Minutes of the Elder Law Section Council

Friday, February 8, 2002

Chicago Regional Office



Presiding: Bill Cleaver



Present: Lee Beneze, Lionel Brazen, Tina Coffey, Janna Dutton, John Erbes, Dan Hawkins, George Johnson, Jamieson Long, Karl Menninger, Marc Miller, Ed Mitchell, Dan Moore, Mardyth Pollard, Sherri Rudy, Naomi Schuster, Larry Smith, Marjan Staniec, Rhoda Sweeney and Connie Renzi, via telephone.



Absent: Stanley Balbach, Susan Dawson-Tibbits, John Foltz, Thomas Giger, Richard Hart, Ford June, Lori Levin, Jay Rheingold and Ed Stanula.

Others present: Selina Thomas, Staff Liason



A. Approval of Minutes: the Minutes of the December 13, 2001 Meeting were

reviewed. A motion was made by Dan Moore to approve the Minutes, with one correction, on page 2, section IX, the word "pursing" should be "pursuing", the motion was seconded by Marc Miller, and the motion carried.

B. Roster Review: the section roster was sent around and the Chair asked the

members to contact Selina Thomas with any necessary corrections.



Dan Moore discussed his subcommittee's work in the area of possible new legislation. They have been looking at legislation to increase the Small Estate Affidavit monetary limit to $100,000 and to add additional language to the Short Form Health Care Power of Attorney organ donation section that would reflect the principal's statement that they do not authorize an anatomical gift as well as additional language concerning tissue donation.



HB 4123 - Home Repair Fraud Act, increases the penalties and lowers the monetary threshold. After discussion, there was a consensus to support this bill.



HB 4321 - Financial Exploitation of the Elderly (Criminal Code), increases the penalty from a Class 2 to a Class 1 felony if the victim is over 70 and the value of the property is $15,000 or more or if the victim is 80 or older and the amount is $5,000 or more. The bill also adds financial planning or investment professional to the list of potential defendants who stand in a position of trust. Dan Moore focused on the definition of "elderly person" already in the law and indicated his belief that there was no reason to increase the victim's age. Lee Beneze stated his belief that this type of language assumes that increased age equals increased incapacity. Janna Dutton agreed, but questioned whether opposing this amendment on such grounds would negate the potential benefit. With regard to the addition of financial planner, Sherri Rudy and Rhoda Sweeney supported the addition. Ed Mitchell indicated that a definition of financial planner was needed. Jaime Long discussed whether life insurance agents would be covered. Dan Moore stated that it would not cover funeral planners. The Chair summarized the discussion by indicating that it appeared the Council was not supportive of the age/monetary increase, but did support the idea of covering financial planning, but had concern about what would be covered by the language. Naomi Schuster voiced the idea of opposing the amendment, since the concept of financial planner did not go far enough. Lee disagreed and proposed to oppose the age/monetary language and support the financial planning addition with an inquiry for an explanation of what is included. Naomi made a motion, seconded by Karl Menninger to oppose the bill. A show of hands vote produced a vote of 8 to 5 to oppose the proposed bill.



B. Do Not Resuscitate Orders: John Erbes asked whether there was any new information that could be reported on the issues associated with the new DNR legislation. Naomi Schuster reported that the Office of State Guardian was having difficulty because the requirement of the orange form precluded using fax copies of DNRs.

Respectfully submitted,



John F. Erbes

Secretary

Elder Law Section Council