Elder Financial Abuse – The Role Of A Trustee
Trust Litigation
Jul 08, 2024
Who is a trustee?
In simple terms, a trustee is someone who manages the finances for a person or a group, generally administering a trust. There are significant fiduciary duties associated with this role, and spotting elder financial abuse is part of that responsibility. There are also times when a trustee violates the parameters of the living trust and is responsible for criminal financial elder abuse.
We have created this succinct guide to help guide you as a trustee or fiduciary on actions that signal financial elder abuse.
What constitutes acts of financial elder abuse?
| Situation | How Elders are Subjected to Undue Financial Influence | Role of a Trustee |
|---|---|---|
| Isolation | Isolating the elder person from friends and family. The trick here is to create a higher dependency on the influencer. | It is your role as a trustee to ensure regular social interaction and communication with family and friends. |
| Trust Abuse | A trusted person (like a caregiver, gardener or nanny) misuses their position to gain financial control. | Regular and structured reviews of financial transactions are key by the trustee. This is important to safeguard financial documents. |
| Manipulation of Legal Documents | A trusted person (like a caregiver, gardener, or nanny) misuses their position to change legal documents like a will, trust or financial information. | The trustee must ensure that any changes to legal documents are made voluntarily and with full mental capacity. Our law firm can be part of that process of witnessing and making sure the changes are in step with the law. |
| Pressure and Coercion | Vulnerable elders are pressured into financial decisions that benefit the influencer. | The trustee has to vet, and police, and should always verify the elder’s understanding and consent of major financial decisions. |
| Exploitation of Cognitive Decline | Elders with cognitive decline are manipulated due to their diminished capacity. | The trustee must make time to work with qualified healthcare professionals to assess the elderly’s cognitive health and ensure decisions are made in their best interest. |
| Misrepresentation and Fraud | Lies and false information by Influencers can be created to deceive elders into financial transactions. | The trustee should provide oversight and verify the accuracy of information presented to the elder. |
| Promises of Care | The influencer is able to charm, convince, and falsely promise care or companionship in exchange for financial benefits. | The trustee should be part of the interview process, in qualifying the caregiver, doing background checks, etc, and have regular reviews. This is to ensure that the elder’s care needs are met without compromising their financial security. |
| Emotional Manipulation | Gifting or loans are a huge sign of possible elder emotional abuse. | The trustee has to be vigilant and should establish boundaries and monitor unusual financial activity. |
| Sudden Appearance of New Friends | New acquaintances gain trust and access to finances quickly. | The trustee should investigate the motives and background of new individuals involved in the elder’s life. |
| Control Over Financial Accounts | Influencers gain access to bank accounts and use funds inappropriately. | The trustee should oversee account access and manage withdrawals and transfers. |
As a trustee, you hold a huge responsibility in protecting, investigating, and litigating financial abuse. If you aren’t an attorney and have no clue how to manage this very complex and tedious role, we can work with you as legal experts in litigating your trust, estate, and probate and handle matters around conservatorship to bring justice to criminal financial elder abuse.
Discuss your case with us today: request a consultation HERE
Testimonials
Vey helpful with good insight to take the proper steps with difficult situations and have my questions answered. Noelle and her team are professional and courteous and great to work with!
Samantha and the team are professional compassionate and get the job done. She articulates very well what needs to be done. Her and the firm do Probate and Trust at its finest to protect their clients. She is a valuable asset for me to source out to my clients as a strategic referral partner. Protecting family asset is essential and I recommend Samantha and her team for all your probate and trust needs.
I was referred to NM Law after dealing with a myriad of problems in settling a complicated Trust in Riverside County. At the initial meeting, Noelle Minto and Samantha Smith listened to the mess I was in and answered the questions I had. They provided me with information regarding my duties as a Trustee, made me aware of important dates that were upcoming, important dates already missed, and devised a plan to settle the Trust while protecting me, personally. When I left the first meeting, I felt that I was in good hands.John Schroeder was brought on to work on my case with Samantha and they updated/collaborated with Noelle. Noelle, Samantha and John are all patient, direct and very personable. Their knowledge and professionalism are exceptional. NM Law was successful in achieving a Settlement Agreement under difficult circumstances amongst people with little trust in one another. Thankfully we did not have to bear the cost of going to trial, however, I have complete confidence that NM Law would have prevailed if we had.I highly recommend NM Law. I look forward to working with them again, but this time to plan my estate.
Love this firm. I’ve worked on a wide range of legal issues with NM law, and the attorneys here are top notch, reasonably priced, and a pleasure to work with. They truly care about each of their clients and they made me feel confident each step of the way. Truly professional. They resolved a range of issues with me through strong legal counsel and I will continue to work with them for years to come.
Ms. Minto,I want to thank you and your staff for the courtesy extended to us during our family's pending emergency deadline.Mr. O'Grady spoke to my brother and gave us his best recommendation regarding my father's estate.It is really hard to speak, and even harder to "plan" generational wealth with a parent in terms of assets, intentions, and mortality, but it is a necessary conversation to have, if only to lessen the unfairness of life that eventually catches up to all of us.Our family tried to bring justice to my father's death within this probate process and found no justice, this system must be changed, so that a fairness is inherit within this system and not just a scam—lots of hard lessons to be learned from a broken probate process.In either case, thank you again for giving our family the attention and direction we sought. The adage is true, not all lawyers are the same. Looking forward to working with your office in the near future, as we don't want to repeat this experience with our Mom.Gracias,Abraham
NM Law is an excellent law firm to work with! Noelle and her team are very thorough and knowledgeable. They explained the estate planning process to us and kept us informed every step of the way.We highly recommend NM Law for your estate planning needs.
I have worked with many attorneys, and there are very few that I would ever recommend. Noelle and her team have gone above and beyond to help all of our clients that we have referred to her. There is no one else that I would recommend for estate planning in the area.
I was first referred to Noelle Minto by my family law attorney Mike Monarch to provide oversight on my husband’s Trust conforming with our Post Marital Agreement. Her outstanding legal insights helped me to feel secure that both documents were in alignment. These interactions caused me to hire Noelle Minto to create a restatement of my own trust (1999) to be more relevant and reflect my current financial portfolio. Her professional guidance was outstanding. Noelle was always available, friendly, insightful, and mindful of my needs. I would even say highly intuitive. She certainly expanded my knowledge of wealth distribution. I also valued the Law firm’s entire team. Edward was delightful to work with as well. I highly recommend Noelle Minto and her knowledgeable legal team for their exceptional legal services on Family and individual Trusts. I will be making referrals to my friends in the future.
Noelle and Samantha and their team are amazing. They are extremely knowledgeable and professional (they are the best). They have and continue to support me and my family while dealing with my parents Will and Trust. Samantha is very patience with all my questions.I highly recommend NM Law.
My wife and I went to Noelle to update our 36 year old family trust. Since our trust was so old she rewrote our trust and wills in their entirety. We have a large family with kids, daughters-in-laws, and 13 grandkids. So it was a complex task. She spent plenty of time with us making sure every detail was exactly the way we wanted, and had some good ideas that we liked. And her assistant, Tatiana, was very helpful. Noelle did an excellent job and we are very pleased and confident that we now have everything in proper order.
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