Like most states, New South Wales has a Trustee and Guardian ( TAG ) trust which will step in and manage the financial affairs of those who lose the ability to manage their own money. In the past, it relied on referrals from medical and legal bodies who perceive that a patient or a client is at risk of being taken advantage of because of reduced mental capacity.
In particular, our hospital systems are known to call in the TAG when a person of affluence slips into a state of dementia and they see feuding relatives gathering like vultures to feast on that persons estate. In particular cases, the TAG acts when an elderly hospital patient is judged as unable to return and live in their own home and requires the services of a nursing home. In todays world that usually requires the sale of the family home to fund a nursing home bond payment.
We are now seeing a change of thinking on the part of the government. There are three thousand five hundred people in this state who have received some sort of compensation payment for medical injuries or for trauma suffered in road accidents. In most cases this is administered in a trust managed by their parents who carefully invest the capital so that there will be a continuing income stream long after they are deceased.
Some are now suffering the intrusion of TAG and receiving demands that the capital be subjected to its new surety bond scheme - which carries a fee. In some cases, this can amount to $ 12,000 each year. Basically, TAG is muscling in and demanding to manage the money to prevent the vulnerable from being " ripped off " !
It is a mortal insult to many parents who have been successfully managing the affairs of their disabled children for many years. If this succeeds, they will find themselves in the hands of a panel of bureaucrats who will make the decisions on what spending will be allowed and what choices will apply. Most families are well aware of the huge discrepancy in rationality that occurs when decisions are in the hands of a " committee " !
What is uncertain is whether the government has the legal ability to impose this demand across the board to require parents to obtain a security bond. It has hit a hurdle with the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal ruling - in a case involving a private manager - that it would not refer TAG's question of law to the Supreme Court.
Expect a flurry of private activity in legal circles to safeguard these funds by placing them in various legal trusts that will take them beyond the reach of TAG. The sticking point with the government seems to be power resting in the hands of parents to manage money. It is insulting to suggest that they would seek to defraud their own child or to infer that a panel of faceless bureaucrats would do a better job of investing their money.
We wait to see whether the politicians will back off and leave this alone, or if the lure of the fees and charges they can apply will force this measure by special legislation !
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