What protections do seniors have when an estate sale goes wrong? Not many.

Marianne Sage says she and her two sisters’ concern following the death of their father was not over money.

All of Eddie Sage’s estate will go to the care of his wife, Juanita, who is slowly fading because of dementia in Cedar Falls, she said.

Rather, they are bothered by what happened to Eddie’s car and some of the treasures he kept over his 91 years: wedding rings, Navajo jewelry and native art from when he taught on reservations, a World War II Navy trunk and memorabilia.

They noticed the possessions were gone after the nonprofit retirement home in Cedar Falls where he and his wife lived recommended a for-profit estate-sale and moving company called Caring Transitions of Northeast Iowa.

The owner of that franchise, Kerri Shimp, said she did nothing wrong.

“Many people were in the life of Eddie Sage over a very long time. But this is a family that, for some reason, is targeting me,” she said.

Here is what the sisters know: Caring Transitions was supposed to hold a sale last fall because Juanita needed to move into memory care and Eddie needed assisted living.

Eddie Sage hired the company to help with his downsizing to a smaller apartment and the sale of Eddie’s car because his daughters lived out of state.

When cancer caused Eddie’s health to decline quickly last November, one of the daughters came to visit from Texas and realized items were missing. She called Shimp and said she was told the only items that were removed from his apartment were not of value and were donated.

Eddie died Nov. 13.

On Dec. 4, Marianne Sage called from Arizona to follow up with Shimp. She wanted to see his contract with Caring Transitions.

“Because my father’s physical health had so declined when he hired them, we wanted to see what services he had agreed to in the contract,” she said. “We felt certain he would not have knowingly parted with many of his prized possessions.”

After weeks of correspondence and calls to Caring Transitions’ headquarters, Shimp produced a standard contract signed by an Eddie Sage and a general invoice suggesting an estate sale yielded $2,500.

The invoice subtracted the company’s 40 percent fee, as well as $500 for packing, $500 for resettling and $300 for storing Eddie’s car and advertising its sale.

But that invoice made no mention of a $750 check Eddie wrote the company before his death. A handwritten note said title to his car was transferred Dec. 7, two days after Marianne Sage called the company.

Working through an estate lawyer, the sisters learned that the title of the 2010 Ford Focus was transferred to Shimp’s daughter. They were told it was sold for $1,800. They say the car’s Kelley Blue Book value was $3,800 to $5,000.

“If the car was sold for $1,800, what was the other $700 worth of sales?” Sage asked Reader's Watchdog.

“Also, the sale price she claimed it was sold for was $1,800, while the (Kelley) Blue Book value was $3,800 to $5,000. And why was there a $300 charge on the invoice for car storage and advertising if the car was kept in her family?”

And the sisters had another problem: The signature on the contract didn’t look like his — not when he was healthy nor while he was dying, she said.

“We are just angry that my father was clearly taken advantage of by someone who thought he was easy prey,” Sage wrote from Florence, Arizona.

But Shimp said the daughters are hounding her and ignoring her lawyer’s attempt to right one of hundreds of estate moves that she's handled.

In March, her lawyer, John Harris of Waterloo, wrote the sisters and offered to pay $2,000 more for Eddie’s Ford Focus or allow them to buy it back for $1,800.

They did not take that offer and contacted police, Iowa’s attorney general and Watchdog instead.

Seniors lack protection in Iowa

The Sage sisters’ story raises a little-known fact about Iowa law, a state with the fourth highest percentage of residents over the age of 65 in the country, according to 2010 census figures.

The vast majority of U.S. states have some sort of laws that try to protect seniors from financial exploitation, a huge and growing problem nationally as America’s population ages.

During the 2017 legislative season,39 states and the District of Columbia introduced some sort of legislation addressing the exploitation of elderly and vulnerable adults, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Iowa law provides some protection from relatives, caregivers and people in positions of "trust or confidence" who financially exploit seniors.

But it has no language, no enhanced penalties, no added fines for businesses who take advantage of the elderly, according to NCSL and the Iowa Attorney General's Office.

By 2030, an estimated 72 million Americans will be 65 and older — up from 40 million in 2010.

The Attorney General's Office said it has proposed financial exploitation legislation in 2014, but it failed. The office is considering legislation again for next year's session.

In the estate-sale industry, examples abound of agents who exploit or outright steal from seniors. Some have intentionally overpriced items at their sales, so they don’t sell.

Later, after they’ve purchased the item at a deep discount, they sell it for a healthy profit.

The American Society of Estate Liquidators trains estate-sale agents and guides them on avoiding conflicts of interest, such as buying items at sales they run.

But no Iowa law requires minimum standards for those who run estate sales or requires them to enter a bond to be in business.

The upshot: Iowans’ protections are only as good as their contracts.

Caring Transitions of Northeast Iowa's standard contract says plainly the prices of items sold will be determined by the company, that the client pays for the cost of the sale and the company will remit the net proceeds within 14 days. Itemization of items sold at sale costs extra.

Perhaps that is why the sisters’ pleas to Iowa’s Attorney General and police yielded nothing.

Business owner: I’m being hounded

When Watchdog contacted Shimp, she said she was with her daughter, who was receiving treatment at the Mayo Clinic.

She said the company never came across any jewelry, that Eddie’s $750 check went toward his move, and that his car, with 91,000 miles, was only worth $1,800.

She said her national company’s corporate office has been trying to help her resolve the matter. But the sisters have been trying to stain her reputation.

“I’m not interested in feeding into their smearing of me and my national company,” she said.

She also said she was not trained by a national association.

“I am following the rules with my company. I don’t have to share my franchise contract,” she said. “People can say there are standards and rules, but it’s not a regulated industry.”

Shimp said any number of people could have taken Eddie’s jewelry and the other items, or he could have given them away. She questioned how the daughters could know what he did, since they lived out of state.

When asked about the $300 charge to store the car and advertise its sale, she said she advertised the Focus for sale at the Cedar Falls nursing home with which she has a relationship.

That charge, she said, was the price for her doing business.

“I’ve been in this business six years and never had this situation before,” she said. “I have hundreds of clients who would say the complete opposite.”

But Shimp also said the sisters can have the Ford Focus if they wanted it.

“If they want the car back, just give them the car back. Whatever,” she said.

Sage said she and her sisters didn't want the car and didn't want the money. They  wanted answers and accountability.

Lee Rood's Reader's Watchdog column helps Iowans get answers and accountability from public officials, the justice system, businesses and nonprofits. Contact her at lrood@dmreg.com, 515-284-8549 on Twitter @leerood or at Facebook.com/readerswatchdog.

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What protections do seniors have when an estate sale goes wrong? Not many.