Elder Abuse: Recognizing the Warning Signs and Taking Legal Action

The silent epidemic of elder abuse affects countless seniors, yet many families don't recognize the warning signs until significant harm has occurred. Attorneys Brendan Begley and Jordan McIntyre tackle this critical issue head-on, revealing how cognitive decline creates vulnerability and opens the door to exploitation.

Financial exploitation stands out as the fastest-growing form of elder abuse, with seniors losing billions annually to scammers, unethical caregivers, and even family members. The attorneys explain the sobering reality that willingness doesn't equal consent when cognitive impairment is involved—seniors may sign over deeds or write checks without truly understanding the consequences or remembering previous transactions.

What makes this issue particularly heartbreaking are the risk factors that compound vulnerability. Beyond cognitive decline, social isolation emerges as perhaps the most insidious threat, where seniors knowingly accept exploitation simply to maintain human connection. The podcast reveals surprising forms of abuse that often go unrecognized, including misuse of the very legal systems designed to protect vulnerable adults, like unnecessary guardianship proceedings when less restrictive alternatives exist.

The attorneys offer practical solutions for both prevention and remedy. While Adult Protective Services and litigation can address exploitation after it occurs, establishing a comprehensive estate plan before cognitive issues arise provides the strongest protection. A properly executed power of attorney grants trusted individuals not just decision-making authority but legal standing to intervene if exploitation occurs—a critical distinction many families discover too late.

Ready to protect yourself or your loved ones? Schedule a free consultation today by calling 888-999-6600 or visiting mcintyrederlaw.com and take the first step toward securing peace of mind for your family's future.

Episode Transcript

Brenton Begley (00:00):
Please don't wait till it's too late.
Call McIntyre Elder Law.
Hello and good morning.
I'm Brendan Begley, attorneyand partner with McIntyre Elder
Law, and I'm joined by JordanMcIntyre.
Hey Jordan, hey guys, all right, and today we want to talk
about the risk factors that arepresented with anyone who's

(00:26):
aging.
They have a risk of cognitivedecline and that is accompanied
by a risk of exploitation, totalk about the opportunity that
folks have to exploit those whomay have diminished capacity.

(00:47):
And you know, the term that'sthrown around with respect to
this is elder abuse, and that'sa very important topic,
something that we run into allthe time, something that we want
to battle all the time, and itmay come in forms that look
innocuous or arecounterintuitive, but certainly
present themselves.
So let's talk about that,jordan.

(01:07):
So what is elder abuse and whatare the risk factors that you
look for to determine whether ornot there's a good opportunity
to have elder abuse presented ina certain situation?

Jordan McIntyre (01:22):
Legally, elder abuse refers to any intentional
or negligent act that causesharm or risk of harm to an older
adult.
This typically will happen athome or it can happen in a care
facility or even at the hands oftrusted individuals like family
members or caregivers.
And it's not just physicalabuse.

(01:42):
It can typically be financialexploitation, and I think that's
one of the fastest growingforms of elder abuse.
You have scammers, unethicalcaregivers or family members
stealing money or evenpressuring somebody into signing

(02:04):
a deed when they didn't reallywant to sign that deed over or
weren't in the right frame ofmind to sign that deed.
And I think there's some keyrisk factors that will make an
individual, an elderlyindividual, more vulnerable.
You'll start to have cognitivedecline.
Right, people get diagnosedwith dementia or Alzheimer's,
and then they have impairedjudgment, so you're easier to

(02:26):
manipulate.

Brenton Begley (02:30):
Yeah, I see situations where they're like
well, you know, mom was givenall this money to you know, son
I mean she willingly, you know,signed the checks.
Or she, she, she willingly, youknow, went to the bank and got
this money out.
She willingly, you know, wentto the bank and got this money
out.
You know, can there still beelder abuse if the person is

(02:53):
willingly transferring the fundsfor their property.

Jordan McIntyre (02:55):
Yes, because just because you did something,
that doesn't mean that you werelegally in the frame of mind to
do that Right, or understood, Iguess, the intent of the
transfer, the disposition ofyour property, or I guess we
call the nature of the bountyright, what you're transferring.

Brenton Begley (03:13):
Yeah, yeah, I mean, you know.
There's time and time again youcan have an individual who is
transferring assets, but maybenot aware of what assets they
own, what it means the fact thatthey may be depriving other
individuals of an inheritance,and how much you know.
Another thing is it can be hardwith someone with diminished

(03:35):
capacity to keep track of howmuch they've given over time as
well.

Jordan McIntyre (03:41):
Yeah, and when we do litigation we have to pull
those bank records and see kindof what stands out right, what
transactions don't align withwhat someone would typically do,
especially with those powers ofattorneys.

Brenton Begley (03:57):
Yeah, like there's a lot of ATM withdrawals
.
What's going on?
Yeah, yeah.
What other misactors are there?

Jordan McIntyre (04:17):
Yeah, yeah.
What other misactors are there?
They're their primary caretaker, but they're really abusing
them and taking advantage ofthem and no one's really aware
of it because they're isolated.
When elderly individuals startto have physical disabilities
and they're reliant and isolated, so I guess physical

(04:38):
disabilities would be anotherrisk factor.
Any type of history of familyconflict, preexisting brain
relationships, can lead tofinancial or emotional abuse.
So that's what stands out to me.

Brenton Begley (04:55):
Yeah, yeah, you know the isolation is a big one,
especially if they havediminished capacity, especially
if they've lost a loved one, andthat has a result in their
isolation.
You know, people get lonely,they, and they're more
susceptible to exploitation justto keep people around.

(05:16):
You know that's one of the riskfactors and and whether or not
there is undue influence on a,on a will or something like that
, because you have people whoare lonely and they have
somebody enter their lives andthat person may not have the
best of intentions and they'reproviding companionship, but

(05:37):
they have ulterior motives.
And that can be an incrediblydifficult situation, especially
because sometimes the individualsubject to exploitation knows
that that person has ulteriormotives, but it's so lonely and
isolated that they want to keepthat person in their lives

(05:58):
because they have some sort ofdependence on them, and
sometimes they'll develop anactual dependence where they
need that person as a pseudocaretaker and they basically,
you know, have an agreement thatif I keep you in the will or in
my estate plan, you won't leaveme and you know I won't have

(06:19):
anybody to help.
You know, bring me places orbring me groceries, things like
that.
So that can be a really toughsituation, another one that I've
seen quite a bit.
That is counterintuitivesometimes, when you at first
glance you think that you knowthis is in the best interest of
somebody with diminishedcapacity and so it makes it that

(06:41):
much more insidious is theabuse of the system.
Ok, that's another one that wesee quite a bit.
So, for example, let's say thatyou have a situation where there
is a power of attorney in place.
Mom makes daughter power ofattorney good job as power of

(07:10):
attorney and is, you know,providing for everything that
mom needs?
Is you know taking care of, youknow, usual expenses?
Maybe had to pay themselvesback for a couple of things,
maybe had to make a couple ofbig purchases for mom.
And then brother steps in anddoesn't like what he sees.
He sees the billing statement.
He's like my God, you paid Xamount of dollars for you know
this for mom's house that youknow you're going to inherit.

(07:30):
So I think you did it foryourself, that that sort of
thing.
And so because now brother, youknow he wants control, you know
he's trying to find any reasonwhy you know daughter's not
doing a good job.
So he goes after guardianshipmom, you know, and that process

(07:52):
can be a hugely beneficialprocess if guardianship is
necessary, but if there's powerof attorney in place, there's a,
an alternative, what isreferred to in the laws, the
least restrictive alternativethen you know that should be
pursued first.
And if there is a viablealternative to guardianship,
then it's important to have thatrelationship maintained in
place instead of going theextreme route of having that

(08:15):
individual, like mom in thissituation, adjudicated and
competent, having an individualappointed to make her decisions
for her, appointed to make herdecisions for her.
So you know, brother, it mayappear that he's acting in
mother's best interest, butreally, you know, mother made
that choice before she developedany cognitive issues, before
she lacked capacity.

(08:36):
She made the decision to makedaughter her power of attorney
and daughter's acting that way.
And so you know the system cancertainly be abused to try to
maintain control over the assetsof somebody or gain control
over the assets of somebody withdiminished capacity too, and
that's a that can be a scarything, that you know the system

(08:58):
is built in a way that that canhappen.
But you know people need to beaware of that and that's why
it's incredibly important to doestate planning in the first
place.
So that leads me to the nextthing is what can be done to
help not only prevent butrectify the opportunity for
elder abuse.

Jordan McIntyre (09:19):
Well, the system will sometimes step in
right.
You'll have adult protectiveservices if they fiduciary duty
fraud or negligence.
I guess, additionally, withdeeds that are signed over

(09:52):
improperly or any type ofimproper estate planning, we can
do declaratory judgment actionsto get them set aside right,
they get them and set asidegotcha.

Brenton Begley (10:07):
So to rectify some of these opportunities for
elder abuse, you can.
You can get in and actually usethe system.
So there's, you know,protections built in.
You have the department ofhealth and human services.
Um, you know, adult protectiveservices who can do an
investigation?
Certainly there's, you know,also the police.
They can do an investigation ifthere was actual crime that was
committed and then civilly wecan seek to rectify whatever

(10:29):
happened.
So if it was a taking of assets, like a conversion of money, we
can sue to get that back.
If it was legal documents thatwere executed transferring
assets, then we can sue to setthose aside.
Definitely, through thelitigation process we can
rectify those situations.
Now what can we do to alsoprevent that from happening in

(10:53):
the first place?

Jordan McIntyre (10:56):
Right Setting up the general and durable power
of attorney really as aprotective legal measure for
yourself with someone you trust.
Right Having an agent you trustwho will monitor you, monitor
financial accounts and try tohelp you If you do get to a
place where you have moredifficulty making decisions and

(11:17):
preventing yourself from anytype of elder abuse.
Right Appoint a child orsomeone you trust to be your
agent under the general durablepower of attorney and that will
really be a protective legalmeasure that we can help you
with to avoid these types ofsituations.

Brenton Begley (11:33):
That's going to also make sure that someone can
sue on your behalf if they see,you know, some type of
exploitation happening.
One of the difficulties youhave is you know someone steps
in and exploits mom.
Who can sue if mom cannotprotect herself?
Well, without someone appointedunder a general durable power
of attorney that anotherindividual would not have the

(11:54):
legal standing.
The primary constitutionalrequisite to bring a lawsuit on
behalf of mom, because you knowto bring a lawsuit on behalf of
mom, because you know essentialconstitutional principle of
bringing a lawsuit is thelawsuit has to be brought in the
name of the real party ininterest.
So the real property party ininterest if mom gets scammed or

(12:15):
if mom gets exploited is mom.
And so you know, without havinga general durable power of
attorney, there's no other wayto step in the mom's shoes and
act on her behalf legallywithout getting guardianship
again an extreme measure.
So you're right, jordan, havingthat general durable power of
attorney in place is not onlygoing to ensure that you've
named somebody who can monitorwhat's going on, has the power

(12:37):
to step in and look at bankstatements and ask questions,
but also has the legal authorityto hold someone who may exploit
mom accountable.
You know there are many thingsthat can be done in the estate
planning stage to preventexploitation and abuse down the
road.
That is your best.

(12:59):
You know.
First line of defense isputting a good estate plan in
place and communicating withyour loved ones on what your
wishes are, making that known.
So if that, you know, everchanges based off of somebody's
influence, you know folks knowthat that is not your choice and
that's, you know, the result ofsomeone coming in and having

(13:23):
that undue influence on you.
So if you have questions abouthow to protect yourself from
things like this, if you have afamily member that has gone
through any type of exploitationor elder abuse and you want to
seek some way to rectify that,we can help through our
litigation process.
And if you want to preventyourself or a loved one from

(13:43):
ever facing something like thisin the future, we can also help
with that through estateplanning.
Jordan, thank you.
This has been the Elder LawReport.
Okay, it's very informative.
If you have questions about howthis works, you can give us a
call 704-259-7040, or you canvisit our website, mcelderlawcom
, to schedule your freeconsultation today.

(14:05):
Thanks again, jordan.
See you guys.
Bye.