Legal Tip 183: Financial Elder Abuse

Legal Tip: Financial Elder Abuse


There are many instances of elderly being abused financially. Often the abusers are adult children or other family members of the elderly person. In many cases the perpetrator believes they are doing no wrong, but at other times their abuse is more blatant.


Some forms of elder abuse:

- Improper dealings under a power of attorney

This might include an adult child drawing on a parent’s bank account to help themselves, make loans or gifts to themselves or other family members. Sometimes they may ‘need’ the money temporarily and intend to give it back.


- Bank account abuse

A family member may open a joint account with an elderly person to help them. The account may only contain the elderly person’s money. The elderly person’s health may deteriorate and the younger person may start thinking along the lines of ‘they couldn’t spend the money anyway’. This may also be a plan to inherit the money outside of the will as if the elderly person where to die the money may become the asset of the other account owner.

Sometimes the elderly will give their ATM and pin to another family member, who may then start taking extra funds out.


- Stand over tactics

I have heard of one incident of an elderly great grandfather being stood over to chance his will. He immediately redid the will a few days later with a lawyer, but this sort of thing would make the will invalid – if it could be alleged.


- Manipulated in being guarantors

There is many a budding developer or business owner who has talked one or both parents into letting the them use their property as security for a loan. Often the business fails, and the guarantee is enforced and the parents property sold. Luckily it is getting more difficult to use guarantees on parents main residences like this.


- Under market value transfers

Buying a property from the elder person at less than market value – or even receiving property as a gift. Often this is done for Centrelink reasons too, but this usually doesn’t work anyway, or won’t increase the amount of pension received to 5 years after the transaction.


- Sell and build a Granny Flat, on your land

This is where granny is encouraged to sell her main residence and to move into with one of her adult children. Often there is not enough space, so granny is encouraged to build a granny flat or otherwise improve the property of the child.

The trouble with this is often granny isn’t an owner of the property, yet she is improving the property with her money. If granny dies her estate is diminished. Many other legal issues to consider too such as bankruptcy or divorce of the child or disputes – granny may want to move out at some point but have no funds to do so.


- Settlement of large amount of funds on trust

Sometimes a parent is encouraged to contribute funds to a trust controlled by someone else. The parent then has lost control of those funds.


If you want to do any of the above, legitimately, then you need to make sure you can rebut any potential allegations of elder abuse. This can be done by various methods (for some of the above) in consultation with a lawyer. For example, the ability to make gifts to family members could be built into the enduring power of attorney document if the principal agrees.

 

This is increasingly a concern. When are you in Sydney again? Let’s catch up!

 

I thought you were going to denigrate those Volvo driving, hat wearing geriatrics