Father of NASGA member Poppy Helgren

Lester Moore was placed in a predatory CA conservatorship when the Probate Judge ignored the Family Trust and all the estate planning that my parents set up in 1993. My father was the victim of a predatory woman who trolled grief groups in his town.  Within 3 weeks of meeting him, she had in hand a $700 check from my Dad. That was just the beginning of the financial scam she perpetrated against Lester Moore.

I am his only child and was the rightful successor trustee.  When I realized that this woman was financially exploiting him and using undue influence on him, due to his diagnosis of dementia, I sought out a local attorney to help me stop the abuse.  If only I knew then, what I know now!  This attorney that I hired, told me the only thing I could do was to seek a conservatorship over my Dad through the Probate Court.  Now I see clearly that I was getting railroaded into the Probate Court, where many predators lie in wait for their victims.

I was horrified to learn that the grief group predator soon obtained an attorney to change my father’s Trust, removing me as the Successor Trustee and placing himself as both Successor Trustee and my Dad’s attorney.   My Dad had already been declared incapacitated by his two physicians, per the Trust document.  In the Trust documents it was clearly written that there were powers not exercisable by an attorney to include revoking the Principal’s will or changing, modifying, revoking or directing the revocable Living Trust of the Principal. The Judge disregarded all the the estate planning documents in order to place a private fiduciary over the trust and Lester Moore’s person.  This Judge allowed the attorney and the woman who hired him an additional 18 months of access to my Father’s assets to spend freely.  Then Dad was placed under a “professional” fiduciary to be his Successor Trustee and Conservator.

Lester was isolated in CA, where he had no relatives, away from his entire family in Nevada and Arkansas.  His properties were sold off, including an income producing ranch he owned since 1956.  The conservator liquidated everything, his home in Thousand Oaks CA, his considerable savings and all his stocks and bonds.  Lester died in 2021 due to septic shock caused by a bowel obstruction, due to the shoddy care in a home he was placed in after all his property was sold off. His death was an unnecessary and painful death.

This should never have happened.  Yet the frequency of predatory guardianships are increasing.  The legal profession involved in these are enriching themselves by taking the inheritances that belong to families.  It is outrageous and must be stopped.

Thank you.

Poppy Helgren
daughter of Lester Moore