Lou Ann Anderson's Blog (5)

When a cheater cheats soon-to-be cheaters out of services designed to perpetrate cheating, is anyone involved a sympathetic figure? A group of California seniors think so as they claim victim status at the hands of James A. Walker, an attorney who formerly specialized in coaching seniors on gaining Medi-Cal (state health insurance for the poor) eligibility while simultaneously preserving their assets. A lucrative revenue stream has been created for estate planning attorneys in California, Texas… Continue

The estate of Max Farash should serve as a cautionary tale regarding the real weight of property rights whether in New York, Texas or anywhere else in this country. After a 2007 declaration of mental incapacitation by a New York Supreme Court judge, a property guardian was appointed to oversee real estate developer Max Farash's assets valued at up to $500 million. While Farash, now 96, resides in a nursing home, his estate continues to be a source of contentious legal battles with two new… Continue

The looting of estate assets, also known as Involuntary Redistribution of Assets (IRA), can occur through the use of various probate instruments - wills, trusts, guardianships, powers of attorney - and with the actual acts configured in different ways. Guardianships or powers of attorney can provide for estate looting while a person is alive, but asset diversion can be perpetrated posthumously via wills or trusts. Whether these acts are instigated by greedy lawyers, disgruntled family members… Continue

A recent investigative report about Jean and Michael Kidd, a Texas couple whose lives are now controlled by a Collin County court-appointed guardian illustrates the reality of how Americans targeted in probate venues by governmental bureaucracies and tagged as "incapacitated" can be subjected to a loss of civil liberties and/or confiscation of their property.



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An industry exists in which lawyers, accountants and other unethical participants - sometimes with complicity from probate and other courts - can separate any of us from our property when certain (not that unusual) circumstances occur. These situations can also be orchestrated at the behest of disgruntled family members or wannabe heirs. Whether through the misuse or abuse of wills, trusts, guardianships or other probate-related scenarios, Involuntary Redistribution of Assets (IRA) actions can… Continue