NM Estate Planning Council

Guardianship Panel

~ DATE/PLACE ~

November 19, 2009 ~ ABQ Country Club

~ TOPIC ~

“How Guardian works with Conservator and Trustee”

~ MEETING HOST ~

Wells Fargo Bank Wealth Management

Susan A. Bennett, State Licensed Baccalaureate Social Worker, N.C.G, 2004-2007 President of the NMGA, and owner of Bennett Guardianship and Case Management – She has worked in the field of adult guardianship and case management and served as Court Visitor since 1988. She spent five years in paralegal work at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center. She worked with many in drafting the NM Uniform Health Care Decisions Act, co-rewrote the 2007 Handbook for Guardians and Conservators, and holds certificates from UNM in Health Care Ethics, Mediation, Geriatrics, and as a Paralegal.

Nancy Oriola – Along with business partner Barbara Singer, CPA – a member of the NMEPC - Nancy Oriola is the Clinical Director in the elder care management company of Decades, LLC.  Nancy brings a unique set of qualifications to her work and to this panel.  A CFP since 1989, Nancy is also a master’s level social worker.  She is only one of three professionals in New Mexico who holds the designation of National Master Guardian.  Nancy is a faculty member in the Gerontology program at Webster University, a member of the Guardianship Advisory Council with the State of New Mexico - Office of Guardianship as well as an Advisory Board member for Heritage Home Health Care and Hospice of the Sandias.  Nancy is a member of the Santa Fe Estate Planning Council, the National Guardianship Association, the National Association of Professional Geriatric Care Managers and the National Association of Social Workers.

Nancy has been working with elders and their families for more than 25 years.  Her company, now eight years old, has recently begun providing services in Santa Fe and employs several other licensed professionals.  She (they) specializes in working with elders who have complex estates and often complex family situations.  Her company provides Court-appointed Guardian services, often in partnership with individual, as well as corporate, trustees.

John Attwood, N.C.G. – John serves as a Trust Officer and Marketing Manager for Zia Trust, Inc., an independent trust company.  He administers Conservatorships, Elder Care, Special Needs, Medicaid Payback and Medical Care Reversionary Trusts.  John is a graduate of Oklahoma Wesleyan University.  He was one of the founding board members of the NMGA where he served as a past President.  John currently serves as President for the New Mexico Alzheimer’s Association.  He is also a member of the Elder Justice Coalition, and both Santa Fe and New Mexico Estate Planning Councils.  John is an N.C.G. with the Center for Guardianship Certification and a graduate of the ABA National and Graduate Trust Schools.

Greg Mackenzie – currently an attorney with Hurley Toevs Styles Hamblin & Panter PA.  Greg was admitted to practice before the New Mexico courts in 1993 and has been working as a litigation lawyer since that time. Since 1997, Greg has devoted virtually all of his practice to representing clients in estate and trust litigation. This includes representing clients who are contesting or defending the validity of wills, trusts and other estate planning documents and those who are involved in litigation over the administration of estates and trusts. His cases frequently involve allegations of breach of fiduciary duty and the construction of controlling instruments such as wills and trusts.

Greg also frequently handles litigation in contested complex guardianships and conservatorships. He has been appointed by judges in several of New Mexico’s judicial districts to serve as guardian ad litem for incapacitated adults involved in those types of proceedings.

Greg has received his certificate from the UNM School of Law mediation course and has served as a mediator in cases involving contested trusts, probates and difficult guardianships and conservatorships.