Seniors: Who is watching out for you and your money?

Your attorney advises you about estate planning. Your CPA prepares your taxes. You work with a financial advisor to invest your assets.

But who minds your money day to day?

Who shops for the best deal in telephone service, ensures that you don’t get ripped off by telemarketers, double-checks your medical bills for accuracy?

Is the bill-paying and record-keeping and filing getting to be too much? Are you worried that strangers or even family members will take advantage of you?

At SafeKeepers, we look out for your best interests. With many years’ experience as conservators and trustees, we help you mind your money, coordinate with your professional advisors, keep your files in order and make sure that you’re getting the most out of every dollar.

Our fees are significantly lower than an attorney or CPA. Call today for details — (661) 254-1242.

Financial elder abuse is on the rise

Financial abuse and exploitation are among the fastest growing forms of elder abuse, according to the Elder Justice Coalition in Washington, D.C. (http://www.elderjusticecoalition.com/).

The problem is expected to intensify, since 70% of this country's wealth is controlled by people age 50 and older.

Are there ‘Caregrifters’ in Grandpa’s house?

My 83-year-old stepfather, Sam, was the victim of caregivers in his own home. I now refer to them as “Caregrifters,” for they were con artists from day one. He liked them, personally (most con men are quite charming), and his dependence on them made him physically and emotionally vulnerable. While John and Lorraine did not physically abuse Sam, they increasingly isolated him, convincing him that they were his family. “We’re the only ones who truly care about you,” they would say, adding, “your stepdaughter [yes, they were talking about me] wants to throw you in a nursing home.”

Sam had Parkinson’s disease, and the two caregrifters took advantage of his diminishing mental capacity. They bought themselves groceries when they shopped for his, put their personal cars on his auto insurance policy, even signed up for procedures at Sam’s dental office, so that he would cover the expense, thinking the charges were for his own fillings and dentures. And, of course, John wrote himself extra paychecks and forged Sam’s signature. He drew an extra $60,000 in five months before the abuse was stopped. How it stopped is another drama.

Sadly, Sam’s story is not unique. More and more of our elders are falling victim to such abuse. If you feel something may be wrong at a parent’s or grandparent’s house, trust your instincts!

Here are some red flag warnings of financial elder abuse or “undue influence.”

1. You’re never left alone with your loved one for a private conversation. After you leave, the caregiver may tell you that Mom/Dad was agitated or upset by your visit.
2. Your loved one is “unavailable” to talk to you on the phone and doesn’t respond to (or even receive) his/her personal mail.
3. You discover items missing from your loved one's home. (They needn’t be expensive…even small items are an indication that something is wrong.)
4. You discover that certain financial matters are unattended – bills left unpaid, bank statements piling up, taxes ignored.
5. You offer to help with financial transactions (paying bills, doing the banking, etc.) and are told that “everything is under control.”
6. You are denied information about your loved one's care -- the doctor won't talk to you; caregivers fail to notify you of hospitalization or other serious issues.
7. You have a key to the house, but it doesn’t work anymore. The caregiver gives you an unlikely excuse for the change of locks.

If you’ve seen a few of these red flags, it’s probably time to contact Adult Protective Services. Search for your county or state program on the Internet. If you need help with financial oversight for a parent or grandparent, give Safekeepers a call at (661) 254-1242.

You have a will whether you’ve written one or not

Do you have a written will tucked away in your attorney’s office or in a file cabinet at home? Good job! Even if you haven’t paid an attorney, gone to LegalZoom.com or simply scribbled your desires on a piece of notebook paper, however, you DO have a will. That’s because the state you live in has planned one FOR you. Unless you’ve prepared a document that spells out your wishes explicitly, state law will dictate how your house, cash, securities, cars, furniture, jewelry and other possessions will be divided up when you die. The state will also determine who will have custody of your minor children!

When the time comes for you to leave this world, if you have no written will, you risk leaving your heirs and loved ones in a legal, financial and emotional tangle. And your alma mater, church and/or favorite charities will inherit – you guessed it – absolutely nothing.

Don't put off this vital task. Make your wishes known. You can change the details later if you wish.

How to turn 3% interest into 100% knowledge

Percentages are handy little things if you know how to use them. Do your eyes glaze when your favorite news broadcast moves beyond the scandal of the day to the stock market report? Do you yawn and say to yourself, “So the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 3% today. Big deal -- my bank pays me 3% on my savings account”?

Get a grip on your armchair -- I have some rocketing news about those two percentages, perhaps even enough fuel to send you back to math class. If you’re receiving 3% on your savings account, that’s 3% per year, not 3% in a day. Knowing the difference between those two percentages can literally make the difference between comfortable wealth and lifelong financial struggle!

I’m not a stock broker, a banker, or even an amateur financial guru. But I am one of those females who got straight A’s in math (all right, all right, when I hit trigonometry, it dropped to a B). That was a few decades ago, but every other day, I find use for fractions, decimals, percentages…even a little algebra.

If you were never much of a math student, grit your teeth and do the following simple multiplication and division problems. It’s OK to use a calculator for the slave work. DO IT! It’s important.

Before you get started, pretend you have $100 in the local bank -- in that 3% savings account we discussed in the first paragraph. (I hope you have more money tucked away, but that’s a different story.)

· Multiply 100 by 3%. If the calculator doesn’t have a “percent” key, multiply by .03
· The resulting figure is 3.00 (That’s $3, in case you don’t recognize it – yes, the bank is paying you only $3 a year on your $100 deposit)
· Now divide 3.00 by 365 (the number of days in a year)
· The number on your calculator should read .0082
· How much money did your savings account earn in a day? 8/10 of a penny (refresher: a penny is .01 or 1/100 of a dollar)

If you’d had that money invested in the Dow Jones Industrial Average on the day of our fictitious, but not unrealistic, news broadcast, your $100 would have earned $3.00 instead of less than a single cent.

If you had $1,000 invested, the financial difference is 10 times as dramatic. You could have earned $30 in a day with the Dow Jones, whereas in the bank you would have made a whopping 8.2 cents.

All interest rates – whether it’s money coming in (on savings or investments) or going out (on loans or credit cards) – should be calculated and compared on an annualized basis. Ask your banker or broker about the APY or annual percentage yield on deposits. On debt, you’ll need to know the APR – annual percentage rate.

All these figures have been simplified for the purpose of clarity. You’d be wise to learn about compound interest, too. But, as they say, that’s another story.

Your Money or Your Life

Money doesn't guarantee a fulfilling life. In fact, excessive wealth is often an obstacle to contentment. So if money doesn’t buy happiness, why do we all want it so much? And what will make us happy? What is that point at which we’re fulfilled, where we have everything we want and need, and nothing in excess?

To find some of the answers, book Trish Lester as a speaker to present her 45-minute talk about money and spirituality, entitled "Is Our Self-Worth Defined by Our Net Worth?"


“Happiness is not having what you want…it’s wanting what you have.” -- Rabbi Hyman Judah Schachtel, American theologian, author and educator

Buddha’s Wisdom

Buddha told his followers that whatever they chose to give their attention, their love, their appreciation, their listening, and their affirmation to would grow in their life and in their world. He likened one’s life and the world to a garden, a garden that calls for sunlight and nourishment and water to grow. In that garden are the seeds of compassion, forgiveness, love, commitment, courage and all the qualities that affirm and inspire us. Alongside those seeds and in the same garden are the seeds of hatred, prejudice, vengeance, violence and all the other hurtful, destructive ways of being. These seeds and many more like them exist in the same garden.

The seeds that grow are those we tend with our attention, which is the equivalent of water and fertilizer and sunshine. The seeds we cultivate will grow and fill our garden. If we choose to invest our attention in the seeds of scarcity – acquisition, accumulation, greed, and all that springs from those seeds – then scarcity is what will fill the space of our life and the space of our world. If we tend the seeds of sufficiency with our attention, and use our money like water to nourish them with soulful purpose, then we will enjoy that bountiful harvest.