Blog Posts About Elder Financial Abuse

When a bad actor intervenes in your parent’s life to orchestrate a change in their estate plans—a change your parents didn’t want—we call that inheritance theft. It is the fastest growing area of theft among elders. And it often happens when you least expect it. It can be hard to…

When is it worth it to sue for your inheritance? Lawsuits can be expensive, time consuming, and emotionally draining. But there are two big issues involved in every Trust and Will lawsuit: principle and money. By principle, we are referring to what is right and what is just. Of course,…

Is it legal to name a caregiver as a beneficiary of a Trust or Will? The answer is… maybe. Here are the things you need to know about naming a caregiver as a beneficiary of a Trust or Will in California: When a Caregiver is Named as a Beneficiary of…

What options do you have when one of your siblings is isolating one, or both, of your parents? Well, you have two options. The first option is to file for conservatorship. And the second option is to do nothing. And, sometimes, that second option is the best option to take….

What is the difference between lack of capacity and undue influence? We talk a lot about these concepts on our videos, our blog, all of our websites, because it really is the most important part of a Trust or Will contest. We’re almost always bringing a claim to try to…

We have used the term abused beneficiary for many years now. When we refer to an abused beneficiary, we mean a Trust or Will beneficiary that has been denied their rightful inheritance in some fashion. There are two main types of abused beneficiaries, which we refer to as vested and…

One of the benefits to hiring an attorney or law firm on a contingency fee basis is payment of the out-of-pocket costs. A contingency fee agreement is one where the attorneys agree to represent the client in return for receiving a percentage of the amount recovered for the client. For…

Statutes of limitations are the deadlines by which you must file a lawsuit. We are seeing more and more people miss the filing deadline in the California Trust and Will Litigation arena. We think the reason this is occurring is because the statutes of limitations for Trust and Will issues…

Under California financial elder abuse law, you must prove four elements to establish undue influence: (1) vulnerability of the victim, (2) apparent authority of the wrongdoer, (3) actions and tactics of the wrongdoer, and (4) an inequitable result.  Two of these elements stand out over the rest: vulnerability and actions…

The most difficult undue influence cases in California occurs when you want to take action while your parent is still alive.  You may believe that your parent is being victimized by a wrongdoer through the use of undue influence, but taking action is complicated. We refer to these cases as…