Jun 13, 2015 | aging, aging investor, diminished cognition, elder investor, elderly, finances for elders, financial capacity, financial elder abuse, finra, handling money for aging parents, handling money for seniors, investor, senior citizen investor, senior investor, seniors finances
Why Delay Is Not A Solution
The securities industry is pushing to impose temporary holds on certain transactions that may be precipitated by a clients’ declining mental capacity, or purported loved ones who may be trying to swindle them. Sounds good in theory. Too bad it won’t solve the problem of financial abuse. Does the industry think that waiting is going to make the problem of predators go away?
Here is an example of a real case in which this exact method of the broker waiting and hoping didn’t do a thing for the elder who was being abused. READ what happened:
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Jun 10, 2015 | aging, aging investor, elder investor, elderly, financial elder abuse, investor, scammers, senior citizen investor, senior investor
Have you ever heard the term “undue influence”? from time to time, Most people don’t really understand what it means. Is it just some weird legal thing? Or should you understand it? When it comes to seniors and financial abuse, the term becomes very important, because undue influence can readily lead to financial abuse.The legal concept of undue influence goes way back in history to the 1600s. A lot of our law in the US is based on what our British ancestors did. Sure enough there is an old case in which a woman pretended to love an older man and pressured or influenced him to give her all his money and property upon his death. She didn’t love him. She was married to someone else. The elderly man changed his will and left everything to her, and not to his own family. His family sued, she lost and they got the estate he would have left to them if he hadn’t been under the influence of this woman.
The English court found that she had used undue influence on him to get him to change his will.Centuries have passed but the same problem exists today. People use their relationship with someone to get them to give money or property to the influencer. We hear about it all the time at AgingParents.com where we work with families helping them deal with issues about aging loved ones. The struggle in families about control over an aging parent’s finances often comes about because someone thinks another family member is using undue influence over a vulnerable elder. And sometimes it’s true!Laws about undue influence vary from state to state. Where I live in CA, we have a really good definition that helps people prove when someone was under undue influence of another person. Keeping it simple and non-legal sounding this is the essence of the definition: Undue influence is excessive persuasion that causes another person to act or refrain from acting by overcoming that person’s free will and results in something that isn’t in the influenced person’s best interests. A person who is elderly, frail, dependent on others for care or who is undergoing a lot of stress is particularly vulnerable.
The influencer is usually in a position of trust, like a family member or a position of authority over the one being influenced. The person in authority could be a professional, such as a financial advisor or lawyer, or it could be a caregiver.
What are some of the classic warning signs of undue influence?
Here are five of them:
1. The victim is vulnerable, such as shortly after a spouse has died or because he or she has dementia and can’t make good decisions. But a person can be vulnerable just because of being lonely too.
2. The influencer assumes power, authority or control over the one being influenced. This could come from the relationship, where the one being influenced thinks the influencer can be trusted and doesn’t question them.
3. Isolation of the senior, and doing things in secret, in a hurry or because the influencer tells the victim that everyone else is against her.
4. Sudden changes in a long-standing estate plan, including a will and or trust. The so-called “natural heirs” or family are cut out of what they were going to inherit and it goes to someone outside the family as a result of the senior being influenced to make those changes.
5. Something happens that is not fair or reasonable for the victim. For example, another seizes control over their assets and they can no longer choose what to do with them. Or the elder’s home is sold and he is forced to go to a nursing home against his will. These are examples of harm or an unfair result to the victim.
Undue influence is legally related to financial abuse. Harm to the elder in some way is the result and it always involves money, property or an agreement that affects the elder’s welfare.
We hope you have a good idea now of undue influence. If you see any of the warning signs happening to someone in your life, to a client, family member or friend, speak up!
Seek legal advice from an elder law attorney or report the harm you see to Adult Protective Services.
Working together, we can all do something to stop elder abuse.
We offer our assistance and resources in helping you do the right thing at AgingParents.com and AgingInvestor.com
Carolyn Rosenblatt, R.N, Elder Law Attorney & Dr. Mikol Davis, Psychologist, Gerontologist
May 29, 2015 | aging, aging investor, diminished cognition, elder investor, elderly, financial elder abuse, finra, investor, medicare, scammers, senior citizen investor, senior investor
Most of us hear about unscrupulous family members taking advantage of their aging parents or grandparents. And everyone knows that internet scams abound. The one in which the scammer calls an elder and pretends to be a grandchild in trouble is notorious. And unfortunately, successful as it still goes on. Funds from grandma’s account get wired to Western Union and the thief disappears.
Financial elder abuse is rampant. The National Center On Elder Abuse puts the amount stolen from elders each year at $2.9B. But a privately run recent study calculated the amount at a shocking $36B+ per year. Who is doing this to our seniors?
Family members are the most frequent abusers of elders, because of access, exploiting the relationship of trust, and knowing just how easily manipulated a parent or other loved one can become with aging and dementia. Family members usually know how much money their parents have and how to get the parent to either give it to them or give them control over it so they can take it without the parent’s knowledge. Sadly, we see this often in our consulting work at AgingParents.com.
Caregivers, who also develop a relationship of trust with their care recipients, have the advantage of being with the elder in unsupervised situations. Ruthless caregivers get the elder to sign a power of attorney and being dependent on the caregiver, the elder may be fearful and intimidated if she does not acquiesce to the demands of the caregiver. In one case, a caregiver managed to steal $4M from a 74 year old client with multiple sclerosis who became physically unable to manage for herself. The caregiver got a power of attorney and opened 67 accounts in eleven banks. One bank finally caught on and reported their suspicions, but it was too late. The caregiver went to jail but the elder died before the criminal’s sentencing.
In spite of the easy access family and caregivers have to seniors, the most dollars are actually stolen from elders every year by professionals. That includes broker-dealers, insurance sales persons, lawyers and others in a position of both trust and authority to manipulate or outright steal elders’ funds. About a third of FINRA prosecutions involve elders. There are ripoff artists among us.
One thing that doesn’t seem to change over time is the reality that most cases of elder abuse go unreported to authorities and are therefore never prosecuted. The thieves get away with it. In one case we saw in our office, a 92 year old whose son had power of attorney for her took thousands of dollars from her bank account and refused to account for it. We were involved in helping her change the authority he had over her finances. I spoke with her and described that what her son had done was wrong and was a crime. She knew it was wrong and did not want to take action. Her response: “I don’t want my son prosecuted”.
Many elders are more frail and less willing to pursue legal remedies than a younger person may be. They suffer from shame, depression and embarrassment that they have been so taken in by anyone. Some just don’t have the energy to fight back and the thieves know this. They count on it.
What can the concerned financial professional do about financial abuse? There are ways you can be more vigilant and protective of clients than ever. Here are five things to keep in mind for any aging client.
- Know that even at the very earliest stages of dementia, a client is likely to be moderately impaired for making safe financial decisions. Pay attention to their ability or lack of it to understand complex or risky products such as non-traded REITS, which regulators disapprove of selling to seniors. Avoid suggesting or offering any products which require significant analysis by the client if you have even a hint of cognitive decline in that client.
- Know that age alone is a risk factor for developing dementia and its accompanying diminished capacity. By the time your clients reach age 85, at least a third of them will have Alzheimer’s Disease or other dementia. Two out of three persons affected by Alzheimer’s are women. Be especially vigilant with your aging female clients.
- Know your client. If he or she departs from a long standing spending pattern and you suddenly see unexplained large cash withdrawals, be suspicious, ask questions and probe. Someone could have gotten control over your client’s account. Don’t stand idly by. Get involved and find out. Report abuse if you suspect it. Take action to stop the abuse. Protect your client.
- If you work in an organization where professional colleagues have aging clients and there is opportunity to either sell them unsuitable investment products or otherwise manipulate these elders, lobby your organization for enhanced and more frequent scrutiny of all client accounts for people age 65 and up. The Federal Government and state laws define an “elder” as someone 65 and above. Watch those accounts more often and in more detail.
- Develop your own best practices, senior-specific policy, in writing. Training in best practices and commitment to your clients’ safety will enable you to get it right. Once you have a clear policy in place for yourself independently or for your organization, everyone can respond to red flags of diminished capacity and warning signs of elder abuse in a uniform way. That will enhance your ability to honor your clients so you can protect him from predators.
By Carolyn Rosenblatt, RN, Elder Law Attorney
AgingInvestor.com
Apr 18, 2015 | aging, aging investor, elder investor, elderly, financial elder abuse, finra, investor, scammers, senior citizen investor, senior investor
Imagine this scenario. The person making all financial decisions was the man of the house. His somewhat timid wife, married to him for many years, never wanted the responsibility to decide how to invest. They had a multimillion dollar estate. Then Harry, her husband died and she was totally unprepared.
That’s “Rosanna’s” story. Rosanna was married for decades to Harry who passed away at age 85. She was 82 at the time. They had three adult daughters and one son, Jackson. Their son was never a steady job holder and had fantasies of how he was going to be a business owner. After his father died, he saw an opportunity. He could easily manipulate his mother, who looked to him to essentially take Harry’s place with decisions about investments. Rosanna had begun to suffer serious memory problems and couldn’t remember a conversation from morning to evening. She was clearly a person with diminished capacity.
Jackson was a co-trustee on the parents’ trust with his mother and sisters, but had sole power to make investment decisions. He conspired with the long time broker-dealer who used to work with his father. The broker also saw an opportunity. The broker told Jackson that he could help him out but Jackson needed to put a lot more of Rosanna’s money into variable annuities. What this meant was that her money would be tied up for years, unless she paid a stiff surrender charge to get to it. A full 87% of Rosanna’s money was then shifted into variable annuities. When Harry died, the amount invested in annuities was about 40%, which was plenty. This shift of most assets into annuities of course generated a huge commission for the broker. About the same time, Jackson took a six-figure loan from Rosanna’s trust without consulting his sisters and without informing them.
They were angry and upset with Jackson for manipulating their mother, for taking out a “loan” from their mother’s trust, which he didn’t pay back and for sneaking around behind their backs putting so much into variable annuities. That was going to affect their inheritance. When the sisters called me, we discussed the issue of manipulation of their mother. No one had ever checked her out for her capacity for financial decisions. When her daughters wanted her to see a doctor to find out more about her memory troubles, Jackson vetoed it. Rosanna consulted Jackson on everything. This meant that legal action was necessary. I referred them to an elder abuse attorney to take up the cause. They were very distressed and not speaking to Jackson. Meanwhile, Jackson again manipulated his mother to get money from her, with which he hired an attorney to harass and threaten the sisters. It was ugly.
No one can be sure how this nasty tale will play out, but the regulators will probably not like the fact that the broker put so much of an 85 year old’s assets into variable annuities. They will probably not like that he had to override his firm’s internal controls set up to prevent that. They will probably not like the fact that the net result is that the estate lost a significant sum compared with what it would have done in conventional investments suitable for an 85 year old. I sent the sisters the forms to file complaints with both FINRA and the SEC. They will also have an attorney to represent them in that matter.
And as for Jackson, I hope that the courts will deal with him justly. He is looking out for himself, that is clear. As a trustee, he had a legal duty to the trust, not to his own self interest in grabbing a six figure “loan” from the trust that he had no means to repay.
The takeaway here is that your aging clients, particularly the very unsophisticated ones like Rosanna are sitting ducks for abuse by unscrupulous brokers. And it is up the the advisors who are ethical to blow the whistle. It is up to everyone to seek justice for the unwary who become victims of manipulation because of greed, the ease of taking advantage of an elder, and the attitude that “it’s not my problem, she’s not my client”. Please make it your business. At AgingInvestor.com, we want to put a stop to this kind of abuse. We urge you to join us!
Click HERE if you want to help us make a difference.
Until next time,
Mar 16, 2015 | aging, aging investor, elder investor, elderly, financial elder abuse, investor, scammers, senior citizen investor, senior investor
Attention Financial Professionals: Are You A Hero? We want to highlight you!
We are very interested in financial planners, wealth managers, RIAs, CFPs, trust officers and others who have protected elderly clients from abuse or stopped it after they became aware of abuse or predatory practices. Without a fiduciary standard, inappropriate products are being sold to elders by some in the financial field. And that doesn’t even address the outside predators who seek out elderly victims. They’re everywhere.
At AgingInvestor.com we are allies of the elderly, having spent years of our lives serving them, my wife as a nurse and then a litigator and myself as a mental health provider.
We will be sponsoring a contest in early April to feature the best of the best in financial services who stopped or prevented elder abuse.
My wife and partner Carolyn Rosenblatt blogs at Forbes.com (Aging Parents) and AgingInvestor.com to keep those in this community informed. We want to tell your stories. We hope to educate others in the field and this community by highlighting the actions of courageous people who stepped up to stop scammers, thieves and greedy players inside or outside the financial services field itself. We have a few great candidates already! We know you’re out there. Submit your own name and story or that of someone you respect for their abuse prevention efforts to hero@aginginvestor.com. If you need to remain anonymous for political or personal reasons, we will honor that and not use your real name, location or work place. We want to share your exemplary actions. And if what you did was leave a large organization so you wouldn’t be part of abusive practices there, we think that’s heroic too. Please tell us. We’ll protect your identity totally.
Your stories will inspire others to follow your lead. We’ll feature you in our newsletter with your permission, and let our social media contacts know that you are a standout among the rest. If you want anonymity, we will simply point out the problems that spurred you take the steps you did and that we want to honor the decisions you made. We applaud you.
Thanks for joining us.
Sincerely,
Dr. Mikol Davis & Carolyn Rosenblatt, RN, Attorney
AgingInvestor.com
