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Financial Elder Abuse

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alex33

Junior Member
My mother is being mentally and financially abused by my oldest brother. There are 3 children in the family. A trust had been originally set up by my deceased father to provide first for his wife as trustee and the three children as equal beneficiaries. Slowly my brother has removed all assets from the trust and created another revocable living trust, without consulting the other children. My mother is afraid of his temper and making him angry, so she just does what it takes to "keep the peace." Recently she has realized she has made a lot of mistakes and wants to re-examine what has been done. He has removed all documents and paperwork from her home and it has become difficult to locate the trust agreement and a new will, which he had made up for her. My mother is getting older and afraid if he gets angry she will have a heart attack from the emotional stress. We have tried to get an elderly abuse organization involved, but she is to afraid to talk about the problem and extremely ashamed of the situation. Without her wanting help, they really can't do anything. Is there a way to find the trust agreement? What do you suggest to try and protect her financially, but also from a health standpoint? Is there such a thing as an irrevocable power of attorney for property and health issues. We think at some point she will not have anything left to care for herself.:(What is the name of your state?
 


BlondiePB

Senior Member
A trust had been originally set up by my deceased father to provide first for his wife as trustee and the three children as equal beneficiaries. Slowly my brother has removed all assets from the trust and created another revocable living trust, without consulting the other children.
Who is the trustee?
 

lwpat

Senior Member
Is your other sibling supporting you? My wife was involved in exactly the same situation but her sister refused to become involved. As a result we spent a lot of money on attorney fees and her mother suffered because all of the money for her care was gone.

We finally won in court but her brother hid all of the money and filed bankruptcy.

My suggestion is for the two of you to get her to sign a POA over to you both. Then she can also prepare a new will. You can bet the old one leaves everything to the brother. Both of you need to make an appointment to take her to to an attorney and be sure the attorney talks to her privately to avoid any claims of influence. At the same time she needs to do a living will. With a POA you can get the records showing what has been transfered. If you wait too long the financial institution will destroy the records.
 

BlondiePB

Senior Member
Is your other sibling supporting you? My wife was involved in exactly the same situation but her sister refused to become involved. As a result we spent a lot of money on attorney fees and her mother suffered because all of the money for her care was gone.

We finally won in court but her brother hid all of the money and filed bankruptcy.

My suggestion is for the two of you to get her to sign a POA over to you both. Then she can also prepare a new will. You can bet the old one leaves everything to the brother. Both of you need to make an appointment to take her to to an attorney and be sure the attorney talks to her privately to avoid any claims of influence. At the same time she needs to do a living will. With a POA you can get the records showing what has been transfered. If you wait too long the financial institution will destroy the records.
Though you have provided good suggestions, the OP has not come back to answer the question of who is the trustee of the deceased's trust. OP first stated the surviving spouse was trustee and then stated a sibling began depleting the trust and set up another one.
 

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