Undue Influence

Each year in the United States 5 million elderly people experience a form of theft called Elder Financial Abuse. Those people have 36 billion dollars stolen from them annually by unscrupulous people that take advantage of their advanced aging and poor health. 75% of these thieves are friends or family members, 58% of the perpetrators are the victims’ very own children. Only 1 out of 44 of these cases ever gets turned over to the police. Forbes magazine calls it, “The Crime of the 21st century!” Could your family be next? What follows is my family’s tragic story written in a diary from the beginning of me finding out about missing funds. The people are all real, though the names of the guilty have been changed to protect the innocent…. They know who they are! The stories are all true, I am not creative enough to make this stuff up. It has not been modified after the facts and is all 100% accurate to the best of my knowledge. My question to you is, “What will you do when this happens in your family’s estate? Do your parents have wealth to be distributed? Are they advanced in years with declining health? Some day you or they will be! Do you have a family member that cannot be trusted? Do you think assets are safe because there is a will? They are not! Are there “Interlopers” seeking to manipulate what is right? Read my journal and find out how I responded to the harsh evils of a depraved family. DON’T BE THE NEXT VICTIM! I am not sure how you feel about your heritage or how you fit in the lineage of the people you call family. I once had a pastor friend that said, “If you don’t know who the dysfunctional people are in your family…. It might be you!” My extended family is probably much like yours, Christians, heathens, hardworking, cheaters, skilled craftsmen, lazy, business owners, drunkards, and maybe even a closet pedophile. In the micro sense, I grew up as “Theodore Cleaver.” Dad worked two jobs; mom stayed home with two kids. We go to church three times a week. Supper was at 5:00 and curfew was at 9:00. As a youth, my cousins were my closest friends. Now as a man in my sixties with a wonderful family of my own, I wonder, “Who were those people? We only share DNA at this point, though sometimes I now wonder if I could have been adopted. My birth family is now a mess, and I can do nothing about it. Bad choice after bad choice has put them all in a tough position. Negative influences will destroy a family at its core. You will meet my family in this story and see their character, or lack thereof. I appreciate my upbringing; it has made me who I am today. It must have been good; I see it in my children. You decide about the rest. First, We Must Define UNDUE INFLUENCE In jurisprudence, UNDUE INFLUENCE is an equitable doctrine that involves one person taking advantage of a position of power over another person. This inequity in power between the parties can vitiate one party’s consent as they are unable to freely exercise their independent will. wikipedia.org