by Jake Pearson

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A task force appointed by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is recommending that the state spend at least $15 million per year and create state-level oversight to bolster its troubled guardianship system, in which judges assign individuals or organizations to care for some 30,000 residents deemed incapable of looking after their own affairs.

If adopted, the plan would represent a major change in how the state government cares for some of its most vulnerable residents. New York currently budgets just $1 million to fund a guardianship hotline, and the legal arrangements receive little official oversight, with responsibility for people’s wellbeing spread among the courts, nonprofit organizations, private lawyers and companies.

The policy proposal, contained in the state’s Master Plan for Aging, comes three years after Hochul, a Democrat, issued an executive order creating a panel to map out the needs of New York’s aging population and suggest how best to serve older adults.

The plan concludes that improving the guardianship system would offer outsize benefits and would not be overly difficult to achieve.

The........

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