| Approximately 12% of Americans are 65 and older and that percentage is projected to increase to 20% by the year 2030. Seniors are often an attractive target for unscrupulous individuals. Below is a description of a few of the cases we have successfully resolved for our clients. |
| A father is disabled with Alzheimer’s disease and at the insistence of his wife, is institutionalized. After his wife’s death, two daughters discover that their brother has worked with their late mother to strip their father of most of his assets including the family home. The brother defends his action on the basis that their father had created a medi-cal plan and intended that his son receive most of his assets before death. Our firm removed the brother from all fiduciary positions, forced him to account, obtained an order returning assets to the father and imposed sanctions and penalties against the brother for elder abuse. |
| An elderly woman executes several amendments to her estate plan naming her spiritual advisor as trustee and awarding him the majority of her estate. Sometime thereafter, the elderly woman cries to her neighbors for help after the spiritual advisor allegedly denies her access to her own assets. Our firm worked with Adult Protective Services to secure the services of a conservator. Despite requests from several professionals associated with the dispute, the spiritual advisor resisted resigning as trustee or relinquishing his bequests. Our firm helped obtain a court order removing the spiritual advisor as her trustee and divesting him of most of his bequests under a modified estate plan. |
| An elderly mother owned her home in joint tenancy with one of her children. Weeks after mother shows obvious signs of dementia, her child had the mother sign a complex partnership agreement without obtaining legal advice. When the mother later needed money to pay for dementia care, the child refused to allow her to sell the home because the partnership agreement stripped the mother of significant rights. Our firm was able to void the partnership agreement and force the son to release her interest in the property to pay for mother’s dementia care. |
| A son instructed an estate planning attorney to create an estate plan for his elderly and incompetent mother naming the son as the sole and exclusive beneficiary and also making him a joint tenant on her home of 40 years. The son moved into her his mother’s house and arranged to have his mother institutionalized. When challenged by his siblings, the son refused to pay rent or surrender the home. Our firm forced the son to return the real property, move out of the house and voided the estate plan. |
| An elderly mother prepares a will that leaves her home to her developmentally disabled adult son. After the mother’s death, a neighbor convinces the disabled son to transfer the home in exchange for a promise to care for him. The neighbors then borrowed money secured by the home which they use for their own personal benefit. Our firm is able to restore property to the disabled son and force neighbors to repay the mortgage they borrowed for their own benefit. |
