Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Nevada
Caregiver conned elderly man into joint checking
Hi, my grandfather recently within the last two years moved to Las Vegas from Santa Barbara, after meeting a woman that was offering him the world, his old age and loneliness allowed him to be fooled, once a very sharp United States Marine, he soon after meeting started getting manipulated and brainwashed. My grandfather had a living trust with my grandmother, she passed away. Seven years later (2yrs ago) he met a ''caregiver'' almost 20 yrs his jr. that made many promises and took advantage of him. She convinced him to pay off her house upwards of $100,000 at that point we realized he was no longer capable of making sound decisions. She went on to ''convince him to empty all funds from his living trust that had my mother, aunt and uncle as beneficiaries, upwards of another $300,000 into a joint checking account with her, a judgment call he'd never make. He passed away this week, and this is when we learned the living trust had $!00 in it and her joint checking with him had everything. Are there laws to protect against this? Is there anything we can do? Are they entitled to have access to this checking account since his name was on it, is there a way we can retrieve the money she conned him out of?
Shauna
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Caregiver conned elderly man into joint checking
You could contact a Las Vegas probate attorney to sue for fraud, the Clark County Public Guardian or Clark County Senior Citizens Protective Services.
Re: Caregiver conned elderly man into joint checking
This caregiver probably has defrauded your grandfather. Fortunately, if she still owns the house, you have a place to get paid from. Furthermore, if his trust was a standard A/B trust, he only held it for the benefit of other beneficiaries and they have a right to sue. I would sue right away and try to freeze the checking account.
This is something that I do as a part of my practice.