After one month of knowing her, they will be married soon. On Dec. 10, my grandfather met a woman on a senior dating website. My grandfather was married to my grandmother for 53 years until she died in March 2012. So he was single for under two years before meeting this woman.
He is 76, she is 74. After only knowing her for two weeks, she was in his house and rearranging everything: making him buy new furniture, removing pictures of his dead wife, and telling him what to buy for the house. One week after this, she had him buy cruise tickets for a big trip to the Caribbean. It is not a cheap cruise; he spent well over $10,000 on this trip.
Now that she has this cruise set up, we suspect that she will marry my grandfather while on the cruise in order to get legal claim to his estate. My grandfather is quite wealthy, and has a lot to steal.
We know that this woman is a scam artist and a gold digger because we made contact with the family of her ex-husband who is now dead. She has been married 5 times in the last 20 years. It is plainly obvious just from that that she marries men for their money. But the family of her ex-husband had many terrible and revealing things to say about this woman my grandfather has met: she took millions in pension and retirement, took everything from the family home, and dispersed a paltry $6,000 to his five living children.
But even more horrible: when her husband died, she did NOT tell the family. She did not tell them he was dead, she did not inform them about the funeral whatsoever, and she had him cremated against his wishes. After she did this, she sold the family burial plot in New York that had been in the family for literally 150 years.
It is plainly obvious that this woman is a skilled liar and manipulator. She is preying upon my elderly grandfather who is lonely and has no one to spend his money or time with. The family of her ex-husband informed us that this woman lies about everything: her credentials, her education, her jobs and work experience, even her religious denomination. They have informed us that she has willingly and readily torn families apart and actively isolates her victims from their family in order to get her hands on the money.
We have contacted Adult Protective Services and they have told us that there is nothing they can do without a police report or any reasonable suspicion of abuse, neglect or exploitation. VERY CLEARLY there is financial exploitation and financial elder abuse going on, but it does not meet the legal criteria of exploitation thus far.
Even more frustrating is that my grandfather has a sound mind. He does not have dementia, is not a doddering fool, and is generally in his right mind. Now, he does drink every night, but alcohol use is not enough for APS to do anything. This woman he has met is also a drinker and we fear that she is using alcohol to make my grandfather pliant and flexible in giving her financial information.
We contacted law enforcement and they told us that they cannot do anything because no law has been broken.
Now, I understand that my grandfather can spend his money as he chooses, but she has emotionally manipulated my grandfather into thinking that she is the perfect woman for him, and she is setting up this relationship to get his money, pure and simple. We fear that she will become abusive and increasingly isolate my grandfather from us. The family of her ex-husband has indicated that their father died under suspicious circumstances, not considering her failure to inform the family of the death and her cremating him against his wishes.
How can we handle this situation? Law enforcement and the government won't do anything. My uncle has Power of Attorney, but proving dementia and gaining conservatorship seems like a fat chance. Any help, any guidance, any advice on how to get this woman AWAY from my grandfather and out of this family is so very greatly appreciated. Should we contact an estate planning lawyer or an elder abuse lawyer?
In the mean time, your grandfather needs to have his Estate put into a Trust. Tell him putting the estate into Trust will have the estate mega amount of money in taxes. Have the Uncle go with your Grandfather to the appointments. Maybe the Attorney can give your Uncle some advice on how to keep the girlfriend's hands off the Grandfather's money.
Besides, there is another way to look at this, you know. At 76 and 74, they may feel they haven't time to fritter away on the usual romantic niceties and lengthy engagement. And if your grandfather is a tough old bird, of sound mind and common sense, perhaps she has something going for her that he enjoys and appreciates to the extent that he's happy to splash out on life with her. And, by the way, two years is a long time to be alone when you've enjoyed many decades of domestic harmony. He was grieving and lonely, and now he isn't. I don't buy the plying him with alcohol ruse. It's not as if he is unused to strong drink, is it? And besides, she's presumably also there in the mornings, when the hangovers would hardly incline him to be generous.
Your fears may be well-founded; this woman might be as devilish as she's painted; I wouldn't know. But if you want to change his mind, you're going to have first to see her from your grandfather's point of view. Not that of people who may have other, unconnected reasons to detest her.
The other measures may be a very good idea, but all of them would require the grandfather's explicit consent. Therefore, whatever you do, don't piss him off.
my aunt is being held against her will at a nh right now because her poa has decided that edna shouldnt go on day trips with me anymore . my aunt is a hundred times more intelligent than her cow daughter and this travesty will not float come springtime .
no one will ever be my poa . " springing " poa maybe . that means they have control of my finances when im incapacitated . they retain that control until i " spring " back outta bed and cut em from ear to ear .
" We fear that she will become abusive and increasingly isolate my grandfather from us."
Why not have Grandpa move in with you all so that he feels part of a family again?
I feel it is abusive of his family to allow Grandpa to have been living alone for two years. Then when he dies, his inheritance goes to his kin who didn't even take him into their home in his last years.
"VERY CLEARLY there is financial exploitation and financial elder abuse going on, but it does not meet the legal criteria of exploitation thus far."
I say let him go have a great wild time but discuss budgets.
Well, here is another way to look at it... Granpa has all these children, and probably grandchildren,,, So, how is he lonely?