What is Financial Exploitation

April 30, 2016

- Asset Protection, Elder Law, Financial Planning, General Interest, Senior Citizens

By Elder Law Attorney Rick Law of the Estate Planning Center at Law Elder Law in Aurora, IL. Law Elder Law is a multi-generational firm serving the suburbs of Chicago in Illinois. The definition of financial exploitation may vary based on your location in the US, but there are some standard, common sense red flags to watch for. I have seen this type of abuse far too many times, so it’s always best to err on the side of caution when dealing with the finances of your family, a loved one with special needs, or an aging loved one. That’s where a qualified and experienced Elder Law and Estate Planning Attorney comes in – Law Elder Law may be uniquely qualified to help you find peace of mind. According to the National Adult Protective Services Association, “Financial exploitation occurs when a person misuses or takes the assets of a vulnerable adult for his/her own personal benefit. This frequently occurs without the explicit knowledge or consent of a senior or disabled adult, depriving him/her of vital financial resources for his/her personal needs. Assets are commonly taken via forms of deception, false pretenses, coercion, harassment, duress and threats. These are commonly reported forms of financial exploitation reported to Adult Protective Services agencies:

Theft: involves assets taken without knowledge, consent or authorization; may include taking of cash, valuables, medications other personal property.
Fraud: involves acts of dishonesty by persons entrusted to manage assets but appropriate assets for unintended uses; may include falsification of records, forgeries, unauthorized check-writing, and Ponzi-type financial schemes.
Real Estate: involves unauthorized sales, transfers or changes to property title(s); may include unauthorized or invalid changes to estate documents.
Contractor: includes building contractors or handymen who receive payment(s) for building repairs, but fail to initiate or complete project; may include invalid liens by contractors.
Lottery scams: involves payments (or transfer of funds) to collect unclaimed property or “prizes” from lotteries or sweepstakes.
Electronic: includes “phishing” e-mail messages to trick persons into unwittingly surrendering bank passwords; may include faxes, wire transfers, telephonic communications.
Mortgage: includes financial products which are unaffordable or out-of-compliance with regulatory requirements; may include loans issued against property by unauthorized parties.
Investment: includes investments made without knowledge or consent; may include high-fee funds (front or back-loaded) or excessive trading activity to generate commissions for financial advisors.
Insurance: involves sales of inappropriate products, such as a thirty-year annuity for a very elderly person; may include unauthorized trading of life insurance policies.”

Too many families needlessly lose everything they have. Don’t let that be you. If you need help paying the overwhelming cost of long term care, give our office a call at 800-310-3100. Your first consultation is absolutely free. We’ll let you know what steps you need to take, right now, to protect yourself and your family. Call now, because when you’re out of money, you’re out of options! Sincerely, Rick L. Law, Attorney, Estate Planner for Retirees. Rick was named the #1 Illinois elder law estate planning attorney by Leading Lawyer Magazine. He has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, AARP Magazine, TheStreet.com, and numerous newspapers and articles. Rick is the lead attorney for Law Elder Law, LLP, focusing in Estate Planning, Guardianship, and Nursing Home Solutions. His goal is to give retirees an informed edge when it comes to dealing with an uncertain future. Get flexible retirement strategies that work during good times and bad, plus information on how you can save your home and assets from being used to pay for long term care. Call 800-310-3100 for your free consultation now!

Don’t Let a Scammer Fake His Way Into Your Home

By Rick Law on

April 28, 2016

- Elder Law, General Interest, Senior Citizens

By Senior Estate Planning Attorney Rick Law. Managing Partner and Founder of the Estate Planning Center at Law Elder Law. Law Elder Law is a Multi-generation law firm, serving seniors and their families in Western Chicagoland. A ruse entry happens when a scammer fakes their way into a senior’s home for the purposes of robbing them. It works best if they can catch seniors out in the yard. They may tell them that they are new neighbors and ask if they could come into the backyard just a couple of seconds and see the garden. What they’re really doing is distracting the senior while someone else comes in the front door and going straight to the bedroom to steal whatever they can. Scammers have been know to claim that they are from the city’s water department and that they were digging in the yards and hit a line. They say they just need to come in for one minute and check out the basement. They get the senior downstairs, run water, make noise, etc. Meanwhile, the second guy is in the bedroom robbing the senior. Another scam to be on the lookout for is the door-to-door contractor scheme. An example of that is when men show up and claim to have just finished re-roofing a garage down the street. They say they have extra materials and offer the homeowner a “great deal.” If the homeowner accepts, they will try to get paid up front and then will either do shoddy work or start the job and then disappear. I always advise my clients to never use people who go door to door to work on the house. People who have good business reputations for house repair don’t go door to door. They have enough business as it is. Never, ever respond to solicitations by e-mail, in person, or on the phone. Too many families needlessly lose everything they have. Don’t let that be you. If you need help paying the overwhelming cost of long term care, give our office a call at 800-310-3100. Your first consultation is absolutely free. We’ll let you know what steps you need to take, right now, to protect yourself and your family. Call now, because when you’re out of money, you’re out of options! Sincerely, Rick L. Law, Attorney, Estate Planner for Retirees. Rick was named the #1 Illinois elder law estate planning attorney by Leading Lawyer Magazine. He has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, AARP Magazine, TheStreet.com, and numerous newspapers and articles. Rick is the lead attorney for Law Elder Law, LLP, focusing in Estate Planning, Guardianship, and Nursing Home Solutions. His goal is to give retirees an informed edge when it comes to dealing with an uncertain future. Get flexible retirement strategies that work during good times and bad, plus information on how you can save your home and assets from being used to pay for long term care. Call 800-310-3100 for your free consultation now!

The Senior Lottery Scam and Spoofing

By Rick Law on

April 25, 2016

- Alzheimer's and Dementia, Asset Protection, Current Events, Elder Law

By Rick Law, senior advocate and estate planning Attorney. Rick is the founder and managing partner at the Estate Planning Center at Law Elder Law. Rick Law and his daughter Attorney Diana Law are part of the multi-generational serving seniors and their families in the Western Chicagoland suburbs. The typical lottery scam works as follows: A Senior receives a call from outside the country and are told they won a foreign lottery. However, they have to prepay the taxes before the winnings can be released to them. The caller will tell them to go to Wal-Mart and pick up a green dot MoneyPak, place $500 on the card, and go back home to await the next phone call in an hour. The scammer is attempting two things here. First, by sending the senior to a big-box store, it is less likely that the senior will know the cashier and talk about the lottery winnings. Second, by saying he will call back in an hour, the caller is not giving the senior time to think clearly or talk to family about the phone call. When the scammer calls back, he will have the senior read the 14-number code on the back of the MoneyPak. Once the scammer has the code, he has access to the money on the card and can steal it from the senior. A variation of the lottery scam involves sending checks to seniors. The senior then tries to cash the check and the check bounces. The bounced check is returned to the scammer with the senior’s bank account information on the check and the senior is hit with a fee for the bounced check. Another phone-related scam is called spoofing. Spoofing is when a person can change the caller ID. Sophisticated criminals can make the caller ID appear to be the phone number of a bank. They call seniors and tell them that there is a problem with their account and ask them to verify their account number and other information. And soon enough, they have the senior’s bank account information. Too many families needlessly lose everything they have. Don’t let that be you. If you need help building a fortress around your estate to protect it from creditors, predators, and the cost of chronic disease, give our office a call at 800-310-3100. Your first consultation is absolutely free. We’ll let you know what steps you need to take, right now, to protect yourself and your family. Call now, because when you’re out of money, you’re out of options! Sincerely, Rick L. Law, Attorney, Estate Planner for Retirees. Rick has been named the #1 Illinois elder law estate planning attorney for the past 8 years in a row by Leading Lawyer Magazine. He has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, AARP Magazine, TheStreet.com, and numerous newspapers and articles. Rick is the lead attorney for Law Elder Law, LLP, focusing in Estate Planning, Guardianship, and Nursing Home Solutions. His goal is to give retirees an informed edge when it comes to dealing with an uncertain future. Get flexible retirement strategies that work during good times and bad, plus information on how you can save your home and assets from being used to pay for long term care. Call 800-310-3100 for your free consultation now!

The Grandma Scam

By Rick Law on

April 20, 2016

- Alzheimer's and Dementia, Asset Protection, Elder Law

By Rick Law, estate planning and elder law Attorney. Rick Law and his daughter Attorney Diana Law are part of the multi-generational firm of the Estate Planning Center at Law Elder Law in Aurora, IL. Another common scam is for the scammer to call an elderly woman up and say, “Hi grandma, this is your favorite granddaughter.” The senior responds, “Oh, is this Kim?” Now the scammer has the senior on the hook and can reel her in. The scammer proceeds to tell the senior, “I am going to a wedding in Niagara Falls and I got into this car accident and I need money.” Or “Grandma, I’ve been arrested for drug charges. I know it doesn’t sound like me because I have a cold, the guy next to me on the plane had a cold and I caught it. I took Nyquil and that’s why I have drugs in my system. Grandma, I need you to send money or they’ll put me in jail, and please don’t tell my parents!” The scammer then instructs the senior to get a green dot MoneyPak and put money on the card and to await the call back. If the senior pays the court costs, the scammers will probably make up another reason that they need more money and will continue to take the senior’s money until the senior runs out of money or figures out it’s a scam. Fortunately, education does help. Cherie Aschenbrenner, an elder-service officer with the Elgin (Illinois) Police Department, was happy to get a call from one of the seniors who heard Aschenbrenner’s seminar on avoiding financial exploitation and was able to use that knowledge to defeat a scammer. The senior was the intended victim of the grandma scam, but instead of running to Wal-Mart to put money on a green dot MoneyPak, she called her son and asked if her granddaughter was in Niagara Falls. When the scammer called back, she was able to say, “I know this is a scam because my granddaughter is home.” Sadly, Aschenbrenner estimates that this scam probably works 50 percent of the time. Too many families needlessly lose everything they have. Don’t let that be you. If you need help building a fortress around your estate to protect it from creditors, predators, and the cost of chronic disease, give our office a call at 800-310-3100. Your first consultation is absolutely free. We’ll let you know what steps you need to take, right now, to protect yourself and your family. Call now, because when you’re out of money, you’re out of options! Sincerely, Rick L. Law, Attorney, Estate Planner for Retirees. Rick has been named the #1 Illinois elder law estate planning attorney for the past 8 years in a row by Leading Lawyer Magazine. He has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, AARP Magazine, TheStreet.com, and numerous newspapers and articles. Rick is the lead attorney for Law Elder Law, LLP, focusing in Estate Planning, Guardianship, and Nursing Home Solutions. His goal is to give retirees an informed edge when it comes to dealing with an uncertain future. Get flexible retirement strategies that work during good times and bad, plus information on how you can save your home and assets from being used to pay for long term care. Call 800-310-3100 for your free consultation now!

Stranger Danger

By Rick Law on

April 15, 2016

- Alzheimer's and Dementia, Asset Protection, Elder Law, General Interest

By Rick Law, estate planning lawyer and senior advocate. Rick Law and his daughter Attorney Diana Law are part of the multi-generational firm of the Estate Planning Center at Law Elder Law in Aurora, IL. Seniors are prime targets for criminals. Criminals see seniors as easy marks for financial scams because seniors are easy to reach. They can get seniors by the phone. Many seniors are lonely, so they’ll talk. Cherie Aschenbrenner, an elder-service officer with the Elgin (Illinois) Police Department, works with the elderly in her community to help them be more aware of financial exploitation. Aschenbrenner notes that the elderly will almost always answer the phone, even if the caller ID says Kingston, Jamaica. In fact, when people are not on alert when the caller tells them they have won a foreign lottery, they have self-identified themselves as an easy victim. Criminals can get seniors by the mail, too, because seniors tend to read every piece of mail front and back. They look forward to the mailman bringing them their mail. Studies have shown that seniors place unusually high validity in direct-mail solicitations. Additionally, seniors are usually home a lot and tend to answer the door. This means seniors are susceptible to financial exploitation scams over the phone, through the mail, and face-to-face. Aschenbrenner also points out that many criminals and scam artists can spot a senior’s home just by looking at it. Houses that have an American flag flying, a Buick in the driveway, and well-tended flowers often are owned by senior citizens. Bad guys from all over the world can target seniors using online maps and street views because of these distinctive features on homes owned by seniors. Now add the fact that the senior is suffering from dementia and there’s a lot of opportunity for criminals to financially exploit this group. One of the most common tools being used by scammers today is the green dot MoneyPak. The green dot MoneyPak is at most big-box stores, and the card itself is perfectly legitimate. It is simply a card to put money on for use as a debit card of sorts. This card plays a large role in the grandma scam and lottery scams. Too many families needlessly lose everything they have. Don’t let that be you. If you need help building a fortress around your estate to protect it from creditors, predators, and the cost of chronic disease, give our office a call at 800-310-3100. Your first consultation is absolutely free. We’ll let you know what steps you need to take, right now, to protect yourself and your family. Call now, because when you’re out of money, you’re out of options! Sincerely, Rick L. Law, Attorney, Estate Planner for Retirees. Rick has been named the #1 Illinois elder law estate planning attorney for the past 8 years in a row by Leading Lawyer Magazine. He has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, AARP Magazine, TheStreet.com, and numerous newspapers and articles. Rick is the lead attorney for Law Elder Law, LLP, focusing in Estate Planning, Guardianship, and Nursing Home Solutions. His goal is to give retirees an informed edge when it comes to dealing with an uncertain future. Get flexible retirement strategies that work during good times and bad, plus information on how you can save your home and assets from being used to pay for long term care. Call 800-310-3100 for your free consultation now!

A Position of Trust

By Rick Law on

April 10, 2016

- Alzheimer's and Dementia, Elder Law, estate planning

By Rick Law, estate planning Attorney and Certified Elder Law Attorney. Rick Law and his daughter Attorney Diana Law are part of the multi-generational firm of the Estate Planning Center at Law Elder Law in Aurora, IL. In many financial exploitation cases: the exploiter is often someone in a position of trust and authority who abuses this power for financial gain. While some cases involve strangers who exploit the vulnerable, the majority of cases involve people who are uniquely positioned to take advantage of the disabled person, such as fiduciaries, family members, and trusted members of society. In many of the cases where a power of attorney or other document was created after the person signing over the power or changing a will was clearly incapacitated due to dementia; it’s not a case of the lawyer being a crook. For example, somebody says: “My grandmother wants a will, and she wants to make me agent of power of attorney. Can you prepare the documents?” Amazingly, the lawyer just prepares the documents, having never seen or met the grandmother who is actually the client under the law. Most of the time, the lawyer charges the typical fee, not a kickback from what was stolen using the power of attorney. The lawyer wasn’t involved in the finance exploitation, but lawyers must be vigilant to avoid becoming unwitting co-conspirators to elder abuse. Your lawyer needs to be sure who the client is. They need to talk with their clients in private. When a person brings an elderly relative to a lawyer’s office and wants paperwork drawn up so that the person can have power of attorney over the elderly relative, your lawyer has a duty to talk to the elderly adult—who is the actual client—and should do so in private. If there are concerns about the mental capacity of the client, then a doctor should be brought in to make an independent judgment on capacity. Your lawyer should be suspicious of anything that doesn’t quite smell right or sit right, and should follow up on it. Too many families needlessly lose everything they have. Don’t let that be you. If you need help building a fortress around your estate to protect it from creditors, predators, and the cost of chronic disease, give our office a call at 800-310-3100. Your first consultation is absolutely free. We’ll let you know what steps you need to take, right now, to protect yourself and your family. Call now, because when you’re out of money, you’re out of options! Sincerely, Rick L. Law, Attorney, Estate Planner for Retirees. Rick has been named the #1 Illinois elder law estate planning attorney for the past 8 years in a row by Leading Lawyer Magazine. He has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, AARP Magazine, TheStreet.com, and numerous newspapers and articles. Rick is the lead attorney for Law Elder Law, LLP, focusing in Estate Planning, Guardianship, and Nursing Home Solutions. His goal is to give retirees an informed edge when it comes to dealing with an uncertain future. Get flexible retirement strategies that work during good times and bad, plus information on how you can save your home and assets from being used to pay for long term care. Call 800-310-3100 for your free consultation now!

Financial Fraud

By Rick Law on

April 5, 2016

- Asset Protection, Elder Law, estate planning

By Rick Law, Senior Advocate and Certified Elder Law attorney in the West Chicagoland suburb of Aurora, in IL. Rick Law and his daughter Attorney Diana Law are part of the multi-generational firm of the Estate Planning Center at Law Elder Law. Financial fraud may be experiencing an uptick in activity, but it is interesting to note that many scams that are prevalent now are not really new or unique. Kimberly Blanton, of the Boston College Center for Retirement Research says, “While the Internet has made financial fraud more pervasive, law enforcement said most online scams are not much different than those employed by snake oil salesmen in the 19th century and Florida swampland salesmen in the 1960s. Unsuspecting consumers are deceived over and over again with the same schemes, failing to realize that scammers are infinitely creative in making them believe they’re offering something new and lucrative.” One type of financial scam that seems to have been around since the dawn of time is the sudden appearance of the wolf in sheep’s clothing. “Cloaked in a new disguise, con men appeal to the individual’s weak spot: a desperate shortage of money before payday, a need to earn more than the yield on their certificate of deposit, a need to pay medical bills.” These scams are most popular in times of financial uncertainty and are likely to target vulnerable seniors who are worried about their retirement and having to financially support their adult children. Too many families needlessly lose everything they have. Don’t let that be you. If you need help paying the overwhelming cost of long term care, give our office a call at 800-310-3100. Your first consultation is absolutely free. We’ll let you know what steps you need to take, right now, to protect yourself and your family. Call now, because when you’re out of money, you’re out of options! Sincerely, Rick L. Law, Attorney, Estate Planner for Retirees. Rick has been named the #1 Illinois elder law estate planning attorney for the past 8 years in a row by Leading Lawyer Magazine. He has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, AARP Magazine, TheStreet.com, and numerous newspapers and articles. Rick is the lead attorney for Law Elder Law, LLP, focusing in Estate Planning, Guardianship, and Nursing Home Solutions. His goal is to give retirees an informed edge when it comes to dealing with an uncertain future. Get flexible retirement strategies that work during good times and bad, plus information on how you can save your home and assets from being used to pay for long term care. Call 800-310-3100 for your free consultation now!

What is Financial Exploitation

Don’t Let a Scammer Fake His Way Into Your Home

The Senior Lottery Scam and Spoofing

The Grandma Scam

Stranger Danger

A Position of Trust

Financial Fraud

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