Case Studies

Imagine working all your life and saving for your retirement, only to have your financial resources stolen right out from under you. Imagine facing declining health only to find that you no longer have the funds to pay for the quality and quantity of health services you need and desire.

Financial elder abuse is one of the most serious crimes facing older adults because monies that have been spent can rarely be recovered or re-earned. Older adults who lose their assets also lose their choices. The quality of life, what we want to look forward to in our golden years, is damaged or destroyed permanently. Be prepared: learn about the dangers of financial elder abuse and what you can do to protect yourself and your loved ones.

Mother and Daughter – One Home

A mother is living with her daughter. She suspects that her daughter is using her funds for her daughter's wants and needs, but she is hesitant to turn her own daughter in because, without her daughter, the she might have to go and live in an assisted living facility. Unaware that she has other options, the mother puts up with her daughter’s financial elder abuses, rather than report the situation to the proper authorities, and lives an impoverished lifestyle.

Scams, Fraud, and Schemes

Older adults may simply be confused or misinformed by telemarketers and other hucksters who promise great prizes or returns through a variety of scams, insurance fraud schemes or other games and give-a-ways. In many of these cases, the financial abuse is discovered by a caring relative who wonders why a senior's financial resources are suddenly falling sharply or simply no longer exist.

The Last Year

An elderly gentleman died leaving his home and all other assets to a handyman he met one year earlier. The senior had no other family however, before he met the handyman, the senior had set up a will leaving his assets to a friend of more than 20 years. The senior was also a recovering alcoholic and had been sober for 15 years. In his last year of life, the handyman facilitated the senior’s return to alcoholism resulting in several hospitalizations and finally death.

Adult Protective Services had been involved in the case for several months before the senior died. They called in law enforcement and asked them to make a preliminary investigation of the handyman. In the past 10 years, he had obtained 5 or 6 homes from elderly folks whom he had befriended. Law enforcement wanted to investigate further to see if there was a pattern of financial elder abuse by the handyman.

At the FAST meeting, in approximately 30 minutes, the officers were able to get answers to their questions regarding:

1. Real estate transactions from the real estate consultants and the offer to do further investigation of real estate records
2. General medical and mental health information from the geriatric physician and neuro-psychologist consultants
3. Lead on tracking down the other alleged victims from the Social Security consultant
4. Offer from the Sheriff’s office to share their sophisticated investigation equipment with the smaller agency
5. Guidance on testing the validity of the testamentary documents from the legal services consultants
6. Information on accessing bank records from the banker consultants, and
7. A checklist from the vertical prosecutor for elder abuse from the District Attorney’s office setting forth specifically what law enforcement would need to provide for a successful prosecution of this case.