Should Your Mom’s Investment Advisor Be a Beneficiary of Mom’s Estate & Wealth? 4th DCA overturns conviction of financial exploitation of elderly

Uncategorized • Sep 7, 2015

post about Should Your Mom’s Investment Advisor Be a Beneficiary of Mom’s Estate & Wealth? 4th DCA overturns conviction of financial exploitation of elderly

A Broward County, Florida conviction for financial exploitation of an elderly person was overturned, or reversed, on June 24, 2015 by Florida’s 4th District Court of Appeal. In this Florida financial exploitation case, the husband of an investment firm employee had been convicted but sought acquittal.

Financial Exploitation of the Elderly in Florida: what rights do family members have to recover their inheritance?

There were two defendants in the original criminal case: a woman who worked for an investment firm and her husband.
The investment firm employee’s client was an elderly woman with a vast financial empire.
While this wealthy Florida woman’s estate plan had focused on a will, a revocable trust Florida and aspecial needs trust for her adult sons, that all changed.
New Estate Plan after New Probate Attorney
Beginning in 2008, this wealthy woman made multiple amendments to her estate documentsunder the advice of a different attorney than the one she used previously to prepare, or write, her original estate planning documents.
This new attorney was a “good friend” of the investment firm employee (the defendant’s wife), in this Palm Beach appeals court case of financial exploitation.
The investment firm employee referred business to this new attorney, and likewise referred this wealthy Florida woman with the “vast financial empire” to this attorney.
So, after this wealthy woman went to this new attorney, the good friend of the investment firm employee, guess who became beneficiaries of the vast financial empire? Sure, you guessed it: the investment firm employee and her husband.
To read the entire 4th DCA opinion on how an investment firm employee got into a client’s estate plan, you can click on this link for free:http://www.4dca.org/opinions/June%202015/06-24-15/4D13-1952.op.pdf
Do Family Members Have Rights to Get Their Inheritance Back?

What is perhaps most troublesome to many family members or heirs at law is: how in the world did an investment firm employee become the beneficiary of a vast financial empire of a client?
I don’t know what investment firm was involved in this case and I don’t know who the new Florida estate planning attorney was.
But I do know that this case causes concern for family members. The 4th DCA opinion was a criminal case, so we are left with lots of questions for probate litigation lawyers in Florida, including whether the family, or a guardian, or the woman’s trustee, sued to change the estate plan.
Where was the guardian, if one was appointed? Where was the trustee of the special needs trust? Was there a rescission action or an undue influencecase, or even a Florida guardianship action, filed to “go back” to the original estate documents?
Of course in these types of probate lawsuits, or elder exploitation lawsuits, defendants who are the beneficiary of a new estate plan often alleged that the plaintiff or petitioner in a probate or civil lawsuit, lacks legal standing.
While the case in informative, more than instructive, it begs the question of how financial firms or investment firms permit their employees to refer business to lawyers who then make the referring financial professional a beneficiary of the estate plan change.
Many financial firms, banks and Florida trust companies have, or should have, policies and procedures prohibiting an employee, who is sometimes, indeed often, a licensed financial professional, from being a beneficiary or a fiduciary for a client.
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Should Your Mom’s Investment Advisor Be a Beneficiary of Mom’s Estate & Wealth? 4th DCA overturns conviction of financial exploitation of elderly

Financial Exploitation of the Elderly in Florida: what rights do family members have to recover their inheritance?

There were two defendants in the original criminal case: a woman who worked for an investment firm and her husband.

The investment firm employee’s client was an elderly woman with a vast financial empire.

While this wealthy Florida woman’s estate plan had focused on a will, a revocable trust Florida and aspecial needs trust for her adult sons, that all changed.

New Estate Plan after New Probate Attorney

Beginning in 2008, this wealthy woman made multiple amendments to her estate documentsunder the advice of a different attorney than the one she used previously to prepare, or write, her original estate planning documents.

This new attorney was a “good friend” of the investment firm employee (the defendant’s wife), in this Palm Beach appeals court case of financial exploitation.

The investment firm employee referred business to this new attorney, and likewise referred this wealthy Florida woman with the “vast financial empire” to this attorney.

So, after this wealthy woman went to this new attorney, the good friend of the investment firm employee, guess who became beneficiaries of the vast financial empire? Sure, you guessed it: the investment firm employee and her husband.

To read the entire 4th DCA opinion on how an investment firm employee got into a client’s estate plan, you can click on this link for free:http://www.4dca.org/opinions/June%202015/06-24-15/4D13-1952.op.pdf

Do Family Members Have Rights to Get Their Inheritance Back?

What is perhaps most troublesome to many family members or heirs at law is: how in the world did an investment firm employee become the beneficiary of a vast financial empire of a client?

I don’t know what investment firm was involved in this case and I don’t know who the new Florida estate planning attorney was.

But I do know that this case causes concern for family members. The 4th DCA opinion was a criminal case, so we are left with lots of questions for probate litigation lawyers in Florida, including whether the family, or a guardian, or the woman’s trustee, sued to change the estate plan.

Where was the guardian, if one was appointed? Where was the trustee of the special needs trust? Was there a rescission action or an undue influencecase, or even a Florida guardianship action, filed to “go back” to the original estate documents?

Of course in these types of probate lawsuits, or elder exploitation lawsuits, defendants who are the beneficiary of a new estate plan often alleged that the plaintiff or petitioner in a probate or civil lawsuit, lacks legal standing.

While the case in informative, more than instructive, it begs the question of how financial firms or investment firms permit their employees to refer business to lawyers who then make the referring financial professional a beneficiary of the estate plan change.

Many financial firms, banks and Florida trust companies have, or should have, policies and procedures prohibiting an employee, who is sometimes, indeed often, a licensed financial professional, from being a beneficiary or a fiduciary for a client.

Want to see short, concise, free online videos about Florida Trust & Probate from a private Florida trust video library in the cloud?