NM Commission Submits Initial Recommendations for Improving State’s Guardianship System

The New Mexico Adult Guardianship Study Commission has submitted its initial status report to the New Mexico Supreme Court.  

As we have reported earlier (here), New Mexico is one of a number of states that experienced high-profile and very serious incidents of alleged financial abuse of adult clients by their court-appointed guardians.

The report makes some 17 recommendations for prompt action aimed at increasing the quality and accountability of guardians, especially so-called “professional guardians or conservators,” including: 

• Require certification by statute or court rule of professional guardians and conservators by a national organization, such as the Center for Guardianship Certification. This recommendation is not intended to preclude New Mexico from developing its own certification requirements.
• Require bonding or an alternative asset-protection arrangement by statute or court rule for conservators to protect the interests of the individual subject to the conservatorship.
• Establish stringent reporting and financial accountability measures for conservators, including the following:
      1. require conservators, upon appointment, to sign releases permitting the courts
      to obtain financial documents of protected persons;
      2. require annual reports to include bank and financial statements and any other
      documentation requested by the court auditor, with appropriate protections
      to prevent disclosure of confidential information;
      3. require conservators to maintain a separate trust account for each protected
      person to avoid commingling of funds; and
      4. require conservators to maintain financial records for seven years.

The report warns that “meaningful reform of the guardianship system will not be easy or inexpensive and cannot be achieved by a single branch of government acting alone.”

Rather, true change will require the legislature, the executive, and the judiciary to work together in their respective roles to enact the laws, allocate the resources, and implement the changes that are necessary to improve the guardianship system. The Commission therefore offers its initial status report for consideration, not only to the Supreme Court, but to all who are interested in improving the guardianship system.

The Court invites comments on the proposed recommendations, as well as on additional issues identified by the Commission as requiring further study.  The deadline for the comments is November 8, 2017.

My thanks to my good friend Janelle Thibau for sending me timely news of the New Mexico R & R.  Janelle and I started off as lawyers together in Albuquerque just a “few” years ago!