The California office that is supposed to keep professional conservators in line is under fire after an investigation found licensed fiduciaries allegedly draining clients' savings, forcing people into homelessness and selling off homes while state enforcement crawled along. Families and advocates say the public paper trail points to slow discipline and skeletal staffing at the very agency meant to shield some of the state's most vulnerable residents.
Understaffed and leaderless
The Professional Fiduciaries Bureau has spent long stretches without a permanent director and, at times, with just one employee on duty. As CalMatters reported, that bare-bones setup has left the bureau leaning on its parent agency and scrambling to keep up with a steady flow of complaints from families.
Numbers in the bureau's own files
The bureau's 2024-25 annual report shows it received 174 complaints in 2025. According to the figures posted on DocumentCloud, it could issue minor citations in roughly 58 days on average, but serious discipline took far longer - the same report found it averaged more than two years from complaint to license suspension, revocation or surrender. Critics say that kind of timeline is dangerously slow when a conservator controls a client's money and life decisions.
Criminal cases that surfaced late
Victims' accounts and court filings show how those delays can turn into real-world damage. In one widely cited case, multiple complaints surfaced about professional fiduciary Donna Bogdanovich before police arrested her in 2022. She later pleaded no contest to taking more than $160,000 from one client and over $1 million from others and was sentenced to four years in jail, according to court records and reporting by CalMatters.
The state's own license database lists Bogdanovich's status as revoked and shows she once managed roughly $2.8 million in client assets while multiple investigations were pending, according to the California Department of Consumer Affairs.
Private arrangements, public gaps
Other public records suggest this is not just about one bad actor. In a separate case, state investigators concluded that a licensed fiduciary filed annual statements late for years, pulled roughly $65,000 in advance fees and turned in duplicate invoices, conduct the bureau labeled excessive. The bureau's decision and related court materials are posted on DocumentCloud, and a citation is on file with the Professional Fiduciaries Bureau. A county property listing indicates the San Francisco home tied to that case sold for about $2.25 million, according to Realtor.com.
Officials respond, advocates press for fixes
State officials say they are trying to shore up oversight while advocates demand clearer public records and more people on the job. In coverage that republished the investigation, KPBS reported that the Department of Consumer Affairs told journalists the bureau "must do its due diligence to gather facts and collect evidence to take action," and the governor's office said it is recruiting to fill the bureau's top position.
Families and elder-rights attorneys counter that real reform will take money and muscle: more funding to speed up investigations and more transparency in the paperwork so would-be clients can actually vet the people they are about to trust with their homes, health decisions and bank accounts.
