ATTORNEY NEWSLETTER
Embezzling Checks From The Elderly
Police have issued an arrest warrant for a 29-year-old caregiver accused of embezzling more than $63,000 from a 73-year-old survivor of the Camp Fire blaze. The caregiver allegedly stole insurance money the senior received for her destroyed home.[1] The case illustrates the access caregivers have to a senior’s financial affairs and how quickly they can strike. The Marin financial elder abuse attorneys at Evans Law Firm represent victims of financial elder abuse and their loved ones here in Marin and throughout California. If you or a loved one has been the victim of financial elder abuse, call our financial elder abuse lawyers today at (415)441-8669.
Our litigators pursue all parties responsible for financial elder abuse whether caregivers, stockbrokers, trustees, agents under a Power of Attorney, conservators, financial advisors or retirement planners, insurance agents selling inappropriate products like annuities or life insurance and others. Our lawyers seek all available remedies for injured seniors, including getting your money back (restitution), undoing a wrongful transaction (rescission), economic damages, extra damages, and attorneys’ fees and costs in bringing your action under Calif. Welf. & Inst. Code § 15657.5.
The best safeguard against financial elder abuse by a caregiver (or other predator) is to stay as active as you can in a senior loved one’s life. Drop by unexpectedly and always accompany an elder to any business or bank meetings. Keep an eye on the mail and bank statements and look for signs of financial elder abuse:
- Unexpected changes in wills, trusts, or powers of attorney.
- An inappropriate annuity someone is pushing the senior to buy.
- Changes in spending habits and cash withdrawals.
- Opening of a new bank or brokerage account (or multiple accounts) or changing banks and brokerage firms.
- Unpaid bills.
- Unusual increase in investment activity.
- A senior who is overly reluctant to discuss financial matters perhaps out of fear from retaliation from a caregiver or other abuser.
- Allowing a new “friend” or caregiver to make decisions on the elderly person’s behalf.
- A caregiver or other person screening the elder’s phone calls or going through their mail.
Keep an eye on any caregiver assigned to a senior’s home or new “friends” in his or her life. Never ever give a Power of Attorney to a caregiver. Keep valuables, bank information and checkbooks in a secure place. Speak privately with your elderly loved one as much as you can to find out how they’re doing. Don’t let a caregiver lurk around when you visit as the senior may hesitate to open it in their presence if there’s a problem.
Contact Us
If you or someone you love is the victim of financial elder abuse by a caregiver, trustee, stock broker, insurance agent, financial advisor or other party here in Marin or elsewhere in California, call Ingrid M. Evans and the other financial elder abuse attorneys at Evans Law Firm, Inc. at (415) 441-8669, or by email at info@evanslaw.com. Our attorneys have experience with securities, annuity, and other investment fraud, financial elder abuse cases and complex qui tam or whistleblower cases including offshore tax avoidance cases, complex financial contract cases and cases against large insurance companies. We can help guide your case through a jury trial or toward an equitable settlement. We also handle cases involving physical elder abuse, nursing home abuse, whole life insurance and universal life insurance, and indexed, variable, and fixed annuities.
[1] Evans Law Firm, Inc. is not involved in the case in any way.
