I knew it happens but I’m still amazed at how many systematically steal money from senior citizens.
For the past few years I’ve served as Conservator for an elderly friend with health issues. That means I pay his bills and manage his holdings. I also run into scams aimed at his money.
For example, a couple of times a week I get mailings wanting him to sell his home or otherwise “unlock the value.” That’s understandable, predictable prospecting for business. Yet once a scalawag called my friend to ‘set-up a time to sign that contract you agreed to.’ Another time a smiling scoundrel showed up at his door, paperwork in hand, to “just finish-up.”
Fortunately, my friend’s caregivers know that he doesn’t sign important papers and that every phone can dial 9 1 1.
Scamming the elderly is a multi-billion dollar business for people around the U.S. that drains the elderly of their retirement funds and government benefits. The Orlando Sentinel (using a Department of Justice report) points out that elderly people lose out on about $3 billion to scammers every year…
The American Journal of Public Health estimates that about 5 percent of the elderly population (which equates to around two to three million people) suffer from some sort of scam every year. “What’s worse, it’s very likely an underestimate,” said David Brune, a professor at the University of Toronto.
https://www.aginginplace.org/internet-scams-affecting-elderly/
Some thefts are harder to catch. Take, for example, the mandatory ‘added value’ the region’s daily paper puts on his subscription for ‘digital access.’ True, it’s only $6.00 per payment cycle, yet, like many seniors, he lacks internet access. (And, I suspect the Probate Court frowns on unlimited access to everything on the web.)
Or, how about the Trump Tax Cuts…they cost my friend around $30,000 in 2018.
You see, having caregivers in his home every hour of every day takes a lot of money. The bulk of that expense is deemed by his doctors to be medically necessary, meaning it’s deductible. Except that the new tax law changes revised how the size of the deduction gets applied. In the end just over $100,000 of a quarter million paid-out got erased. That made for a good day for Washington and Jefferson City.
Since my friend and his late wife lived modestly and saved he gets to stay in his home. Had they not prepared, well, taxpayers would now shoulder the cost of a skilled care facility bed.
Shouldn’t the tax code reward seniors who make the effort to provide for themselves? Per federal government reports, about 4.5 million Americans receive home health care: complete deductibility for those expenses would dramatically increase the length of time many seniors could stay in their homes and not need Medicaid services.
Of course, that would probably require an offset in tax law, something as radical as limiting the tax deduction for country club memberships paid for by public companies.
Ironically, the most egregious on-going theft I’ve fought (and not been able to stop) comes from a major brokerage firm. Somehow, years ago, he acquired an account with a balance of a couple of thousand dollars. In the decade of records I have, my friend never took money from the account, nor did he add to it. Yet, each winter, sure as cold weather, this multi-billion dollar organizations charges more than $300 in an annual fee.
Since my first months as Conservator I have tried to close the account. I have sent formal letters with paperwork galore to the address on the statements. I’ve visited the fancy Clayton sky-rise office of the firm. I have pointed my friend’s lawyers at them. No one acknowledges the letters or contacts, the Clayton office refuses to deal with the account – it is managed through a boiler room, evidently in New Jersey, they said. In recent years I’ve watched, helplessly, as the account went from about $1,100 to $800 to $500 to just over $300.
I suspect my friend is not their only victim. And, I fear that most of those victimized are elderly Americans caught in the same inescapable vice.
Stealing from old people, alas, is common and profitable.
Glenn