| | TAMMERLIN DRUMMOND: TIMES COLUMNISTElder financial abuse has become a hidden national epidemicAN EX-CONVICT who works at an Antioch car wash "befriends" an 82-year-old customer with dementia. Over time, he not only persuades the World War II veteran to give him more than $300,000 in cash and annuities, but he also gets the elderly man to change his will making him sole beneficiary. |
- A drastic change in banking activity, especially sudden and frequent withdrawals
- Withdrawals from a bank account that had not been used in years
- Signatures on checks that do not resemble the elder s
- Frequent checks written to cash
- Unexplained wire transfers and other payments for large sums for foreign lotteries and telemarketing promotions
- Elder lacks amenities that he should be able to afford
- Valuable personal property is missing
- Senior voluntarily gives compensation for needed care or companionship
- Long lost relatives suddenly concerned about an elder with assets
- Senior signs power of attorneys, property transfers, and conducts other financial transacations that he cannot comprehend
- Change of beneficiary on a senior s bank or life insurance policies
- Senior buys inappropriate trusts and annuities
Source: The Elder Law Clinic
- Call the Elder Law Clinic : 925-969-3341
- Adult Protective Services 1-877 -4347
- Adult Protective Services: 1-877-839-4347
- State Attorney General s Office: 1-800-952-5225
- Elder Financial Protection Network: 415-897-9555
- Long Term Care Ombudsman 925-646-2070
- Public Guardian s Office 925-646-2901
- Legal Assistance for Seniors 510-832-3040
- National Do Not Call Registry 1-888-382-1222
- He repeatedly pressures an elder for money
- Tells senior that if he doesn t give it to him, he will end up in a nursing home
- Uses elder s money to buy cars, houses and other costly items
- Pressures senior for a power of attorney, to add his name to property deeds or bank accounts
- Doesn t allow a senior to speak for himself
- Isolates elder from relatives and friends
- Signs of trouble:
Caretaker isolates the senior from family and friends, asks clearly inappropriate questions about a senior s will and assets, suddenly has new cars and other expensive possessions.
- Steps to help prevent abuse
Always check background and references, give caretaker specific responsibilities, not an unreasonable list of chores;. monitor senior s bank accounts and investments closely; Don t allow care-taker to write checks on elder s account; ask for written receipts
- If you suspect abuse:
Contact your local police department or county Adult Protective Services.
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| | Updated: December 26, 2007 12:08:36 PM PST | | TO GET A SENSE of the horrible things that happen to defenseless elderly people behind closed doors, visit Alameda County's Elder Protection Court in Oakland on a Friday morning.
CARMEN PAREDES SEEMED like such a sweet, friendly person. "You just never would have suspected it," said Kathleen Whittaker, who hired the Peruvian native in 1998 to help take care of her 83-year-old uncle, William Fowler.
AN OAKLAND WOMAN steals $200,000 from her sick 73-year-old mother's bank account. She blows most of it at Cache Creek Casino. Her life savings gone, the senior now has to get by on Social Security.
THE $23,095.58 WIRE transfer from Jack Whittaker's savings account at the Antioch Schools Federal Credit Union was the first sign something was fishy.
A day after the money had left his account, the 82-year-old widower went in to the credit union to make a withdrawal.
THE BANK WAS threatening to foreclose on Lonnie Davis' El Cerrito home.
One day, the 76-year-old retired school custodian got a postcard in the mail from someone offering 11th-hour help.
THE JURY DIDN'T BUY Ronald Brock's defense: That a 76-year-old-San Mateo man who had mental problems all of his life had voluntarily given his former legal adviser $661,000.
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| | Discuss the series
- Share your own thoughts and experiences on the growing problem of elder financial abuse on the discussion boards.
- Times columnist Tammerlin Drummond answered readers' questions about the series in an online forum on Dec. 14. Read the discussion here.
| Response to the series
- "I have waited since 1978 for someone to address the problem with elder abuse. I was a caregiver for my parents and discovered the worse abuse comes from 'White collar crime.' I mean the lawyers, accountants, doctors. They build a wall and it is greater than the Wall of China. My dad's longtime lawyer went to my dad's death bed to have him sign his joint tenancy property with my mom over to dad's name alone so it would got to probate and the lawyer would get a probate fee. I stopped him in his tracks. The law at that time was that joint tenancy would have gone to my my mom without probate."
- "You are right. We need better resources to fund the agencies that handle these matters initially before it reaches the judicial system. Furthermore, these agencies need to make surprise visits in order to evaluate what is really happening in these environments."
- "Thank you for your article. I am a senior 78 yars old. I am fortunate my son phones me every day and always visits on the weekend. When seniors are lonely and have no one that even cares about them, that's when criminals arrive to relieve them of their hard-earned savings. They pretend to care and the seniors bond with them. It's very sad, especially when the senior has dementia."
- "You might have mentioned that the elderly also become paranoid and this can lead to strange financial moves. They turn against people who are trying to help them, convinced that they are being neglected by those who are actually caring for them, fearful that they are headed for a nursing home. That, coupled with the generous financial impulses you mentioned, make them vulnerable to changing wills or making other financial transfers to people who rarely see them, but are associated in the elderly person's mind with a time in their lives when they were healthy and happy."
- "I would like to thank all of the pople who worked on the editorial series "Theft of Elder Nation." Every day I read the articles the more I wanted to get involved in protecting our elderly. Myself, having an elderly mom in her eighties just brought home the problem. Awareness is a good tool and the series has brought elder abuse awareness to the front of the line."
- "A friend has an elderly father who was living with his other son in Texas. Unbeknownst to my friend, his brother was abusing his dad both physically and financially. Because of the distance and lack of contact, my friend did not become aware of this until his brother ran off with his girlfriend after draining the money and furnishings from his father. My friend filed criminal charges against his brother and brought his dad to a care facility in California. Lesson--keep in close contact with your elderly relatives, especially those far removed."
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