent of elder abuse, if not actual elder abuse that most claim to abhor. So how do they get away with it?
Attorney settlements and arbitration committees slap wrists and send them on their way. Lessons unlearned.
Referendums in states to prevent theft and unauthorized use of estate assets is the only way. Recognizing that probate and bankruptcy is state and/or federal action subject to punitive damages and jail as felonies would do the trick. Selective theft is no better than a mugging.