Posted on 03/18/2017 11:55:08 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
WASHINGTON, DC, Mar 17 – Incidents of elder abuse are increasing at an alarming rate across the nation, according to the U.S. Justice Department and other authoritative private and public agencies.
Dan Weber, president of the Association of Mature American Citizens, says the financial exploitation of seniors is a “particularly insidious form of senior abuse but that victims seem loathe to report such crimes. Perhaps it is because the perpetrators can often be their caregivers, including family members. In fact, while one in 20 seniors reports being a victim of crime to the authorities, there is significant evidence that many more seniors are targets. The Justice Department points out that only one in 23 elderly victims of abuse is apt to file a complaint.”
He cites a report by the National Center on Elder Abuse that concluded: “The elderly may be reluctant to report abuse themselves because of fear of retaliation, lack of physical and/or cognitive ability to report, or because they do not want to get the abuser in trouble.”
The financial services firm, True Link Financial, says its research indicates that seniors lose some $36.5 billion a year due to financial exploitation by individuals whom they trusted with their care.
“That’s a startling amount of money but it is not only a financial loss victims face. Many of them become morosely depressed; they can become even more dependent than they were to begin with; and, it can have negative consequences on their physical and mental health,” Weber points out.
So, what can be done when financial exploitation of an older family member or friend is discovered? It should be reported, of course, to law enforcement officials. But, an immediate intervention may be called for. Seek help from organizations and agencies that deal with such matters, including eldercare.gov, the National Adult Protective Services Association and local Adult Protective Services programs. You can also visit www.justice.gov/elderjustice/roadmap, the Justice Department’s Elder Abuse Resource Roadmap.
You should take action if a senior you know manifests a sudden change in his or her financial condition, if he or she is missing cash and/or other valuables, or if he or she suddenly makes changes in wills and/or insurance policies.
And, Weber suggests, if you are a victim of financial exploitation, do not be afraid to report it. “And, by all means, take precautions such as asking a trusted friend or family member to help keep your financial affairs in order and by keeping in contact with those individuals.”
ABOUT AMAC
The Association of Mature American Citizens [http://www.amac.us] is a vibrant, vital senior advocacy organization that takes its marching orders from its members. We act and speak on their behalf, protecting their interests and offering a practical insight on how to best solve the problems they face today. Live long and make a difference by joining us today at http://amac.us/join-amac.
I take care of my elderly Dad, who can’t see well enough anymore to pay his bills, can’t get around to do his shopping; I took his car & license away a number of years back due to his poor eyesight. (He was still driving around with an expired license and his (also elderly) eye doctor kept telling him it was OK for him to drive. Yeesh!
Anyhow, I have receipts and have documented every DIME spent on him (his money, or my own that I sometimes need to chip in for him) because I know in my heart & head how easily our arrangement could go south if anyone objected.
Other family members won’t do jack for him, but I’m betting that when he dies, if there’s any $ left in his estate, they will be there with their hands out.
I am so glad to have grown up in a Generational home when my elderly Grandparents lived with us as they aged. I sure wish people would make more of an effort to care for their own. It’s really the LEAST you can do if you had decent, loving parents. (All bets are off if your parents were drunks, abused you, etc.)
The courts helped hubby’s sister do financial abuse of their dad. We had an attorney who documented it all, tabbed every page of the documentation, and hand walked it to our district attorneys office. Nothing was ever done. Over half a million dollars she out and out stole from him. All this while court proceedings were ongoing because she had taken him down, while he had dementia, and had him change his trust to put her in charge of everything.
They really don’t care.
I have a good friend whose brother did that. Stole ALL of Dad’s money to the tune of MILLIONS and lived a lavish lifestyle while he was supposedly ‘caring’ for Dad.
The two sisters did sue him, but they didn’t see anything come of it, either. With all that stolen money, their Brother could afford a REALLY good attorney!
*SPIT*
We won the court case but it was too late. Dad had died 3 months prior. We started the whole thing because she threw him in a rest home. Hubby supposedly was in charge. We found out she had had Dad change the trust. Hubby didn’t care about the money. He just wanted him back home with care. He was totally healthy just had dementia.
But the courts gave her temporary control of the trust which included power of attorney over medical. The day after she cashed out half a million dollars of cds and put all the money in her account.
Took us 3 years in court with dad begging us every day to please let him go home. By the time we won it was too late.
Needless to say hubby wants to spit on his sisters grave. Sooner rather than later. Lol
Even though elder abuse laws have MASSIVELY expanded in recent years with the reconition that this happens so often it’s silly, there is no getting around the idea that he or she who gets there first gets the assets in 95% of cases whether by action of law or by theft. And it is PHENOMENALLY expensive to fight any of this after the fact. I spent $42K in legal costs trying to get back fully documented and notarized as to disposition financial accounts totalling $466K my uncle had left to me that just got blatantly ripped off. I was lucky to recover those legal fees and a teeny bit more, not even a penny on the dollar.
And, once the elder becomes incompetent, non compus mentis, each and every action taken must be done under the supervision of a conservator, a hire usually amounting to $25-$35K. If you (caretaker, most attentive offspring, in whatever of several forms) have not achieved a comprehensive estate plan by the time the elder loses coherence, your task is complicated 100 times and you will become the target of opportunity of a small but dedicated flock of vultures.
The people who are skilled at extracting estate assets (and the people who are flat out thieves, which means the lawyers they can now afford to hire) have usually done this many times. This is your first time. Once a pile of money is in account “B” (the waylayer’s account) and out of account “A”, the former owner, this simply becomes a fact that most judges are loath to undo, regardless of the apparent righteousness of your case and the overt predatory nature of the waylayer’s case. From the legal standpoint it is critical to understand that outside of exceptional evidence, when a big pile of money leaves account “A” and lands in acct “B”, there is huge assumption and presumption that this was a voluntary transfer and the person seeking to undo that transfer is a prospective thief. Even if that person has the same last name as the decedent/former owner/grantor and the thief doesn’t. Go read elder abuse law in CA. There is in black and white a very simple 2-paragraph “presumption” that assets that bypass a same-last-name relative and go to a so-called caretaker are de facto stolen. It meant utterly nothing in my case. (Uncle and I have the same unusual last name)
This is a situation where it will be learned that the law absolutely does not enforce itself. It takes an aggrieved party willing to spend very serious money to launch any sort of legal challenge and there is no guarantee such a challenge will be effective.
What can be done in advance to prevent this?
Financial power of attorney to a trustworthy relative while the elder is still competent?
Close. Power of attorney POA has to be created & granted while the elder is still competent but it disappears upon the elder’s incapacity. *Durable* power of attorney will survive incapacity of the grantor BUT YOU HAVE TO BE PERFECTLY CAREFUL because SOME banks & brokerages will honor the DPOA and some will not and if you do not know and do not ask...guess how you are going to find out?
Parents stock acct was with Schwab & had been there for 20+ years. Gave Schwab notarized documents of the trust and instrutions. They WOULD NOT honor the “durable” POA. We thrashed around with them for about 2 days and moved the account “instantly” when we decided there was serious danger leaving the account there. Why? Because if Schwab would not honor the DPOA, then WTF? Do we have to hire a conservator? That’s $25K minimum. Does that account now get shuffled into forced probate? 9-18 months delay, huge costs.
My brother and I handled my parents estate. Bro is an atty but not an estate atty. We had had a very useful form of trust built many years ago known as a “disclaimer” trust that I had not heard about (AND HAVE NOT HEARD ABOUT SINCE) but it worked out famously for us. It is apparently nothing special but I hear about it NOWHERE. In this kind of trust, in a community property state, normally the surviving spouse will inherit the full estate. Many older couples have the bulk of their assets in a valuable house and a significant stock/bond portfolio. This is what we had. While both are alive, they each own 50% of house and 50% of stock. When one dies, the survivor owns 100% of both. This form of trust allows the surviving spouse to “disclaim”; eg; give up ownership of half the trust-—the half he/she automatically inherits upon the death of the other—and this allows the disclaimed half to be distributed early to the heirs. The surviving trustor must be very confident that the means will remain to take care of him/her. This allowed us to rehab the house which cost $100K but yielded about a $250K gain so it was well worth it.
It’s possible to have POA for health decisions and a separate one for financial decisions and of course for those power to be granted to different people.
**Financial power of attorney to a trustworthy relative while the elder is still competent?**
I have done that. My daughter takes care of it and checks with my son on things, too.
With the attorney’s name on the document, they know better than to mess up.
I left a hole in my explanation. Eg; after the second spouse dies the trust falls under the control of the administrator. (Executor, with a will) Now the question arises, what if there is a potential intra-sibling issue as to control of the trust assets once the admin is in control? Most often, one of the children is elected the admin. Well, what prevents that sibling from running off with the assets? (Answer: nothing) Then the answer might well be to have a DPOA, AND specific instructions in the will inside the trust that assets are to be disbursed per the instructions of a person whom is NOT the admin but instead is a trusted relative or an atty. I DO NOT KNOW if that is possible. Normally, the admin is the admin, period. It would be ideal if there is some contention among siblings/heirs. The disadvantage is that the atty has to be hired (eg; paid) for every disposition decision, every chair and teapot, once that phase is entered. And again, the brokerage holding the financial assets must be pre-asked whether and how they will honor such an arrangement.
A lot of hinky stuff happens in the admin stage because most often there is an adult child massively more involved in the care of the elder in the final years and there is another sibling on the other side of the country. The “inside” sibling may harbor resentment as to the sacrifice they have put in and may feel justified in taking an excess share when the time comes to divvy up the estate. Then the “outside” sibling gets freaked, hires an attorney to protect their interest, and then the atty meter starts turning over at giant cost.
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