By: William D. Slicker, Esq.*
Pooled Trusts are an investment strategy for people with special needs. Frequently, these are people who are in guardianships or people who are the beneficiaries of personal injury settlements. Many people in these categories pool their money together but each individual is supposed to maintain his or her separate account within the pooled trust. The pooled trust money is then managed in a way that is supposed to preserve the monies and spend them for the benefit of each beneficiary of the pooled trust.
Unfortunately, there is no uniform oversight of these pooled trusts and there have been pooled trust managers that have misappropriated funds from their pooled trusts.
In 2007, in Orlando, attorney Linda Littlefield and her husband, Ross Littlefield, created the JNN Special Needs Asset Preservation Pooled Income Trust, which collected approximately $4.7 million from special needs clients. Once the funds were placed into the foundation, the Littlefields transferred the money to other accounts under their control and used the money for their own personal benefit. The Littlefields stole approximately $2.8 million from their clients. Linda Littlefield was disbarred and sentenced to 5 years in federal prison. Her husband was sentenced to 4 years in federal prison.[1]
More recently, multiple people started complaining that the money of a special needs family member was missing from the Center for Special Needs Trust Administration, Inc. headquartered in St. Petersburg, Florida. It appeared that the manager of the pooled trust, Leo Govoni, had loaned to his companies over $100 million, which was about half of the money in the pooled trust.[2] As a result of the multiple claims against it, the Center for Special Needs Trust Administration, Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on 9 February 2024.[3] Govoni was subsequently indicted by the U.S. Trustee in Tampa for a fraud scheme that involved stealing at least $100 million from more than 1,500 vulnerable people with special needs.[4] The case is presently set for a June, 2026 trial.[5]
These and other instances of misappropriation of funds have raised concern about the lack of oversight of these pooled trusts.
At the national level, the Alliance of Pooled Trust has been formed to try to address the potential abuses of pooled trusts, oversight of pooled trusts, and legislation of pooled trusts.
At the Florida Bar level, the Florida Bar’s Elder Law Section has produced a white paper regarding pooled trusts. Part of what the Elder Law Section is looking into is proposed legislation that would require a central registry for pooled trusts and state funding for independent audits of pooled trusts.
At the Florida judicial level, Judges Pamela Campell and Sherwood Coleman have come up with a checklist order for pooled trusts. This order is a list of information about a pooled trust that a petitioner must provide to the judge regarding a proposed pooled trust prior to the judge granting any petition for the court to place any money into the pooled trust. That checklist reads as follows:
Prior to the Court considering the Petition for Authorization to Establish a Special Needs Pooled Trust, please provide the following information:
1. How long has the company been in operation?
2. Are there any relationships between the guardian, the guardian’s attorney, and the pooled trust company that could be perceived as a conflict of interest?
3. How are the trustee fees calculated and assessed, and how often are they paid?
4. Does the company have errors and omissions insurance? Who is the carrier and what is the value of the policy, and who is covered?
5. Is there any insurance coverage for theft of any funds under management by the company?
6. Does the company have independent audits performed and how frequently?
7. Can the company confirm that all investments are in FDIC or SIPC insured products?
8. Does the Company provide annual or more frequent accountancy of each individual trust managed by the Company?
9. Does the Company have a Board of Directors, who meet regularly, and review the financial reports?
10. Are all the Company’s required tax filings current?
11. Does the Company require background checks on employees who handle finances?
12. Has the Company gone through any kind of adverse audit by any regulatory agency, i.e., DFC, IRS, etc., if so, please describe and state whether the audit is complete, and the results of such audit.
Once this information is provided, the Court can consider the Petition.
It is anticipated that other judges will soon have similar requirements. Accordingly, the days of asking the court for permission to put a client’s funds into a pooled trust being automatically granted are over. In the future, counsel should be prepared to ask questions and get information from the proposed pooled trust in order to get a judge to approve placing client funds into a pool trust.
*Some of the information in this article came from a webinar for guardians presented by attorney Travis Finchum and Judge Pamela Campbell.
[1] US Attorney’s Office Middle District of Florida Disbarred Attorney and Her Ex Husband Sentenced to Prison for Stealing $2.8 million from clients 18 October 2013, https://www.justice.gov/usao-mdfl/pr/disbarred-attorney-and-her-ex-husband-sentenced-prison-stealing-28-million-clients
[2] Muller, Brittany, St. Pete non-profit missing $100M to shut down permanently amid FBI Investigation, News Channel 8, 28 Oct 2024, https://www.wfla.com/8-on-your-side/st-pete-non-profit-missing-100m-to-shut-down-permanently-amid-fbi-investigation/
[3] Middle District of Florida Case 24-00676.
[4] Florida Non-Profit Founder and Accountant Charged with Conspiracy to Commit Wire and Mail Fraud, Office of Public Affairs (June 23, 2025) https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/florida-nonprofit-founder-and-accountant-charged-stealing-over-100m-special-needs-victimsl Aaron Mesmer, Leo Govoni Fraud, Fox13 News (Feb. 10, 2026)
[5] United States v. Govoni, Case No. 8:25-cr-299-VMC-HNA (Feb. 2026) https://www.justice.gov/usao-mdfl/Govoni
