How Can a Fiduciary Assist Consumers?

Iris Hecker is the California Licensed Professional Fiduciary at Hecker Fiduciary in Redwood City, California. She is also an Enrolled Agent with over 25 years of experience in that field. Many people are not aware of what a fiduciary is. SevenPonds spoke with Iris to find out about the profession and the numerous ways they can be a beneficial person of trust in peoples’ lives.

Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for length and readability.

Lucas Morgan: How important is it to avoid litigation when it comes to estates?

Iris Hecker: Avoiding litigation is generally my main goal, but not every fiduciary operates the same way. Some family members won’t come in to meet and they’ll just hire an attorney right away, which will cost everyone more money in the long run. If someone chooses to fight the estate, the money will come out of the estate. So if you hire an attorney, you’ll pay them out of your pocket, but then your proceeds from the estate will pay the other side, so you’re basically paying twice. You want to preserve the estate the best way you can. If you can prevent litigation, everybody wins.

Lucas: When should someone consider working with and/or reach out to a fiduciary?

Iris: Everyone should have some sort of simple estate plan in order once they reach the age of majority. Even the power of attorney. For instance, I have two adult children. If one of them got into a car accident and had to go into the hospital, [the hospital] might not give me information about his condition. As a mother, not being able to get that information would be a problem and I would not be that pleasant.

So to avoid that, having the power of attorney would prevent me from potentially “losing it” because I was not able to get any information. Even if you are a young, single person and your parents are still in your life, you can designate one of your parents as the power of attorney. Later on, you can change it to your spouse if you get married. But to get back to your question, once you are the age of majority, you should have a health care directive and power of attorney. That way the courts won’t have to get involved.

Lucas: As a fiduciary, how can you help to prevent elderly abuse?

Iris: This is a very important issue for me. Our system is overwhelmed. For instance, you can call up Adult Protective Services (APS) if you suspect that someone is being abused. They might come just one time and address the issue, but don’t really follow up because they are so overwhelmed with the number of cases they handle. So unless you are really pushy, the abuse can continue even after an APS visit.

Sometimes live-in caregivers can be the ones committing the abuse. So as someone’s fiduciary/power of attorney, I can get involved. If need be, I could kick out the caregivers and get authorities involved. Sometimes it’s family members who are the abusers. You can see the signs of elderly abuse. For instance, with elder financial abuse you might see abnormal account withdrawals.

Oftentimes the people who are making these financial decisions are of sound mind, so you can’t necessarily prevent them from making those decisions. If there are obvious signs of elder abuse, and they are willing to make a change, I can come in and help. But if people have been abused for a long time, they are sometimes wary about trusting a stranger.

Lucas: How can a fiduciary assist elderly members of the LGBT community?

Credit: salon.com

Iris: Many people, particularly here in the San Francisco Bay Area, may not realize that LGBT people are still judged quite harshly. There are residential care homes that will not accept you if you are gay, which is unbelievable. Part of the issue with older people of the LGBT community is that they may have no family. Maybe their family has ridiculed them, or even “banned” them from the family. And now, maybe their partner has died and they have nobody. So as a fiduciary who can understand their concerns, I can be their advocate and help in any way I can.

Lucas: Do you work with people who are in hospice?

Iris: Yes I do. Sometimes, people will be in hospice, and they haven’t really put all their affairs together. I’ll come in and visit them and say, “You know, we should probably sort through all this.” We can have an attorney come in and I’ll ask the client certain questions and do everything as smoothly as possible and we’ll get a plan together.

When a person is in hospice, they know the end is coming. I can also help people record memories for a beneficiary. If they can’t write, we can film a video to make something for their family.

Lucas: How do people find out about you and your business?

Iris: That is still the challenge because not everybody understands what a fiduciary is. Attorneys, caregivers, geriatric care managers and social workers will recommend us. We are actually trying to meet more with caregiving agencies to train their staff about how to detect elder abuse, as well.

Lucas: Have you helped people who have been named executors of an estate who may not know exactly what they’ve gotten into?

Iris: I can, yes. Usually, I will be the fiduciary, successor trustee and executor of the estate. That’s the easiest way to do it. But I have been hired by people who are executors and they have no clue what to do, and I will advise them.

Credit: bankrate.com

Lucas: Obviously we’ve discussed the many roles you can play, but ultimately why do you think fiduciaries are important?

Iris: Number one, I think that fiduciaries can help with family dynamics. A fiduciary is not a family member, and they can make the decisions they need to make without bias. So even if you have a dysfunctional family, you have that other party in there who will make those important decisions. Also, when you meet with a client before they’ve made their whole plan, you are talking with them about things that maybe they’ve never told their family. Settling family disputes without getting attorneys involved is critical. The key is to preserve the estate the best way you can without litigation.

Lucas: Do you have any tips or suggestions for people who are dealing with the death of a loved one?

Iris: When you lose someone you’re very close to, it’s overwhelming. And if it’s one of your parents and you’ve been named the executor of their estate, it can be very hard to do it all. That’s the advantage of having someone who’s not part of the family there to take that pressure off. Having a third party really makes a huge difference in keeping the family together.

Lucas: Thank you so much, Iris, for taking the time to speak with me! I’ve learned a lot from our discussion.

Iris: You’re very welcome. It’s been a pleasure.

If you missed part one of our interview with Iris Hecker, please catch up here.