As Arizona’s elderly population grows, law enforcement and
prosecutors are seeing an increase in the number of incidents of
exploitation and abuse against older people.“People tend to think, ‘It’s never going to happen to me or to my loved one,’” said Rae Vermeal with Arizona Department of Economic Security’s Adult Protective Services.
But just in the past decade, reports of elder exploitation in Arizona are up nearly 50 percent, the agency says. In Pima County, they’re up 18 percent. (See “An Aging Population,” A4)
Sometimes older adults are targeted through telemarketing and email scams. But the most common way seniors become victims of exploitation is through the greed and malevolence of those closest to them.
“About 90 percent of the time it’s family members or caregivers,” said Angel Guzman, also with Adults Protective Services. “They feel entitled. That’s the unfortunate thing.”
Guzman said the agency regularly investigates incidents where family members entrusted to care for aging or disabled relatives liquidate the person’s bank account, change wills or access inheritances early.
“It’s still a crime to take your inheritance early,” said assistant Arizona Attorney General Jesse Delaney, who prosecutes many cases of vulnerable adult and elder abuse.
Delaney said perpetrators, whether family or hired caregivers, will often seek power of attorney over an elderly victim and then use it to run roughshod over the person’s finances.
Full Article & Source:
Elder abuse on the rise, often at the hands of those closest
Family members etc., 90%? Hell, no. It's the fiduciary feasters!
ReplyDeleteI believe this article is inaccurate. I am a conservator and it is against the law to tamper with a will or a beneficiary status of a elderly person. I do not know how these people mentioned in this article got away with changing wills and getting inheritances early. 90% is just not true! And if these people did this they are criminals.
ReplyDeleteAnd who is assisting these family members who "take their inheritance early?"
ReplyDeleteOften, it's a so-called elder law attorney. These shysters can spin a tale of woe in which their lamentations and poor-mouthing about their fraudulent, exorbitant fees becomes the front and center "problem" to be solved.
In a recent Virginia CLE, for example, two Northern Virginia lights of the elder law Bar lamented that a single contested guardianship case consumed $500,000 in attorney's fees from the estate of an alleged incapacitated person.
$500,000!!!
The Virginia Public Guardian and Conservator Advisory Board, which refuses to investigate documented, systematic abuses in so-called "private" guardianship cases in which the incapacitated person receives income of as little as $30 a month, has not once, not twice, but three times taken up the wail of the leader of a statewide elder law group that her compatriots in a Northern Virginia law firm were cheated out of $100,000 in fees by a Commissioner of Accounts who (imagine that) did his job and reduced the fees for such tasks as buying socks.
Is this a "private" case, ladies and gentlemen of the Virginia Public Guardian and Conservator Advisory Board? You bet it is, far more "private" than the plight of the impoverished APS and CSB clients you routinely ignore and sweep under the rug.
So why should the VPGCAB care more about the truly private fees of some overpaid legal hack than about the appalling living conditions of clients of public guardianship programs like Jewish Family Service of Tidewater and Catholic Charities of Eastern Virginia?
In a similar vein, Gail Nardi, the head of Adult Protective Services for the entire Commonwealth of Virginia, breezily observed at a VPGCAB meeting that "only 20%" of adult abuse and neglect occurs in facilities.
Only 20%!!!
Why are ANY public funds spent to abuse and neglect the elderly and disabled?
If we can save money and make the elderly and disabled more safe, more healthy, more secure by eliminating your job, we should do it.
I appreciate former judge Brown's comment and hope it carries weight to get something done.
ReplyDelete90% is the estimate regarding founded APS cases, Anon #1. They're not saying 90% are victims of these crimes, but that 90% of the time these crimes occur, the perpetrator is someone the victims knows.
ReplyDeleteThere are many, many crimes against the elderly and disabled that, although reported and even brought to the attention of the courts, go unpunished.
In fact, some of these crimes are even well-rewarded, in the form of exorbitant attorney's fees for the lawyer co-conspirators in these criminal conspiracies.
The attitude seems to be, these people are old and are going to die anyway, these people are disabled and can't speak for themselves, why shouldn't I help myself to huge chunks of their money? After all, I perform a valuable service, and tens of thousands of dollars isn't near enough to compensate me, me, me. It's all about mmMMEEEEEEEEE!!!
From all I have seen, it's the professional guardians, lawyers, judge, APS workers/owners, Real Estate Agents, and funeral directors who first steal the person; then the estate. My gut gut tells me it's up to 90 % of all the cases. It's a NATIONAL CRISIS! They always try to blame it on the family. That's how they how they facilitate the crime. C'mon people! Would you actually steal your mom's retirement? Most people ADORE THEIR PRECIOUS PARENTS WITH UTMOST RESPECT AND LOYALTY!!!
ReplyDeleteThis entity of guardian abuse is our American Holocaust!!! Legal Human Trafficking/Kidnapping; even murder!!! All based on pure greed! Stay away from hospitals, and keep your money hidden under a rock somewhere!!!
To Anonymous:
ReplyDeleteIf you are a conservator and an honest one, what are you doing to clean up the awful image of your colleagues who are the "feasting fiduciaries"?
The 90% referred to resource info re friends and caretakers.
No one knows how large the fiduciary follies are, but they've gone global!
Anon: Tuesday, June 10, 2014 11:29:00 AM
ReplyDeleteBINGO! Exactly one needs to look at the mindset of those churning people into products to feed their machine.
The Brainwashing continues. Article after article has family as the new "F" word. Family is perceived to be guilty of wrongdoing so send in the good guys what a crock of ****.
The name of the game by those who profit is to get as much money from their products before the expiration dates fearing any estate left over will go to the products rightful heirs.
We can't have that the mindset of the game players are: those ungrateful, angry, greedy heirs aren't deserving of $1.00.
Any wonder why guardianship conservatorship cases are open long after the product passed away? While the statute of limitations clock is ticking?
The protection racket is powerful and out of control but the climate is changing thanks to the Internet and the united opposition with reporters, the muck rakers are hot on their dirty heels.