Your Family Members May be Your Worst Enemy

The following is from Jeff D. Opdyke, Intimate Betrayal: When the Elderly Are Robbed by Their Family Members, Wall St. J., Aug. 30, 2006, at D1:

Financial swindles are one of the fastest-growing forms of elder abuse. * * *  Yet it’s not dodgy financial experts or crooked caregivers who are the biggest threat. It’s family. Children, siblings, grandchildren, nieces and nephews, and even spouses are the people most likely to rob the elderly, according to elder-law advocates and attorneys. * * *

Some of the offenses are straightforward: A grandson swipes checks and makes them out to “cash”; a daughter uses the power-of-attorney over Mom’s bank account to apply for an ATM card and withdraws money without authority; a son taking care of Dad’s finances uses his father’s credit card for personal purchases.

Other crimes are more intricate and generally depend on manipulating an elderly person’s emotions. Over time, a niece hired to help an elderly aunt persuades her to redirect certain assets to the niece in a will or to designate the niece as the beneficiary of investment accounts or insurance policies; a nephew coerces an uncle to put the nephew’s name on the deed to the uncle’s house. In some instances, a sibling caring for a brother or sister pays for substandard care and lets bills go unpaid in order to preserve assets the sibling stands to inherit.