ATTORNEY NEWSLETTER
Caregivers And Financial Elder Abuse
Isolated Seniors At Greatest Risk
Seniors Captive In Their Own Home
Caregiver fraud on the elderly is a very real, and growing, danger. The Alameda County and California elder abuse attorneys at Evans Law Firm, Inc. represent seniors victimized by abusive caregivers and others. Through their experience, our litigators have identified one common denominator in all the cases they handle – isolation of the elderly victim. Greedy caregivers pounce on isolated older persons because those persons may have no one to turn to for help and, even if they do, the caregiver can take steps to block communications with relatives who would stand up for the senior if they only knew what was going on. If you or someone you know is a victim of financial elder abuse in Alameda County or elsewhere in California, call us today at 415-441-8669, and we can help.
One sample of our elder abuse cases illustrates the danger of isolation. In the case, a single, elder man with health issues turned to a caregiver for assistance because he had no children or nearby relatives who could help him. The caregiver moved in, took over his financial affairs and health care needs, including his diet, mobility and administration of his medications. Through online and phone access to his financial accounts, she got herself named as the payable on death beneficiary of his bank accounts, life insurance, and retirement benefits. She accessed his checkbook and forged checks made out to herself and others in her family. She exerted undue influence over him to get him to name her as beneficiary of a very large IRA. She tried to get his home transferred to her. Moments after he suffered a stroke in his home, she had him ”sign” a Power of Attorney and a handwritten “Will” she drafted leaving his home and all his possessions to her.
Isolated and bedridden, the older man’s condition rapidly declined. Friends and health care providers were turned away at the door or their calls were blocked by the caregiver. Eventually, the senior went into hospice care, where the caregiver continued to administer his prescribed medications, including fentanyl and morphine. When the senior died, the caregiver attempted to keep the circumstances of his death hidden from his siblings, who lived out of State. But after contacting the elder abuse attorneys at Evans Law Firm, the siblings decided to contest the bogus Will and bring an action against the caregiver alleging elder abuse. A settlement resulted in knocking out the phony Will and the return to the family of the decedent’s home, bank accounts, life insurance proceeds, and IRA.
The senior victim’s isolation was his greatest vulnerability to financial elder abuse by anyone, including the caregiver who struck. Our litigators see this pattern again and again in financial elder abuse cases. If you have a senior loved one, stay involved in his or her life so he or she does not suffer this kind of devastating financial and physical elder abuse. At your first suspicion that your loved one might be the victim of any kind of abuse, call the Evans Law Firm litigators at (415)441-8669, and we can help.
Contact Us
The sample case illustrates how devastating financial elder abuse can be. If you or a loved one has been the victim of financial elder abuse in Marin County or elsewhere in California, contact Ingrid M. Evans and the other Evans Law Firm elder abuse attorneys at (415) 441-8669, or by email at <a href=”mailto:info@evanslaw.com”>info@evanslaw.com</a>. We can help guide your case through investigation, discovery, through a jury trial or toward an equitable settlement. We handle cases involving physical and financial elder abuse, qui tam and whistleblower law, nursing home abuse, whole life insurance and universal life insurance, and indexed, variable, and fixed annuities.
