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tanwind88 Asked September 2012

Does a professional fiduciary provide legal services for their clients?

Mom currently has had an attorney pre-appointment that was found by a family member. (Court has appointed her a professional fiduciary.) She has dementia. Now that she is under their protection, does the fiduciary allow her to have unsupervised "consultation/meetings" with her attorney? If so, why?

anonymous145616 Sep 2012
As a caretaker, and managing a blog, I am of the opinion that consumers of private fiduciaries should have legal representation. Private fiduciaries are in it for the money. This is how they support themselves. Therefore, they tend to make decisions, in my opinion, that pad their billable hours, at a cost to one's estate, trust, etc. And, if that private fiduciary has his or her own attorney, financial hardship upon one's estate, trust, etc., can be devastating to the beneficiary of the estate, and or trust.

desert192 Sep 2012
A fiduciary usually carries out the terms of a trust (very good idea to make trust while competent - a will only takes place when you are gone - a trust can be set up to handle the "what if" you become incompetent.
A fiduciary appointed by the court (which means she is a ward of the court and the fiduciary must answer - report - all dealings to the court) will handle her financial affairs and see that care is obtained with her funds as far as possible.
Most attorneys do not handle the day to day financial matters or health care
needs of clients.
If court is already appointing fiduciary (means Mom can't handle own affairs) whether to enforce trust she already had or just to handle financials - I don't see where she would need attorney (unless fiduciary - who is not a lawyer - needs to seek legal advice in order to properly handle Mom's financials.)
Possibly if real estate involved, family questioning spending of Mom's money, etc. , maybe attorney is needed.
It kind of depends on the level of dementia Mom is at, but if court already involved enough to appoint fiduciary, would think Mom is no longer able to make own legal decisions. I guess I would ask court that appointed fiduciary in the first place - what role this attorney is allowed to play in Mom's life.

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