My Mother-in-Law was a frugile woman that retired from The State of California, had an annuity provided by her first husband from the federal government and social security from her second husband a retired Coast Guard member. She paid into a Long Term Care group provided through Calpers that nearly paid all of her care after the initial deductible was met.

In 2005, her daughter began to pay her bills and following her second husband’s death in 2009, she appointed her daughter the Trustee of her Trust. Almost immediately there were sums of monies withdrawn from ATM machines sometimes every other day. The daughter had experienced brain cancer and she too began to exhibit signs of dementia much like her Mother.

Taxes stopped being filed in 2010 and the years prior to that an itemized form was not submitted to offset the expenses against the income from the LTC insurance. Her home sat empty with unpaid utilities and taxes accruing interest for 7 years and insurance premiums were left unpaid.

The LTC reimbursements went directly into the daughter’s account and often the withdrawals were taken from savings or overdrafts had to be covered from her account back to her Mother’s account.

Rather than contact my husband to assume the responsibility, the daughter allowed her eldest son to support a drug habit on grandma’s money. If that wasn’t enough, the daughter’s home went into foreclosure and she and the son that was considered her primary caregiver were evicted.

The son portrayed himself as sacrificing his life for his Mother and Grandmother when in reality it allowed him to continue his drug use at their expense.

Upon my husband acquiring Power of Attorney for his Mother all funds were depleted and co-mingled funds unaccounted for. The nephew had wiped out all monies and continued to do so while the POA was being drawn up by the attorney.

The day my husband landed in Sacramento Assemblywoman Kim introduced AB1718 to tighten the existing laws when it comes to theft and embezzlement or fraud of the elderly. I fully support this bill and would further tightened the ability of getting a Power of Attorney to that similar to the Representative Payee under Social Security.

After reporting the abuse as a crime and opening a report with Elder Abuse case workers in Solano County, CA we find that theft is more common than you would think and that Trusts are normally treated as personal piggy banks.

More often than not the abuse is being committed by a family member with an addiction and greed is a secondary cause. Due to the sister’s medical condition she can’t be prosecuted.

If you have a family member that is a Trustee, stay involved and don’t be afraid of asking for an accounting on an annual bases.

My Mother-in-Law died on April 30, 2016. Thank goodness she never knew how the people she entrusted with her life savings took advantage of her.