Wealth attracts predators, so elderly family members need protection from scams and undue influence.

[00:30]

"for members of your family, be aware that 10% of 60 year olds have mild cognitive decline. One in three and 85 have dementia. So if you have elderly relatives, be particularly aware that they're targets."

[03:26]

"What if 20 years from now I get dement or something or there's a medication and there's an unscrupulous caretaker up the thing to do about unscrupulous caretakers is no changes to the well unless they're witnessed by an approved person."

[08:28]

"And the trusted employee had track of her checkbook and was giving herself and her friends $10,000 bonuses. And the cure for that is oh by the way the trusted employee of Victorian love after trusted her. But the the antidote to that is no matter how much you trust do not give employees check writing privileges."

Full transcript

And what I've been talking about it it relates a little bit to what Richard was saying that to be successful to build an estate you have to be aggressive but you also have to be defensive. Then I'm going sharing some quick stories on things that can happen to your estate and have an estate you're a target what to do. To start with, be aware that wealth attracts predators. Then either for yourself or for members of your family, be aware that 10% of 60 year olds have mild cognitive [clears throat] decline.

One in three and 85 have dementia. So if you have elderly relatives, be particularly aware that they're targets. Anybody within a state is a target in your head. So good. Don't don't distract me. I'm supposed to be talking to everybody.

Okay. Wealth and aging. Again, I picked this social comment for myself as I will explain in a few minutes. But let's give some southern case examples. And these are all people that I know extremely well. It's a case they're equal relatives.

Stop it. [laughter] is this case is a case of of unduly influence again with your estate with your heirs with the elderly people of your family. Keep in mind what happened to people we'll call him Peter Smith. There's another Peter Smith in the room. That's his alias. I just blew it.

Peter Smith. He was elderly. He was in his 80s and he had a caretaker. The caretaker. It was a guy, a caretaker. And this man who was the caretaker was a caretaker for him for five years.

And the family didn't think much about it until he went to his great reward. And his daughter went to the house which she presumed she was going to inherit. The caretaker said, "You left it all to me. You can't come in." She learned, the family learned that Peter's caretaker had claimed that he was gay, by the way, and that he had a gay relationship with Peter and that Peter had left him absolutely everything, the house, the money, the the clothes, the you just everything.

And you know, there was this document that that said that he had done it. Well, the family was able after two years of being in court to have the reversed and and prove that that that Peter wasn't competent. But proventional would have been so much better because two years in court, the stress, the the state not settled, a bad guy living in the house. So what do you do about it?

This is something that in all the families that I want to that we've agreed to do it and family members cited that and I'll I'll give I'll take me as an example. I have a document witnessed by various people saying that any changes to my will, if they aren't witnessed, and then I list a number of people who if they'll witness it, like my sister, my brother, my lawyer, that no changes to my will are valid unless somebody else witnesses it. And the purposes of that, you know, I think that I'm mentally competent, but what if I were a guild? What if 20 years from now I get dement or something or there's a medication and there's an unscrupulous caretaker up the thing to do about unscrupulous caretakers is no changes to the well unless they're witnessed by an approved person.

Next the sympathy scam. We'll call this person Augusta. Augusta something like 12 years ago met a woman. She met her wait she met this woman who had a real sad story. Uh her husband had died unexpectedly and she didn't have money for funeral expenses. Augusta being a tender-hearted person.

I think it's called suicidal empathy. But anyway, she decided to to help this woman out and she gave $1,000 or something for funeral in expenses. But then a little bit later, this scammer told Augusta, "I'm having trouble with my wife. Could you help tie me yogurt?" And then a little bit later, "I've been diagnosed with cancer." And by the way, this is 12 years ago, so keep in mind, 12 years ago, I've got cancer.

I've got medical bills to pay. And bit by bit, she sort of worked her way into Augusta's suicidal sympathy situation where she kept asking for money, more money. And when Augusta tried to stop, she guilt tripped Augustus so badly. Well, Augustine told me shortly before the passing, which was December, she said that she was really embarrassed because she thought that she was getting like several,500 a year to this woman she didn't like anymore, and she was expecting her to die of cancer if she never did die.

Well, the lawyers who were looking after Augustus's estate discovered that bid by bid she the the scammer her name is Carp DM in case any of you ever come across this had gotten $1.5 million from Gustia. It's called the sympathy scan and they do it very slowly and gradually that's not quite the end of the story because well the cure for this is if somebody's elderly have have somebody else look over the checkbook to make sure that that there aren't expenses that are totally unexplained. This is the collect on Denver scan and we're still we're still with Carpedium the woman who got who scammed 1.5 million for Augusta in that case in the case of uh Carpadian a family member of Augusta tracked down Carpedia then would you believe she's on YouTube telling about how to live the good life with like royalty in Spain or or And I mean just extreme fakery. The story continues.

Collect on death details of the piece sc these are are details of we we have the accounting of all. You don't have to read it, but these are the I it's the Well, I'm going to skip to whatever what I was showing you was a list of payments, but they're they're they're like weekly almost and and Augusta had no idea that she wasn't paying attention. But Cood collecting death, Augusta dies, suddenly I'm the victim of this woman. She daily writes me if even including this morning she wrote to say oh because I haven't fulfilled what her well August was my sister since I haven't fulfilled what her my sister was obligated to she was and this this morning she's going to go to make it make it make it public uh shown both legally and publicly.

Well, I I promised you answers for every situation. Uh let's see with the next slide is going to show it. Yes. Tell anybody who's been a victim of the collect on death, the cen of D scabard that if it's in writing in almost every state, they have no claim on you unless it's in writing. I mean with your lawyer.

But according to my lawyer, that's generally this to prevent scams that that don't don't feel that you have to pay just because somebody claims that they have because it's too easy to be scammed by trusted employee. And so that I don't run out of time. I'm going to gallop through this. But a trusted employee of another person, we'll call her Victoria.

But this woman, Victoria, a little bit like Augusta, was not terribly careful with her checkbook. And in her last years, she she wasn't full-blown dementia, but she wasn't smart either. And the trusted employee had track of her checkbook and was giving herself and her friends $10,000 bonuses. And the cure for that is oh by the way the trusted employee of Victorian love after trusted her.

But the the antidote to that is no matter how much you trust do not give employees check writing privileges. Just never do it. I've talked with lots of lawyers and so forth since and that is the recommendation because you know the word confidence a conman that my father used to say if a conman looked like a con wouldn't be a conman. So so no matter how much you trust do not give them poly check writing privileges unless somebody is looking up.

Okay. And now we come to me. U in my case there was an article about Fortune magazine which happened to be extremely broad but like distropically wrong. It's very flattering but it was wrong. It said that I as a sheran and as a Purdue Aerys was worth 17 billion dollar. Well, when that came out, I was in New Hampshire at that point, and law enforcement people came to me and said, "At at the level of 17 billion dollars, you're you're going to attack.

You're going to attract people who will kidnap you for ransom." And I got advice very quickly about like turn off all all blank phone things where they could track me. But then it got a little bit worse and a little bit more terrifying and that is that 17 billion. I was also told that that would attract the attention of state actors like Russia or Iran or North Korea.

Okay. So I'm hearing this and this isn't feeling comfortable and I I I build a new and to check if if you I have any worms or anything. Guess what? There are a whole bunch of Trojans there. And for those of you who aren't familiar with with the malware Trojans, they're very good. If they get in, then if they can spread other malware and at that point, I'm in a state of misery because I I don't want somebody to go drain my bank account.

I generally prefer not to be kidnapped in Wound. Uh so what do you do when something like that happens? Well, what I recommend is there's a lady and a gentleman here bearing back and I'd like you to wave your hands. I believe you're you're looking at Monica Pearson and Seth Brown. I had heard I had heard them speak and they become socials and you know at this point how about Tammer because like I'm the executive of my sister's estate and there's money and I don't want [clears throat] thousands and thousands of people being able to to track me and one of the things I learned is that on the on the dark web there lists that people can buy so that they can get your personal address, they can get your phone number and I began getting these phone calls like at 3:00 in the morning were groggy than they should speaking to that she burden and you know when I I didn't know better I said yes what that was all about I have since learned CIA people have told me this that they can seal a phone number for much more that's verified that it is the person faith to be okay so one of the great virtues of Monica Pearson and Seth Ralph but there are other people who will do this but they're they're the ones who helped One of their great virtues is they do handholding because I I was in real distress with the idea that that somebody could drain my bank account or or or worse get to my children or grandchildren.

Well, actually, I should invite both of you to say what you did, but I asked them at lunch and they'll tell you in greater detail. But what they did do was by like next day by FedEx they sent me a special phone giving me a new data new identity. I mean Ken Smith and the phone had an email and a phone number that gave my addresses York Dakota. Uh, we shut down all my all my iPhone, my iPad, my my laptop, my desktop.

So that everything had just gone blank. Except it was slightly better than that because I gave my real phone iPhone to my niece who was in a nursing home like 500 miles away. So if somebody was trying to track me, they would be terribly disappointed because they would not get me. Anyway, the end result of it is they it's called one what what's the thing that you you can screen any it's a it's a program you put on that you back edit it's better than that it's well there there is a way where with the iPhone that they sent me and the new identity they gave me a new Apple address and everything else they can track and see what what emails are coming in that they can keep me from adding additional Delaware and let's see I don't want to run out of time and I've got 23 my points for you since since this is about giving you you information you can use and actually I hope you never kid use it but know it's there no changes to a will without approval segregate bank accounts make sure that the person who writes the check has somebody who's looking over his or her shoulder trusted eyes look over checks uh employee saying the same thing over calling the countro and I've now just run out of time.