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What we can learn from the Astor abuse case
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When Brooke Astor's son was found guilty of defrauding his own mother it made headlines. Because of the high profile family and the magnitude of money involved in this case - it has received considerable media coverage – but unfortunately it is far from an isolated situation. According to a Metlife study, financial exploitation costs seniors $2.6 billion annually and 90% of those cases involve family. And that number may be greatly under-reported because families are often reluctant to bring these types of situations into the court systems – considering it to be a private matter.
It is always disturbing to hear about anyone taking advantage of a senior with dementia, so it is even more unnerving to learn that a family member could go to such great lengths to defraud someone they supposedly love and care about. Although my experience has been that this is a small percentage of families – if it impacts your family it can create tremendous emotional and financial strain for both the victim and other family members. The legal expenses and time involved in the uncovering of the details likely pales to the anger and disappointment that comes from knowing someone in your own family could do such a thing.
What we can learn from the Brooke Astor case is that when money is involved, some people lose their sense of right and wrong. If you have any concerns that this could be happening or has the potential of happening in your family, you could be wise to go through the process of having a court appointed guardian assigned to manage the financial affairs as soon as it is apparent that dementia is an issue. If no other safeguards have been put in place – such as a financial trust – a guardian who is outside of the family dynamics can bring transparency and checks and balances to the process of dispersing money for the needs of the person with dementia. Click here to learn more about court appointed guardianship.
Read the New York Times article on the Astor case
