to feel like im going mad- paraplegic brother and financial madness

[heraldgerald]

Please help. I know no one else in this position and no idea what to do.

Long story very short- my brother had a motorcycle accident 16 years ago and was awarded 1 million pounds compensation. We were told this would support him for life, at the time he was 23. His money was put into trust, under the court of protection, and a lay deputy, a solicitors firm, were appointed. They charged 60k per year in fees. a company were appointed by the solicitors to arrange and recruit carers. They charged 30k per year. my brothers investments, organised by the solicitors were decimated in 2008. the family understood that we were not allowed to act as lay deputy nor invest his money for him as he is deemed legally incapable and we would be in a position to exploit him. He has now very nearly run out of money, and my aging mother has now taken over as lay deputy and recruitment, but this was only deemed a viable option, we were told by the solicitors, once it became clear he had no more money to pay the fees.

I should say that all the information I get is through my mother who finds it all overwhelming and complicated.

aibu to think this has been a gross mismanagement of his finances?

I don't spend 4.8 hours a week dealing with my own affairs, let alone anyone else's!

What the fuck was he doing?!

I think you might also speak to The Law Society. Worth a try and would cost you nothing, so you've got nothing to lose there.

My brother had a big medical compensation award and his solicitors do not charge more than £10,000 a year and they have a lot of input. He also has a financial adviser who is very good and very strict and is not above taking my brother to task if he thinks he is overspending. My brother is charged £50 per hour for Neurophysio and used to pay £250 per 24 hours for care but has now reduced the amount of care he has.
He used to have a friend who was in the same situation as your brother and they had to take their solicitors to court, and won.
Get legal advice is best.

Court of Protection

I'm so sorry you're going through this. There is a special place reserved in hell for people that earn a fortune of the back of someone else's disability and vulnerability. I hope you can find the advice and support you need and that some money can be recovered.

I don't know if this is any help, if your brother is receiving a social services care package, he should be able to have a managed account, for that they will interview supply and pay carers on your brothers behalf. I have the same in place for my twin DDs who are 19 and have disabilities. The funding for a fully managed account is met by social services.
I hope you can get things sorted.

Another vote for ringing Law Society, they are very helpful.

Trees I'm so sorry to hear your brother has been through similar. I'm pleased to hear he has a positive set up. I'd be very grateful to hear anything you could share regarding his friends case.

Smo, don't whatever you do let this thread worry you in terms of what the future may hold for your family. I'm sure your not but please remember my mum has some serious issues which may have made her more vulnerable to exploitation and gas lighting, frankly. You sound eminently sensible.

Thanks woo woo. I had a block about that. Thanks only- I will contAct his sw and ask. Thanks burning, I will. Starting to feel a bit queasy thinking of that partner enjoying a Tuscan villa while d b is destitute, very nearly.

And woo woo - I hope so. We have met so many people over the years willing to over charge and take the piss it's tragic.

I should be clear that this has happened only in relation to d b, not in any other part of mine or d m s life it's so depressing and unbelievable.

Here's a link to the Solicitor's Regulation Association and their guide to making a complaint.

www.sra.org.uk/faqs/contact-centre/public/03-problems-with-a-solicitor/how-do-i-make-a-complaint-about-my-solicitor.page

Good luck - definitely sounds like the funds have been mismanaged.

Thanks mme.

I've contacted the Law Society twice after I had complained about solicitors and they hadn't acted to my satisfaction. They took the complaints on and in one case the solicitor had to refund some fees, in the other they had to pay compensation. I think you must have a claim for some refund of unreasonable charges, the claim may be too high for the Law Society to process, I seem to remember something about that... but they will at least be able to advise you.

Thank you Peking. I'm starting to feel more empowered to try and fight this.

Were the solicitors mainly acting as investment managers or were they actively involved in matters such as dealing with social services/helping in getting benefits?

You said they only hired the company who employed the carers so presumably the solicitors weren't dealing with payroll/PAYE/NI for employees?

Or were investment managers paid separately?

Hi Caitlin tbh I don't really know. I know they involved themselves a great deal with my brothers carer arrangements and encouraged all parties to call as much as any one wanted to discuss their employment and any problems. This is a big current topic and I might create a different thread as my mother is often described in terms like bully, mad, etc and there has been a few significant threats of litigation under employment law. We really aren't coping.

Sorry to sound so clueless caitlin. I just don't know what's gone on.

Financial management involves someone assessing the investments and the performance of the share portfolio and if need be buying or selling stock, including anticipating when it might be wise to do so. Some solicitors have a specialist asset management department, mine does, but most don't and this would be a job for a stockbroker.

Whoever does it should be issuing a financial report every year.

The total fees are actually £90,000 as there was an agency dealing with hire of carers. I would have expected therefore the agency dealt with employment issues as part of their remit.

As I said that level of annual fee is what I would expect for not a big corporation but say a family business with gross trading income of around £5,000,000 which means the legal fees are around 1%-2% for routine "keeping going" work but might be higher if there were one-off problematic issues to deal with.

I would also expect that fees for this type of work would be "taxed"(meaning assessed) by an auditor of court (Scottish term but I assume there is an English equivalent)

I wouldn't bother contacting the Law Society. You need to find a solicitor that specialises in professional negligence re: other solicitors.

So you were being charged £90,000 a year on £1million pound fund? That is absolutley shocking. I hope you manage to sort this out and sue the hell out of these people.

Caitlin thanks so much for explaining. From memory of meetings about this, there was a separate stock broker for investments. It's so interesting what you are saying about the amouby of money you would expect to see generating this kind of fee level. no independent auditing went on at all, I am sure of that.

Excuse, that's right. These were not the initial numbers but crept up to this levelabout 7 years ago as more and more problems with my mother seemed to occur, which both these companies seemed to not be in a hurry to minimise their own involvement in, if that makes sense.

Thanks for all help with this

Thanks for all help with this