| I caught my grandfather's caretaker, along with my aunt and uncle (who had POA), stealing more than half his net worth. This began after a stroke left him cognitively impaired with 24/7 care. I did a complete financial audit and there were some minimal phone scam payments, but by far the bulk of the financial exploitation came from the caretaker and family members. He was left so financially ruined that I had to move him out of his home at age 89. I ended up petitioning for guardianship and won. This was a painful and long process but it was ultimately the only logical choice. Part of the problem is the secretive nature of finances. My aunt and uncle did most of their theft by putting undue influence on my grandfather to get him to sign things and then claim he was the one making all of the decisions. This undue influence included threatening him that they would abandon him if he didn't do what they wanted. The court overwhelmingly showed his incapacity which made these lies obvious. To make matters worse, there were over a dozen amendments to my grandfathers estate documents within a 2 year period. You'd think there would be a lawyer that says no to these things, but it turned out my grandfahter's lawyer was later found complicit. He was disbarred because he got caught stealing money from several of his elderly clients. And my grandfather's financial advisor knew about all the abuse as well, but did not do anything about it. He claimed he was alerting the POA (my uncle) about it all along, but he wasn't able to do anything else. When I reported it to the police they did open up an investigation, but they put it on the backburner. Why? Because elder abuse is not well understood by law enforcement. When the culprits are the victims family members, it is just not taken as seriously. The bottom line is that elder abuse is a complex problem. It isn't one that can be solved with technology alone. It will take a combination of technology, the law, and awareness. Even then, it will be difficult to solve. |