New York Attorney General Launches Investigation of Guardianship Providers

New York Attorney General Letitia James is investigating about a half dozen guardianship organizations.

The inquiry follows a yearlong series by ProPublica that revealed how some guardians neglected the vulnerable clients entrusted to their care.

Judges often rely on guardianship companies to care for the so-called unbefriended, people who don’t have friends or family able to look after them.

A decade ago , the same unit investigated a nonprofit guardian called Integral Guardianship Services .

Integral had improperly loaned its top officials hundreds of thousands of dollars while its wards unnecessarily sat in nursing homes.

The group agreed to various reforms, paid back the loans and brought on a management consultant to review its systems.

Even so, Integral shut down just a few years later , stranding hundreds of wards whose cases were absorbed by other nonprofit groups and private lawyers.