Bill Text: NJ A3736 | 2016-2017 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Requires DHS to maintain Statewide registry of registered professional guardians.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2016-05-19 - Introduced, Referred to Assembly Human Services Committee [A3736 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2016-A3736-Introduced.html
Sponsored by:
Assemblyman VINCENT MAZZEO
District 2 (Atlantic)
SYNOPSIS
Requires DHS to maintain Statewide registry of registered professional guardians.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act concerning registered professional guardians and amending P.L.2005, c.370.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. Section 11 of P.L.2005, c.370 (C.52:27G-40) is amended to read as follows:
11. a. [The] No later than four months following the effective date of P.L. , c. (C. ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill), the Office of the Public Guardian for Elderly Adults shall maintain a Statewide registry of registered professional guardians and make all information in the registry available to the Administrative Director of the Courts for the use of the Superior Court, or to other interested parties upon request. The registry shall include the following information for each registered guardian:
(1) full name used within the past 10 years;
(2) date of birth;
(3) business address;
(4) business telephone number;
(5) educational background and professional experience, including work in any related field germane to furnishing of guardianship services; and
(6) the insurance company issuing the registered guardian's professional liability insurance coverage;
b. In addition to the information listed in subsection a. of this section, if known to the public guardian, the registry shall include the following information for each registered guardian:
(1) whether that person has ever been removed for cause or resigned as guardian in a specific case, the circumstances of the removal or resignation, and the case names, court locations and case numbers;
(2) any judgment entered against the person as a result of the performance of services as a guardian;
(3) any finding by a court that the person is accountable for malfeasance, nonfeasance or misfeasance;
(4) any finding by a court that the person has violated the guardian's duties to the incapacitated adult, his estate or his insurance policy; and
(5) any known pending or final licensing or disciplinary actions.
(cf: P.L.2005, c.370, s.11)
2. This act shall take effect
immediately.
STATEMENT
Under current law, P.L.2005, c.370 (C.52:27G-32 et seq.), the Office of the Public Guardian for Elderly Adults (OPG), in the Division of Aging Services in the Department of Human Services (DHS), is tasked with maintaining a Statewide registry of "registered professional guardians." These guardians are statutorily required to meet certain standards relating to their honesty and integrity, and to undergo criminal history record background checks. Registered professional guardians also are required to maintain records of all transactions and reports associated with an incapacitated adult in their care, and are subject to audit or spot-check inspection at any reasonable time by OPG.
The law took effect in 2007, but there is no Statewide registry of registered professional guardians. This bill requires OPG to maintain a Statewide registry of registered professional guardians within four months of the effective date of the bill.
