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Marc
B. Hankin
Position: Founding Attorney. born New Haven,
Connecticut, 1950; admitted to the bar,
1980, California.
Education: San Francisco State University
(B.A., 1976); Loyola
Law School of Los Angeles (J.D.,
1980); New York University School of Law (L.L.M. in Taxation, 1982). Mr. Hankin is in the process of retiring
from the practice of law.
Mr. Hankin is an attorney in private
practice in Beverly Hills who has served as an adjunct Professor of Law at
Loyola Law School of Los Angeles. Mr. Hankin’s
practice primarily involves [1] conservatorships,
[2] controversies concerning legal capacity, [2] elder abuse,
[4] probate, will and trust litigation, and [5] estate planning
including Medi-Cal and tax planning. His practice also emphasizes
catastrophic health care coverage under [6] Medi-Cal and related
programs. Mr. Hankin is in the process of retiring and will focus his
efforts on legislative reforms.
Mr. Hankin was recognized by the Second District Court of Appeal as a recognized
leader in the field of elder law. Mr. Hankin is the
father of Welfare and Institutions Code §14006.2,
the California law that allows spouses to avoid nursing home impoverishment
by dividing community property and gifting the home to the healthier
spouse. This first legislative effort in the nation to protect
families from catastrophic health care impoverishment has become the basis
of much of the new field of Elder Law. The California legislation was
copied in many states. A significantly modified version became
federal law in 1988, as part of the Medicare
Catastrophic Coverage Act (“MCCA”). Although MCCA preempted much
of the field, Section
14006.2 and its related “Statements of Legislative Intent” have a
continuing impact on court orders in California to prevent spousal
impoverishment.
Mr. Hankin is the conceptual father and
draftsperson of The Elder Abuse and Dependent Adult Civil
Protection Act (EADACPA,
pronounced ee-dak-pah),
enacted in 1991. EADACPA enables abuse victims to sue abusers by
requiring the victimizers to pay the victim’s attorneys’ fees and
litigation costs. Before EADACPA, the victim’s entitlement to damages
for pain and suffering would frequently evaporate when the victim died
before the verdict was announced. Now, EADACPA allows the victim’s
estate to sue and recover damages for the victim’s pain and suffering,
thereby preventing the victimizer from escaping without having to pay for
the harm inflicted. EADACPA also gave the probate conservatorship
court the general jurisdiction to award these damages.
Mr. Hankin is the conceptual father and
principal draftsperson of The Due Process in Competence Determinations Act
(DPCDA,
pronounced dip-see-duh), enacted as Stats
1995 ch 842 § 2 (SB 730), which was amended
by Sen. Mello at Mr. Hankin’s request in Stats
1998 ch 581 § 19 (AB 2801), to enact
subdivision (a) of Probate Code § 810, which codified a rebuttable
presumption affecting the burden of proof that all persons have the legal
capacity to make decisions and to be responsible for their acts. DPCDA was co-sponsored by the California
State Bar Association and the California Medical Association. Mr.
Hankin and his colleagues, UCLA Professors E. James Spar and Stephen S.
Read, drafted a checklist for doctors to use, which was adopted in a
slightly modified form by the California Judicial Council as form GC-355 Capacity Declaration – Conservatorship.
DPCDA
put measurable modern scientific standards into the law for the
determination of who is competent to consent to medical treatment, to make
contracts, trust agreements, gifts, sign wills, marry, and perform other
acts. This legislation is
critical for many financial and physical-neglect elder abuse
lawsuits. DPCDA also makes it possible and practical for medical
staff and patients to seek court orders determining whether or not a
patient’s consent to a prospective treatment is a competent and informed consent.
DPCDA also provides tools to prove that predators had reason to be aware
that the victim was not competent to consent to the predator’s harmful
conduct, or that the consent was the product of undue influence.
Mr. Hankin proposed and drafted the original
version of Probate
Code § 2113 (Added
Stats 2006 ch 493 § 13 (AB 1363) ), “A
conservator shall accommodate the desires of the conservatee, except to the
extent that doing so would violate the conservator’s fiduciary duties to
the conservatee or impose an unreasonable expense on the conservatorship
estate.”
Mr. Hankin is the conceptual father and
principal draftsperson of California
Probate Codes 259 and 2580(b)(13),
which provide for the disinheritance of persons who commit elder
abuse.
Mr. Hankin’s other legislative achievements include adding “isolation”
to Elder Abuse, a statute allowing a court to authorize a conservator to
sign a will for an incompetent conservatee, and other laws too numerous to
mention.
Mr. Hankin worked on the State Bar Team 4 that helped draft the Durable
Power of Attorney Act that was enacted as Chapter
307 of Statutes of 1994.
With the collaboration of LAPD Detectives Chayo Reyes (Dec'd) and Dave Harned, Mr. Hankin drafted Chapter
5. Financial Abuse of Mentally Impaired Elders [2950 - 2955] of Part 5 of
Division 4 of the Probate Code (enacted as Chapter
813 of Statutes of 2000), which established emergency procedures for
the Public Guardian and law enforcement to protect victims from financial
abuse.
Mr. Hankin was a volunteer legislative advisor for the California AARP
for approximately five years, ending in 2022.
Mr. Hankin, as an individual, is continuing to
work (in some cases with colleagues) on the drafting of a number of
legislative projects, which include:
·
Legislation to protect
the right of residents in skilled nursing facilities and residential care
facilities to have videocams aka “nanny-cams” so that a loved one (e.g., a
conservator) may monitor the resident to be sure that the resident’s care
is being given as needed.
·
Legislation to
establish minimum standards for expert opinions pertaining to mental
capacity.
·
Legislation to protect
the rights of a lawyer’s mentally impaired client.
·
Legislation to ensure
that nursing homes and residential care facilities maintain an indoor
temperature that is safe for the residents.
·
Legislation
that would improve the law governing annulments of abusive marriages to
victims who are incompetent to marry.
·
A unified California
database tracking elder abuse, from the first report and/or investigation,
through administrative proceedings, criminal prosecutions, civil lawsuits
and conservatorship proceedings.
·
Legislative oversight
hearings concerning dysfunction in the Probate Courts and to enhance
integrity.
Mr. Hankin was a founding member of the Los Angeles City and County
Fiduciary Abuse Specialist Team (FAST).
Mr. Hankin collaborated on the drafting of a Master Trust as a joint
project for the Mental Health Association and the California Alliance for
the Mentally Ill. The Master Trust organization, the Proxy Parent
Services Foundation, attempts to provide lifetime caregiver services to
mentally ill persons. Mr. Hankin is a former member of the board of
directors of the Proxy Parent Services Foundation.
Mr. Hankin is a former member of the Legislation Committee of the
California Alliance for the Mentally Ill, and a former member of the board
of the directors of the San Fernando Valley’s Organization for the Needs of
the Elderly.
Mr. Hankin is a former member of the Executive Committee of the
California State Bar Association’s Estate Planning, Trust and Probate
Section. He is a past chair of the Section’s Elder Law
Committee. He is also a former member of the Executive
Committee of the Los Angeles County Bar Association’s Estates and Trusts
Section.
Mr. Hankin lectured for the California Continuing Education of the Bar
(“CEB”) on such topics as tax law, numerous programs on Elder Law, on
“Conservatorships, Guardianships and Other Devices for Handling
Incapacity,” on “Durable Powers of Attorney and Other Devices for Handling
Incapacity,” and on “Estate Planning for the Aging or Incapacitated
Client.” He has lectured at the UCLA - CEB Annual Estate
Planning Institute, a Practicing Law Institute program the California CPA
Society’s Annual Estate Planning Conferences, and at many other programs
for CPA's, lawyers, financial planners and health care professionals.
Mr. Hankin was the original author of a chapter on litigating damages
and injunctive relief for elders and dependent adults in the CEB book on
Elder Law.
Mr. Hankin lectured for The Rutter Group on "Elder Law For All
Practitioners."
Mr. Hankin delivered a lecture on Determinations
of Competence in California at the 3rd International Conference on
Capacity, during the 2016 International Congress of the International Psychogeriatric
Association, San Francisco, California.
Mr. Hankin was delivered a lecture on the Capacity to Marry at the October 3, 2018 5th International Conference on Capacity hosted
by Capacity Australia in Rome, Italy.
Mr. Hankin received a B.A. in French literature from San Francisco State
University, a J.D. from Loyola Law School of Los Angeles, and a post-juris
doctoral L.L.M. degree in Taxation Law from New York University
School of Law.
PRACTICE AREAS: Elder Law; including: Elder Abuse
Litigation; Conservatorships Law; Estate Planning (Trusts, Wills, Powers of
Attorney), Medi-Cal Planning; Probate.
But Mr. Hankin is in the
process of retiring from the practice of law. Email: marc@marchankin.com
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