A Small Victory

Today  I had a small victory.

Recently a client of mine was awarded a guardian. After that, we started discovering some financial information we did not know ie, how many assets the client really had, how many life insurance policies he had...things of that nature that we had not been able to find out in the past.

Not that it was a bad thing we were in the dark.  My client would have been kicked out of the program if it was known how much the client had in the bank.

Last week I had to file an report with the elderabuse agency in my county as the guardian did not get one of my client's Social Security checks and found out that the client's savings acounts had been closed.  WE were a le to find that an extended family member had cashed the check.  We were worried about how to pay for the client's funeral for a complex set of reasons.

The client died yesterday morning.  The guardian stated she would notify the family and then updated how it went.  I had a message from the client's sister to call her.  She accused the guardian of taking my client's money. 

In my professional capacity, when  a client dies, I am no longer bound by confidentiality.  I was able to inform her that we had evidence this extended family member had the money. 

Two hours later, the extended family member was planning the type of funeral/burial my client wanted--after originally blowing off the guardian.

Sometimes i get to make things right.