Guardianship. Abolish. Intervention. Now.

Victims and Families Harmed By Guardianship

Welcome to G.A.I.N., our website of victims and families harmed by guardianship. We are a human rights coalition of groups and individuals united by the common purpose of sounding the alarm about guardianship which has turned on ordinary citizens. We are united to protect vulnerable and disabled citizens from isolation, sedation and financial ruin by the New York state supreme and probate courts which are being used as a racketeering enterprise.

What is Guardianship?

Latest Article Published in the Epoch Times

Family Members Say Wards of the State Lost Rights and Assets Under Guardianship

Probate Court judges and the guardians they appoint have wide-ranging authority over a ward’s life and can even ignore a ward’s advance directives.
By Michael Clements | December 15, 2024 Updated: December 16, 2024

Marian Kornicki looks through old family photos at her home in Roslyn Heights, N.Y., on Dec. 6, 2024. Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times

NEW YORK—Marian Kornicki turned to the state after her sister stole $3.5 million from her parents, Manny and Bertha Kornicki. She hoped state officials would stop the theft, perhaps even get some of the money back.

More than six years after her parents died and her sister pled guilty to misdemeanor theft as part of a plea agreement, Kornicki is fighting to keep what’s left of her family’s estate.

Kornicki and others say court-appointed guardians, who are meant to care for people deemed by a court as incapacitated, have exploited families in turmoil, isolated the incapacitated, and drained their assets, leaving little or nothing for their heirs.

Kornicki said she and her father went to court, hoping their rights would be protected, but that didn’t happen.

“That was the beginning of what’s been a terrible, terrible nightmare,” Kornicki told The Epoch Times.

Supporters of court-ordered guardianship acknowledge there are bad actors but say they are the exception, not the rule. They say the majority of guardianships protect vulnerable individuals from exploitation by those who would take advantage of them.

Kornicki said her mother’s estate—from which Kornicki’s sister once stole $3.5 million—is now so depleted that one of her mother’s last legal guardians is petitioning the court for permission to sell the family home.

Deborah Rosenthal is a Great Neck, New York lawyer who was appointed guardian over Bertha Kornicki’s property. The court has ordered the house to be turned over to Kornicki. However, years of litigation, medical bills, taxes, and other expenses, including guardians’ fees, have drained the estate, Kornicki said.

Rosenthal appeared to confirm the estate’s financial issues in court records provided to The Epoch Times by Kornicki.

Marian Kornicki at her home in Roslyn Heights, N.Y., on Dec. 6, 2024. Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times

“The assets that I am holding for Bertha Kornicki are not adequate to pay her debts,” reads a March 2, 2018, letter from Rosenthal to Judge Arthur Diamond of the Supreme Court of Nassau County, New York.

Kornicki’s parents, Manny and Bertha Kornicki, were Holocaust survivors who married in a displaced persons camp in Germany after World War II. They emigrated to the United States in 1950, settling first in the Bronx and then in Flushing, New York.

They opened a successful bakery and invested in real estate.

In the 1970s, their oldest daughter, Marian Kornicki, moved to California to pursue a career in the recording industry. Her parents didn’t understand her departure from family tradition.

“They were just so upset, so upset that I didn’t stay in New York and get married,” Kornicki said.

While she was away, her sister, Terri Kornicki Kaminer, went to work for her father as an accountant. Kornicki said that in 2003, her father asked her to come back to New York because he had found evidence that Kaminer was stealing from him.

According to court documents, in 1998, Kaminer convinced Bertha, who had Alzheimer’s disease, to grant her a power of attorney. Kaminer then transferred millions of dollars of her parents’ cash and assets into her name and the names of her family and friends.

In 2005, Kornicki and her father planned to file criminal charges, but an estate attorney recommended that they file for guardianship over Bertha. The Kornickis thought they would be appointed Bertha’s guardians. But that was not to be.

Instead, the court appointed an attorney as Bertha’s guardian. Kornicki said her father became disillusioned by the legal process that took away his life partner’s rights instead of granting the requests of those who loved her.

“He told me he would never go back [to court],” Kornicki said. “And he never did.”
According to Kornicki, between 2005 and 2018, her mother’s estate paid $1.8 million to lawyers, accountants, guardians, courts, and others involved in her case.

A photo of Manny and Bertha Kornicki, Marian Kornicki’s parents, at her home in Roslyn Heights, N.Y., on Dec. 6, 2024. Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times

She said the guardians took control of every aspect of her mother’s life. Kornicki was eventually appointed guardian over her mother’s person, but the court remained firmly in control of everything else, she said. Kornicki’s every action was scrutinized by the guardian over her estate.

She said her mother’s estate was charged up to $400 per hour for a guardian to review telephone, grocery, and other routine expenses before authorizing Kornicki to pay the bills.

“All of these people took control of everything,” Kornicki said. “They did exactly what my sister did.”

Sandra Bussel is an attorney and CPA who was one of Bertha’s first court-appointed guardians.

According to an online biography, she specializes in trusts, estates, guardianships, Medicaid planning, and real estate.

At the time of her appointment, she was in private practice in Great Neck, New York. Bussel declined to comment for this story. In a Nov. 11, 2011 letter to Kornicki, Bussell stated that Kornicki may not have understood a guardian’s role or how guardians are compensated.

“It appears to me that you are laboring under the misconception that this Guardianship action focuses only in the recovery of assets [stolen by Kaminer],” the letter states. “Note that this action also focuses in the management of your mother’s assets, and it is my duty and responsibility to make sure that [Bertha’s] assets are well administered and that all expenses are made for the benefit of [Bertha] only.”

Marian Kornicki looks through old family photos at her home in Roslyn Heights, N.Y., on Dec. 6, 2024. Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times

Marian Kornicki looks at a photo of herself and her mother Bertha Kornicki, at her home in Roslyn Heights, N.Y., on Dec. 6, 2024. Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times

In a June 2015 filing, Bussell told the court that her focus was on “managing [Bertha’s] assets and marshaling those assets missing, meeting regularly with investment advisors, preparing annual accounting and keeping track of expenses, review and question her tax returns and make corrections with her accountant as needed.”

Rick Black is co-director of the Center for Estate Administration Reform. He and his wife, Terri, founded the organization in 2014 after a neighbor allegedly stole $220,000 from Terri’s disabled father.

Black said that when the family discovered the theft, the neighbor filed for guardianship of his father-in-law and nearly won. It was then that Black learned that anyone can file for guardianship over an individual. A neighbor, a family member, or even a stranger can become a guardian by convincing a judge that the potential ward is incapacitated and the person asking to be guardian is the best choice to care for them.

He said the first family court hearing was an eye-opening experience. Black said he realized early in the process that his father-in-law was losing his rights.

“It took 10 minutes to realize something’s amiss here,” Black told The Epoch Times. “It was very obvious this was organized.”

The exact number of Americans placed under guardianship each year is unclear. Each state operates its own probate court. There is no standard method of keeping track of cases. Each state probate court operates differently.

Some states collect data but have no means of tracking it. Other states collect no information at all. What is certain is that once a person is declared a ward of the state, they lose most, if not all, of their rights.

Black said his father-in-law had a will and advanced directives and had spoken to his family about his wishes, but it was all to no avail. The probate judge is free to disregard all of it, defer to the advice of the guardian, or make his or her independent ruling.

The conservatorship for Bertha Bernal of Orange County, California, was also illustrative of the authority a conservator has over the conservatee.

According to documents from the Orange County Superior Court, Bernal’s conservator controlled everything from her medical care to whether she got any visitors, “regardless of whether the conservatee consents.”

Marian Kornicki looks at old family photos in what used to be her parents' bedroom, at her home in Roslyn Heights, N.Y., on Dec. 6, 2024. Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times

The order also revoked all powers of attorney for finances that Bernal had issued.

In some cases, guardianship duties are divided between a “guardian over the person,” who controls the ward’s physical needs, including diet, medical care, exercise, and other personal matters, and a “guardian over the property,” who controls the ward’s assets.

The guardian’s fees, medical expenses, and other costs are taken from the ward’s assets. A guardian can buy, sell, or invest in the ward’s name. This includes selling a ward’s home to cover expenses, as Bertha Kornicki’s guardian has indicated she wants to do.

According to Black, probate court is not like criminal or civil courts. Probate is an “equity court” that deals mainly with domestic issues such as divorce, estate settlements, adoptions, and other family issues.

Judges in these courts have greater latitude in their decision-making, because they often deal with issues such as division of property that may not be clearly defined in the law. And since they are local courts, federal courts have no jurisdiction to hear appeals.

This means fewer possibilities of a judge’s ruling being overturned.

Detractors of guardianship say this has created an ideal environment for those seeking to enrich themselves.

“Because [probate court] has no oversight, because there [are] no penalties for this function, it becomes an environment that serves insiders at the expense of the law and the public,” Black said.

However, representatives of the guardian industry say that cases such as those of Kornicki and Black are anecdotal.

Shannon Butler is president of the National Guardianship Association (NGA). She agrees that there are many examples of abuses of the guardianship process and says the NGA is working for reform. “We’re not here to defend bad guardians,” Butler told The Epoch Times.

According to its website, the NGA was formed in 1988 in Chicago to represent professional guardians. In 1997, the NGA board formed the Center for Guardian Certification (CGC).

Since then, the NGA has written ethics policies and standards of care for its members. The CGC devises and administers the certification process for professional guardians. Butler said NGA is working to get its policies and certification processes implemented nationally.

According to Butler, most states require at least a background check for a person to be appointed a guardian. Four states—Washington, Florida, California, and Texas—require certification.

Butler, a certified guardian herself, said the solution to abusive guardianships is transparency.

“I guess I try to be as transparent as possible,” Butler said.

She said it’s challenging to find wards who are happy with their guardianship experiences. But some wards come to appreciate their guardians.

Kerry Gerber with her dog Riley at her home in Buffalo, Minn., on Nov. 25, 2024. Tim Gruber for The Epoch Times

Visitors to the rural Minnesota group home where Kerry Gerber lives are greeted by chickens and a Irish Setter who will drop a toy at the visitors’ feet and look up expectantly.

“She’s really friendly,” Gerber explains.

Gerber is one of Butler’s former wards. She’s a bespectacled young woman who loves her job, her dog, and being able to live on her own after a chaotic and sometimes violent childhood.

Gerber became a ward of the state at 8 years old. She and four siblings were born to parents struggling with drug and alcohol issues. By the time she aged out of the system in 2013, she had been in 24 different foster homes and several failed attempts to reunite with her parents.

She said one foster family made her sleep in a bathtub with no linens or pillows if she misbehaved.

Gerber blames the state for the physical and emotional abuse she and her siblings suffered.

“They failed to keep us safe,” Gerber said.

Butler said that when she was appointed Gerber’s guardian, she met a hardened young woman who trusted no one and didn’t want to be told what to do. But by being open and firm with her new ward, Butler said she was able to earn her trust and teach her how to her make her own decisions.

“We did go through some hard patches,” Gerber said. “She became like a mother figure to me because my mom wasn’t there.”

Kerry Gerber holds a photo of her (L) with her half siblings when they were kids. Tim Gruber for The Epoch Times

According to Butler, the NGA is working with state leaders on guardianship reform. In addition to promoting NGA’s own Standards of Practice, the organization is promoting recommendations adopted during the Fourth National Guardianship Summit in May 2021 and pushing states to pass the Uniform Guardianship, Conservatorship, and Other Protective Arrangements Act.

Both measures call for greater accountability and oversight of guardians and outline the ward’s rights, including decision-making, receiving adequate publicly funded legal counsel if they can’t afford to pay and the adoption of tailored guardianships to ensure wards retain as many rights as possible.

Under a tailored guardianship, the guardian’s authority is limited to specific needs such as finances or medical care.

“There’s a lot of great success stories out there, but those are not the ones that are seen in the media,” Butler said.

Diane Dimond, a freelance journalist and author who investigated the guardianship system for eight years, agrees with Black that guardianship is used far too often in the United States.

Dimond points out that the issues facing the probate court and guardianship have existed for decades. Over the years, many laws have been written, and political leaders have called for reform, but Dimond said nothing has been done.

She blamed lobbyists for those with vested interests in the guardianship system for blocking reforms. Dimond said that as long as there’s money to be made, there will be no reform.

“Why hasn’t it changed? Because of the lobby groups ... it’s the lawyers, it’s the guardianship associations in every state,” Dimond said. “They love guardianships.”

---

Comments by Readers

—  "The judges and lawyers look at what you have and justify any reason to liquidate all of your assets including your family home."

—  "Shannon Butler, professional guardian interviewed in the article said that the cases cited are anecdotal. They are not anecdotal. The guardianship system is flawed to its core. How can she possibly know what the majority of guardians are doing and where has she gotten her data and statistics because the states do not share records. No one knows how many people are in guardianship. If you know there are guardians who are causing harm then surely you know who they are - why aren't you taking action to stop those so-called "bad guardians" and reporting them to regulatory agencies, the Attorney General, the DOJ and the FBI. Why is she standing there when there are those who are engaging in human trafficking and destroying life after life."

Read at the Epoch Times

There is a perverse monetary incentive that is pushing vulnerable people into guardianship by government agencies, lawyers and the courts blindsiding victims and their families.

My Story

— Marian Kornicki

The following is what happened to me and my parents and it is going on to this day:

In January, 2005, my father filed a complaint with the Nassau County, New York District Attorney against my sister, who he had discovered had been embezzling millions of dollars from my parents and me. The Nassau DA began an investigation which included a forensic accounting.

Around the same time, an estates attorney recommended that my father and I file a petition to become co-guardians for my mother. We had never heard of guardianship. My dad had a POA for my mother and I was the trustee of the lifetime trust he had set up for her. My mother had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 1997 by her cardiologist and internist and then more formally by a neurologist in 1999.

However, instead of appointing us as co-guardians, a Nassau County Judge first appointed a lawyer for my mother, a bull in a china shop and an examiner. They came to my parents’ house and immediately started attacking us. The lawyer went into my parents’ bedroom where my mom was sleeping in her hospital bed and read a document to my mother who had very advanced dementia. She came back another time with a court-appointed social worker and a translator and bullied her way into the complex and into the house. When my father and I came in from grocery shopping there they were at the dining room table.

They apparently called the lawyer representing us in the guardianship filing and told him they were not going to recommend us as guardians for my mother to the judge. We wanted to withdraw our petition. We were told we could not. Think 1984 and George Orwell or the Handmaiden’s Tale.

Without a hearing, the judge appointed total strangers as my mother’s guardians. Both were private lawyers and one was also the personal needs guardian because while I waiting in a cubicle with my parents’ friend, this lawyer came in and said if I didn’t agree to be co-guardians for personal needs with my sister the judge was appointing the lawyer and so she did.

The judge, the lawyers now controlled all of my parents’ assets and gave my sister access to my parents’ assets and had no interest in seeing that she return what she stole. Nor did they concern themselves with having anything to do with my mother’s needs. My father continued to take care of mother and now lost control of his life’s savings. He had a heart attack. Months later, my sister was arrested for grand larceny, but the court-appointed guardians did not cooperate with the DA. They ignored the Nassau District Attorney.

They created chaos and allowed my sister to continue hers. As the DA said, “she is a professional criminal. Everything in my life and my parents’ life became a nightmare. Different court-appointed guardians, all private lawyers cycled in and out of our lives billing as they cycled. There was nothing for them to do so they billed us for looking at our grocery receipts, they convened hearings, they spoke to each other, they hired their friends as lawyers and accountants. They defamed my parents and me.

My dad had another heart attack and this time died. I returned to New York to plan his funeral. I stayed to care for my mother and decided to file for guardianship. I was sure I would be appointed and bring my mom back to California. I was merely appointed personal needs guardian. The court-appointed lawyers still controlled all of her assets, including the house and continued to pay themselves lavishly in this corrupt industry. For example, they hired their own accountants.

One of them was paid $12,000 in ten months for looking at the same brokerage account. Another billed $100,000 for looking over the forensic accounting my accountant gave him. There was another accountant hired just because he was a friend. They refused to pay my dad’s accountant who presented the most modest bills for preparing my mother’s tax returns after they forced him to explain what he did and what he charged. They then said he needed to submit his bills directly to the judge. They moved accounts to new institutions. Meanwhile my mother’s social security check and her retirement distribution was being deposited into a guardianship checking account, but none of it was being used on behalf of my mother. One took a $90,000 distribution from my mother’s retirement account and my mother’s social security was reduced. She parked money in a CD and opened a checking account at another bank. Over time, the guardians depleted her estate. Every time they wrote a check, they wrote “it is in the best interest of the ward.” They scheduled court proceedings from 2005 to 2018. All of this took place with the approval of all the judges.

There is so much more including the ongoing harassment by my sister and her attorney. She came to the house after I was appointed guardian for personal needs and began throwing a pillow in my mother’s face and threw herself on the floor and called her lawyer. Her lawyer said she was suicidal and going to be hospitalized. I had to call the police because we were at risk from her and her husband who was following me around the house. She didn’t try to visit again for 6 years when there was a new guardian and a new judge and she started again asking to have visits even though it was a judge who said she could.

My parents are gone and they won’t let go. There are 5 lawyers and an accountant they hired and they want 1/3 of my father’s estate, even though my dad had a life time trust for my mom in his will they filed a right of election and have not given me the deed to my parents’ house. They wanted to do a reverse mortgage on the house. The court-appointed guard refused to reimburse me for my mom’s health care aides and wanted to come to the house with one of the court-examiner to do an inventory of what was in the house charging us more than the value of what was in the house.

It is clear that these judges, lawyers and accountants have improperly used my mother’s guardianship as a criminal enterprise to defraud me and my family in violation of the RICO statute. There is abuse of process, theft, fraud, conversion, civil conspiracy, unjust enrichment and negligence.

State and Federal Files

Guardianship Roundtable in New York City
Round table with New York State guardianship victim speakers. Thursday August 25, 2022. Senator Borrello said, " I strongly believe the government's duty, first and foremost is to protect the health and safety of its citizens, which is why Senator Palumbo and I are hosting this roundtable." He went on to say that people are deemed 'incapacitated' by a judge can have their homes sold and their estates drained…” Our coalition has devoted time to looking into the New York history of court-appointed guardianship. We found that in 1999, two New York State lawyers wrote a letter to the chair of the Brooklyn Democratic Law Committee which created a firestorm because they said they were being frozen out of lucrative guardianship appointments. There was a commission appointed made of politically connected lawyers and they protected their business. This has reached crisis proportions. These people are using their connections to exploit ordinary citizens.

Published Articles

Senate Holds Hearing on Guardianship
Guardianship a Legal "Wild West"
Conservatorship Has Drained $1 Million
Guardianship Destroyed Family Draft
Restore The Rights
Court Appointed Guardianship Like Prison
Political Center In Surrogates Court
Plundering Grandmas Estate Via Court Order
Court Appointed Guardian Abuse Case
I Care Alot True Story
The World Has No Idea
Fight Back Against Judicial Corruption
Lawyers Screening Democratic Ballot
Grand Jury Urges Overhaul
Britney Spears Was Freed From Her Conservatorship
Britney Spears' Statement To The Court

If you would like to learn how you can get involved please fill out our form and we will get in touch with you.

Name

Email

Message

Submit