Homestead Financial Abuse

Financial abuse can involve scams, fraud, and simple theft. It often affects elderly patients in assisted living facilities, nursing homes, and even in their own residences. Other patients or caregivers may take advantage of the savings and assets someone has accumulated over a lifetime in order to steal from them and furnish their own lifestyle.

Financial abuse in Homestead can involve theft and other ways of taking over assets and cash. It is illegal, but it can also be hard to prove, since abusers may allege that the money and assets were gifts from an elderly resident or patient. If you are convinced that an elderly loved one did not surrender money and other assets willingly, contact Flaxman Law Group to arrange for a free accident consultation to discuss your case with a personal injury attorney. Flaxman Law Group works with private investigators, financial forensic experts, and other professionals who can build a strong case and even track missing or stolen money and assets so that it may be recovered.

What is Financial Abuse?

Financial abuse involves:

• Having a victim sign over assets to the perpetrator
• Stealing from a victim
• Blackmailing the victim into signing over power of attorney or bank accounts
• Having a victim change their will to leave the perpetrator as a beneficiary
• A scheme or fraud that persuades of victim to give over money under false pretenses

Financial abuse often leaves the victim without enough money for everyday needs and for their own expenses. For an elderly loved one who has worked their whole life in order to build a secure future, financial abuse can deprive them of their future and can leave them humiliated as well unable to pay for necessities. In some cases, financial abuse can leave a victim dependent financially on their abuser, which can pave the way for other forms of abuse as well. Because of the shame associated with financial abuse, victims may not step forward to speak out against their abuser, and may be left trying to make do with less money.

How Can You Know Whether Financial Abuse Has Taken Place?

There may be a number of signs that a loved one is suffering from financial abuse:

• They make sudden changes to their wills, powers of attorney, bank accounts, and insurance policies
• They suddenly have less money for everyday items
• They try to economy demise or save by making do without necessities of life
• They suddenly have less money or a dramatic downward shift in lifestyle

In many cases, perpetrators may claim that a victim has forgotten that they provided permission for certain financial changes or they may blame the victim in other ways. They may physically or emotionally abuse a victim in order to gain control over their finances or may use over-medication or other means in order to secure assets and money for themselves.

If you suspect that a loved one has been the victim of financial abuse, you must act quickly in order to seek compensation for damages. In some cases, through forensic accounting, it is possible to trace where the money has gone and it may be possible to recover some of the money – before the perpetrator relocates it or spends it all. To find out what can be done, contact Flaxman Law Group to arrange for a free, no obligation case evaluation today.

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