Be Your Own Superhero: Protect Yourself From Financial Predators

Spider Man. Ant Man. The Fantastic Four. The Hulk. These comic book superheroes sprang from Stan Lee's imagination and made their creator a wealthy man. But at 95, the Marvel mogul's own powers appear diminished, potentially putting him and his estimated $50-$70 million fortune in jeopardy.


No superhero is swooping in to save Lee - but there is Tom Lallas, Lee's former estate planning attorney. Lallas recently filed a petition with a Los Angeles court alleging that Lee is being abused by his business partner, Keay Morgan. Lee reportedly has hearing, visual and possibly cognitive impairments. The court issued a temporary restraining order against Morgan on June 13 and appointed Lallas as Lee's legal guardian, pending further investigation.


Morgan deals in artifacts related to cultural figures, particularly Marilyn Monroe and Michael Jackson. He met Lee years ago through Lee's daughter and only child, J.C. Both Lee and his wife Joanie have had a combative relationship with their daughter, with disputes often revolving around money (more on that later). When Joanie passed away in July 2017, Morgan stepped in as Lee's caregiver. According to the court filing, Morgan began isolating Lee.  He fired Lallas and other longtime staff members, including the housekeeper and  gardener. He replaced Lee's accountant with his own friend. He changed Lee's phone number and refused to allow family and friends to visit. He also moved Lee out of his longtime family home and into a condo.


The Los Angeles police are currently investigating the matter. It is far from clear-cut; Lee himself has defended Morgan's behavior. On one Twitter post he wrote: "I just want to go on the record and say I have only one partner, only one person who does represent me, and that's Keay Morgan. Anybody else who claims to be my rep is just making that story up." Whether that post was actually written by Lee is not known.


Daughter J.C. is now 67. According to an  April 10, 2018 story in The Hollywood Reporter, she has never been self-supporting and relies on funds from the trust her parents established for her. A prodigious spender who reportedly blows through $20,000 to $40,000 every month, she nonetheless resents the trust's financial restrictions and has been known to take out her frustration on her parents. The family housekeeper recalled that J.C. would phone her father several times a day to berate him about money, leaving Lee hoarse and agitated from fighting with her. At one point he allegedly said he would cut her off completely. Another individual familiar with the family relates that in 2014, J.C. became infuriated when she learned that a new Jaguar parked in her parents' driveway was a leased vehicle in her father's name, and not a gift for her. She physically attacked her mother and father. The Lees did not press charges out of concern about negative publicity and the impact on their daughter. 

Legal Steps You Can Take To Protect Yourself From Financial Predators

Regular readers of this blog will recognize that this situation is not an outlier. Elder financial abuse is becoming increasingly common as Baby Boomers age. Numerous initiatives continue to be taken at both the state and federal levels to protect seniors and to encourage reporting of potential abuse. One recent step in that direction is the federal Senior Safe Act, which you can read about here. 


You can also take your own proactive steps to protect yourself and your assets from financial predation. We often recommend establishing a Predator Protection Trust for clients who are concerned that as they grow older, their adult children or others may try to take advantage of them financially. It is an unfortunate fact of life that it is family members - the ones we should be able to trust the most - from whom we most need protection.

How The Predator Protection Trust Works

A Predator Protection Trust is an irrevocable trust in which you specify how the trustee may expend funds on your behalf. This gives you, the grantor of the trust, the ability to establish a trust for your benefit and anyone else you desire, and put someone else in charge. Then, when demands are placed on you for money - usually from a "loved one" - you can respond that you cannot meet those demands because you have no authority to give money away. 


You may appoint one or more trustees.  Some clients select a financial institution, or their accountant or lawyer as co-trustee along with a family member. 


Here's a case I had that illustrates the value of this kind of trust. My client complained about a conniving granddaughter who was constantly bullying her and demanding money. She had given in to the badgering many times. My client was exhausted from the battle, and was increasingly worried about her own financial welfare. We solved my client's problem by setting up a Predator Protection Trust for her. I then followed up by sending a letter to the client's granddaughter, and to all her grandchildren and children, indicating that the client no longer had control of any of her assets under her new irrevocable trust and therefore would no longer be able to gift any assets to them. I explained that although my client presently had full competency and capacity, she recognized that she could lose capacity in her declining years and become vulnerable to financial manipulation. The Predator Protection Trust provided my client with peace of mind because she now knew her assets were kept safe for her use, and that her loved ones' inheritances were also secure.



Contact our office at 561-625-1100 to discuss establishing a Predator Protection Trust.

What Can You Do If You're Denied Visitation With An Incapacitated Loved One?

Recent news is replete with stories about spouses, guardians and caregivers accused of refusing to allow family members to visit an incapacitated loved one. These stories have made headlines because they involved celebrities. Among them were disc jockey Casey Kasem and actor Peter Falk. Of course, the problem is not confined to celebrity families. When it happens to "ordinary" people, the stories just don't make headlines.

The most recent high-profile case is that of Glen Campbell, who died from Alzheimer's Disease in 2017. His children from a prior marriage allege that their stepmother Kim, Campbell's wife, did not allow them to see their ailing father. Son Travis said he learned she had moved his father from California and into a Tennessee assisted living facility only when he heard it on the news. Kim denies his allegation. She has said Travis was an absentee son who had not visited his father in 20 years. She told Inside Edition: "I never denied them a visit, ever. They never ever called me to ask how he was doing... It's a nightmare to have people on the internet threatening to kill you because they think you're this horrible person who wouldn't let people visit, which is totally false."


Whomever you believe, the Campbell family's conflict spurred Tennessee to pass legislation providing legal recourse to family members denied visitation with an ailing family member. "If there had been a law in effect," Travis says, "I would have had the most precious gift of all - time with my father."

Peter Falk's daughter has established the  Catherine Falk Organization that advocates for laws protecting the rights of family to visit incapacitated loved ones. Eleven states - unfortunately, not yet Florida - have adopted visitation laws. Surely more will do so as the population ages and the problem becomes more widespread. Below is a graphic from the Pew report showing the states that currently have visitation laws on the books.

How NOT to sign a nursing home admissions agreement

A recent Florida Supreme Court ruling underscores the importance of having a valid power of attorney, as well as the importance of being careful when signing a nursing home agreement for a loved one.

Juan Mendez Sr. was admitted to Hampton Court Nursing Center in Miami in 2009. Since he lacked the capacity to sign the admissions agreement, his son, Juan Mendez Jr. signed the agreement. However, the son did not have a power of attorney authorizing him to act on his father’s behalf.

In 2011, the father developed an eye infection that ultimately required removal of the affected eye. In 2012, his son sued the nursing home for negligence. The nursing home sought to block the lawsuit and force the matter to arbitration, per the terms of the admissions contract which contained a pre-dispute arbitration clause.

The lower court sided with the nursing home. Ultimately the matter ultimately ended up in the Florida Supreme Court, which overturned the lower court's ruling. The Florida Supreme Court reasoned that the son did not have power of attorney for his father and lacked the authority to sign for him; therefore, the contract (and required arbitration) was not enforceable. You can read the court's opinion here.

While this particular case was resolved favorably for the family, it is not difficult to see how signing a loved one’s admission contract could instead have negative consequences for a family. Had Mendez’ father applied for Medicaid long-term care benefits and been denied, whether because of excess assets or income, or another reason, the nursing home could then hold the son directly responsible for nursing home costs. 

When it comes to nursing home admissions contracts, be careful about what you sign... and how. See the do's and don't here.

Better visit your aging parents if you live in China. (It's a good idea here, too)

China has a long history of respect for the elderly. An adult child who fails to care for his parents violates a key teaching of Confuciansim. And soon, inattentive children may face more than moral reprobation: their credit scores may be downgraded.

The Financial Times reports that Shanghai has introduced a new ordinance, Regulations Safeguarding the Interests of the Elderly in Shanghai, enabling a parent to sue an adult child who fails to visit regularly. If the parent prevails, the court can order the child to look in on his/her parent. If the child does not comply, his/her credit rating can be downgraded, making it more difficult to get loans, open bank accounts, even secure a library card. The ordinance goes into effect May 1. 

Beyond the moral considerations, Shanghai has practical reasons to be concerned with the welfare of its elderly residents: Those 60 and older now comprise 30% of the city's population, and that percentage is expected to increase. After decades of China's one-child policy, most elderly citizens have only one child to rely upon. And rapid industrialization has resulted in increasing numbers of adult children living far from their parents' homes. Like their Western counterparts, China's adult children often find they are just too darned busy to visit. 

Clearly, Shanghai is not buying the "I'm too busy" routine. It's putting the legal screws to the kids in hopes of forcing them to take more responsibility for their parents' welfare. In fact, the official China Daily newspaper recently equated the inattentiveness of adult children to the reckless disregard of hit-and-run drivers.

If it goes as planned, many of those too-busy adult children will be forced to find the time to look in on Mom and Dad.

HBO exec left it all to exotic dancer he knew briefly. His family is not happy.

Did exotic dancer Veronica Beckham perpetrate a sweetheart scam on Micky Liu? Manipulate a lonely and sick man into making her the beneficiary of his estate? Or did he leave her his money, free from any pressure and manipulation, purely out of love - even though they knew one another for a very short time? This is the tabloid fodder that leaped from the tabloids and landed in Manhattan Surrogate Court in December 2015, with Lui's sister alleging Beckham coerced her late brother into leaving his estate to her.

Liu, 51, was unmarried and lived alone in New York City. An executive at HBO, he was also an obese alcoholic who suffered from a variety of other ailments, including diabetes and heart disease. He and Beckham, 31, met in July 2014 at Scores in Atlantic City, where she was working as an exotic dancer. They apparently struck up a friendship of sorts. Liu began paying the rent on Beckham's New Jersey rental apartment, and covered the cost of her plane ticket to visit her mother in Florida in August 2014. When Beckham returned from Florida, she gave up her apartment and moved in with Liu for a total of 35 days. On October 2, 2015, she moved out of his apartment and back to Florida in order to assist her ailing mother. 

In his emails to her, Liu professed his love and concern for Beckham, but did not mention that he had made her the beneficiary of his retirement accounts and life insurance policy. He was found dead in his apartment on March 17, 2015. Several months later Beckham collected Liu's retirement funds and $223,000 in life insurance.

This turn of events is not sitting well with Liu's siblings. In the papers filed with the court, his sister May Liu alleges that "Beckham, as a professional exotic dancer, was adept at applying and using coercion and manipulation upon men." She contends that her brother was on heavy medication and very vulnerable, and that Beckham cheated her and her sibling out of her brother's monies that they should have received.

For her part, Beckham denies being a financial predator. She says she did not seduce Liu and never had a sexual relationship with him. His decision to leave her assets, she says, was his choice alone. She was surprised when his financial institutions contacted her about her inheritance. Until then, she never even knew the meaning of the word "beneficiary," she has said.

However this case is eventually decided, it brings into clear focus an alarming and  growing problem in this country and our state: financial abuse of vulnerable adults. The elderly are especially vulnerable, because like Liu, they are often isolated and have physical disabilities that make them an easy mark.

The Florida Department of Children and Families defines adult financial exploitation as follows:  

Exploitation may result in loss of property, money, or income. Exploitation means misusing the resources of an elderly or disabled person for personal or monetary benefit. This includes taking Social Security or SSI (Supplemental Security Income) checks, misusing a joint checking account, or taking property and other resources.

Sometimes the elderly or disabled become isolated or ill and do not have someone who is willing and able to help meet their basic needs.

If you have an aging parent or an incapacitated loved one you believe is,  or may be the target of financial exploitation, a key preventive step is to stay in touch with the person. Involve yourself in the person's life, concerns and care, stay on top of things, and enlist neighbors and other family members to crack through the isolation. If you think someone is being taken advantage of, contact Adult Protective Services at 800-96-ABUSE or online here.

Should "Aging at Home" always be the gold standard for the golden years?

Ask people where they wish to grow old and the answer almost always is, at home. Aging in place has become the gold standard for the golden years, offering familiarity, continuity and comfort. 

And yet... growing old in your own home may turn out to be less comfortable than some think. In my many years of counseling families with aging parents, I have discovered that aging in place can have a darker side. It can be lonely, limiting, non-stimulating and even physically unhealthy. 

I recently ran across two articles about this issue. In his recently released book, Aging in the Right Place, University of Florida Gerontology Professor Stephen Golant argues that at-home health care providers, sellers of reverse mortgages, and the home renovation industry have oversold the notion that remaining at home is always best. He contends that the decision to remain at home, based on emotional attachments, is often made without fully understanding the potential problems, which may include inability to get out of the house,  a hard-to-navigate or even dangerous home, and reliance on family members who may be overwhelmed and unable to meet their loved one's needs. Read more of Golant's views in this Washington Post article.

This topic was also addressed in a New York Times article published recently. Aptly titled, "At Home, Many Seniors are Imprisoned by Their Independence," the article describes the day-to-day lives of seniors who have become effectively homebound as they "age in place." Read the article here.

Of course, I am not advocating not staying at home. And I completely understand the deep resistance most people have to moving, especially later in life. I am merely pointing out that the at-home choice should not be a knee-jerk reaction. Many factors must be evaluated, including health issues, proximity to family, the ability of the family or others to provide caregiving, the layout of the home, a family's financial circumstances, and more. Sometimes an assisted living environment, or even a nursing home, can do more, and better, for an older person.

We all want our aging loved ones to be healthy and happy, but we must be mindful that "aging in place," a comforting notion, is not always the best option for everyone.

Columbo's daughter does just one more thing for dad: The Peter Falk Bill

Actor Peter Falk is best known for having portrayed Columbo in the TV series of the same name. The crumpled, crackerjack detective's interviews with murder suspects always concluded with his puzzled statement, "Oh... just one more thing..." That was the "gotcha" moment when the smug suspect and audience alike knew Columbo had nailed the killer.

Now Falk's daughter is doing "one more thing" in honor of her father: Spearheading efforts to give adult children greater rights to visit ailing parents and to get information about their status.

When Catherine was five, Falk divorced her mother. He and Catherine continued to enjoy a close relationship. When in 2008 Falk began to suffer with dementia, his second wife, Shera, made it difficult for Catherine to visit her father and did not give her updates on his health. The situation was similar to what I told you unfolded in the families of the late Mickey Rooney, Casey Kasem, and now, Glen Campbell. 

During his period of incapacity, Catherine went to court in California. At great cost, she tried to get guardianship over her father. She learned then that children have few rights in this regard. The court instructed Shera to allow Catherine to visit her father, but Shera did not fully comply. In 2011, Falk passed away at age 83. Shera did not notify Catherine of her father's death; she heard about it from the media. Nor did she tell Catherine about her father's burial, or even his final resting place.

To prevent other adult children and their parents from enduring a similar experience, Catherine is promoting legislation to expand children's rights with respect to incapacitated parents. "There's no legal recourse that adult children have currently that allows them to get any visitation to their parents," says Falk. "They're isolated, and isolation means elder abuse. We need a law to protect us and to protect our parents so that we can have a relationship in their final years and days of their life."

As a result of her efforts, California is considering a bill - the Peter Falk Bill - that would recognize a child's right to visit an incapacitated parent. There is movement in other states to introduce similar bills. Here, from the Catherine Falk Organization website, are the provisions in the California bill. (Note that in that state, the word "conservatorship" is used instead of "guardianship"):
   

(a)  A conservator shall have the duty to keep the parents and adult children of a conservatee reasonably informed regarding the health of the conservatee.  A conservator must provide notice within 24 hours to any parent or adult child of the conservatee of any hospitalization or death of the conservatee.

(b)  Parents and children of conservatees have a right to reasonable visitation of the conservatee.  A conservatee shall not reject visitation made upon reasonable request unless the conservatee determines that visitation would be harmful to the conservatee.

(c) Any parent or child of a conservatee may bring a petition to enforce the right of visitation in the Court that appointed the conservator.  Such a petition may be brought in conjunction with a petition for appointment of a conservator.

(d) The court shall grant the petition for visitation unless the court finds, by clear and convincing evidence, that visitation would be harmful to the conservatee.  The court may place any reasonable restrictions on such visitation that it determines to be in the best interests of the conservatee.

(e) If the court finds that a conservator rejects a reasonable request for visitation, the court shall award the petitioner his or her costs, including reasonable attorney’s fees, unless the court finds that the conservator acted with a good faith belief that visitation would be harmful to the conservatee.

Further, the Proposed Bill would require cemeteries to open their records regarding interments to the public in order to allow persons to locate the graves of loved ones.

Have you had experiences similar to Catherine Falk's? Tell us your thoughts. Do you think similar laws are needed in Florida? 

New book on the downside of "medicalizing" the aging process

Surgeon and author Dr. Atul Gawande's newest book, "Being Mortal," was recently released. Its sensitive subject matter has sparked serious debate among physicians, the clergy and the public. Gawande argues that our society has "medicalized" aging, resulting in a greater concern with extending life rather than helping people maximize the time they have left. Gawande believes that the medical community's focus on keeping people "safe" at all costs does a tremendous disservice to the aging, the sick, and their families. 

All of us have our own opinions on this most personal of issues. It's a subject that invariably comes up when my elder law clients discuss their preferences for health care, whether they want to establish a living will, etc. But whatever your personal feelings, you will probably find the book worth a read. Here are some recent reviews:

NY Times 

Mother Jones

GeriPal blog

Another thought-provoking commentary on this topic is "Why I Hope to Die at 75 - An Argument that society and families - and you - will be better off if nature takes its course swiftly and promptly," by Dr. Ezekiel Emmanuel. To be clear, the title is a bit of a misnomer. The author is not not actually hoping to die at 75, nor does he advocate that anyone else should. He simply says he just doesn't want to live to a very old age if the years prove to be too painful for him and his loved ones.

What do you think? My readers and I would be interested to hear your input. Post a comment!

Keep your eyes open when visiting aging parents at Thanksgiving

Calls to assisted living residences always spike right after Thanksgiving.  That's not coincidence: Those calls are from adult children concerned about the parents they just visited. Our office gets more calls from adult children at this time, too.

Thanksgiving is is one of the few opportunities many children and parents have to spend time with one another. If you're a parent, why not take a few moments to tell your adult kids about where your important documents are, and how to access them? What you would like them to do in the event you have a medical crisis? Give them some general idea of your finances? (You don't need to discuss specific inheritances, or show them bank statements.) This key information will prevent your children from being blindsided if you become disabled, run into a medical emergency, or when you pass away. If your kids express discomfort with the conversation, let them know it gives you great peace of mind to provide them with this information, and that you really appreciate them hanging in there for "the talk."

On the other hand, if you are an adult child who wants to initiate this conversation, you may find your parents resistant. You can't make your parents talk, and you certainly don't want to turn your holiday visit into an inquisition! Let them know you really would like the information for your own peace of mind, so that you will have some idea of what to do if they run into trouble. 

If your parent still resists, just look around: You can learn a lot about their circumstances through casual conversation and observation.What should you look for? For starters, is the house in good order? Are there unopened bills piling up? Is the house physically safe? Is your parent exhibiting any out-of-the-ordinary behaviors? Showing signs of significant declining health like weight loss or a different gait? Are the refrigerator and pantry stocked? If you go for a drive with your parent, how is his/her driving? Does your parent's hearing and vision seem okay? If your parent wishes and you are in town for a sufficiently long period of time, your parent might even want you to accompany him/her to a doctor's appointment or two. This is also a good time to get a list of their doctors and prescriptions.

If you parent is forthcoming, find out about their safe deposit box, insurance coverage, and whether they have a durable power of attorney, living will, trust or will. If they have these documents, where are they kept? I have had people tell me they it was only when they inquired about these matters during a family get-together that they learned they had been named as their parent's attorney-in-fact, trustee or personal representative! If your parents have not done any estate planning,  this is a good time to encourage them to do so.

The AARP offers a good checklist of what to observe and ask when visiting your parents. But go slowly and go easy. Remember, this is Thanksgiving. Enjoy!