Guardians can keep vulnerable Minnesotans from their families. Changes to state law could make that harder to do.

When a Crow Wing County judge assigned a guardian to oversee much of Sherry Linn’s life in 2023, she lamented the shrinking of her world.

It got smaller still after Linn, who uses a wheelchair and has fallen many times, was moved from her home in Breezy Point in north-central Minnesota to an assisted living facility more than 100 miles away in Brooklyn Park.

Now, she said, her life is limited to a 6-by-6-foot room.

In January, citing “increasing” aggressiveness from Linn’s daughter, Rebecca Etienne, guardian Traci LaForge of Presbyterian Family Foundation (PFF) barred Linn from seeing her only child. Linn said the decision left her feeling as if she were “locked up in jail.”

Such restrictions are all too common, say advocates for Minnesotans with court-appointed guardians. They hope revisions to state law approved by the Legislature in May — including requiring guardians to use less restrictive steps before denying access — will make it harder to keep people from their families.

“Right now, the guardian can restrict without court approval, so we need to be very careful about any such restriction,“ said Suzanne Scheller, an attorney who specializes in elder law.

”The bar should be set high given the need for support for the person subject to guardianship."

Minnesota has 41,000 guardians — whether family members, friends or strangers contracted to do the job — who take over a vulnerable adult’s decision-making if they’re deemed unable to make choices or meet their basic needs.

But Paul Jeddeloh, a lawyer who has represented Presbyterian Family Foundation and other guardians over many years, said years of toxicity in family dynamics can make such restrictions necessary for the health and safety of the people under guardianship. He spoke as a lawyer familiar with these cases, not as a representative of the foundation.

“A dysfunctional family does not change when a guardian is appointed,” he said in an email. “Instead, the dysfunction has a new avenue to occur which may include attorneys hoping for a large insurance settlement and family members looking for a windfall.”

What was missing from the 2025 Legislature’s work on guardianship revisions, Jeddeloh said, was “the voice and input of guardians as they were left out when the legislative process was initiated.”

As of May 30, 31,080 Minnesotans were under court-ordered guardianship, according to the state court information office. Of those, 4,813 were 65 and older, and 22,820 were younger. For the rest, no date of birth was given.

Despite the large numbers under such supervision, a report last month by the Office of the Legislative Auditor said there is inadequate oversight, nonexistent training, limited accountability and few consequences when guardians fail to meet their responsibilities.

Caitlin Badger, who managed the evaluation for the legislative auditor, said the system is in dire need of improvement.

“Given the magnitude of issues we identified throughout our research, we believe that it’s time for the Legislature to take some substantial steps to bolster the administration and oversight of adult guardianship in the state,” Badger told members of the Legislative Audit Commission in St. Paul in April.

State Rep. Sandra Feist, DFL-New Brighton, said she’s working to do just that.

The revised legislation, which Gov. Tim Walz signed May 23, sets the “bar where it always should have been set,” Feist said.

Changes also include requiring a higher standard to order the appointment of an emergency guardian, she said.

“We wanted to specifically address the ways people are pushed into an emergency guardianship and then are unable to extricate themselves from it,” Feist said.

The law now says that being in the hospital is not “in and of itself sufficient evidence to support a risk of substantial harm to the respondent’s health, safety, or welfare” and require emergency guardianship.

Feist said she doesn’t know if the legislative changes will affect any current cases.

Linn has tried repeatedly to persuade the court to remove her from a guardian’s supervision. Or, at least, to name her daughter as her guardian and conservator.

But a file thick with police calls, civil commitments, drug addiction, mental health diagnoses and past conflicts between Linn and her daughter is stacked against her.

There’s a history of falls in her home — sometimes leaving her on the floor for hours — and questionable financial and health-related decisions that have convinced Crow Wing County officials the retired nurse cannot care for herself.

Last July, the state Court of Appeals agreed, affirming Linn’s need for a guardian.

She insists they’re all wrong.

“I don’t need a guardian. I don’t need a conservator. I paid cash for the last three homes that I’ve owned,” Linn said in a recent interview, adding that Presbyterian Family Foundation wants to sell her home.

The court ordered the sale, with the proceeds to be used for her care.

The frustration brings Linn to tears. She hasn’t been able to be with her daughter for Thanksgiving, Christmas or New Year’s.

Etienne, Linn’s daughter, said they’ve “called everybody” in hopes of overturning the order, as well as trying to replace her court-appointed attorney.

“My mom just isn’t getting a fair shot,” she said, adding that various accusations in the court file against her are “lies.”

“I’m the only person in my mother’s life that has her best interests at heart,” Etienne said. “And I’m going to hold them accountable for their actions.”