The embattled Sun Valley Group plans to cease operations on February 28th. Sun Valley Group is the largest private fiduciary firm in Arizona and has been at the center of numerous allegations and lawsuits regarding the way in which it has managed the assets of its wards. Private fiduciaries are utilized by probate courts to oversee the care of incapacitated adults. We have mentioned Sun Valley several times in this blog, including its management of the assets of Marie Long.

A license renewal for Sun Valley to continue its operations has been pending for almost a year. The Licensing and Certification Division of the Arizona Supreme Court has not explained what has factored into its repeated decision to deny a license renewal for Sun Valley, but ongoing controversy regarding how it was managing its ward's assets likely did not help.

The owner of the Sun valley Group refused to identify a specific reason for going out of business in an article in the Arizona Republic. Instead saying only that it was "not something that I wanted to do," and that "the reasons for it are numerous."

The Arizona republic has published a series of articles in an ongoing investigation of the probate system. Sun Valley Group has been highlighted numerous times in this series for apparent mismanagement of the assets of its wards.

Sun Valley this week petitioned the court to transfer about 80 of its cases to a fiduciary in Yuma who intends to relocate her operation to Phoenix. The attorneys for a number of incapacitated clients who were present for the hearing questioned whether a single firm could adequately take on such a large load of new clients. The judge seemed likely to agree, indicating that she did not expect to approve the transfer of 80 cases at once.

Source: The Arizona Republic "Major fiduciary firm is going out of business" Robert Anglen, February 8, 2011