The U.S. Department of Justice has recently prosecuted defendants across the country related to a Jamaican lottery scam. In a recent webinar discussing elder financial abuse, a lawyer with the DOJ stressed that effective schemes do not work if they sound to go to be...
Cracking down on fraudulent schemes that target older Americans is the goal of bipartisan legislation recently introduced by U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar and Susan Collins. The Senior Fraud Prevention Act would help educate seniors and improve monitoring.This post is...
Medical aid in dying will soon be a compassionate end-of-life option for terminally ill Coloradans. The initiative – known as proposition 106 – was approved by approximately 65 percent of state voters.Oregon was the first to pass a similar measure in 1997....
A tragic accident leaves a young boy without a father. His father had been the most stable figure in his life for some time. What happens now? Inertia and worries about the cost of an estate plan keep many unmarried parents from putting a plan in writing. This leaves...
Even with the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision and myriad state-level initiatives that recognized the validity of same-sex marriage, many of these couples still find themselves facing unique challenges where legal matters are concerned. For example, there are many...
We have posted a lot of information on this blog about the responsibilities of a guardian in the life of an incapacitated person. We recognize that if you have been asked to take on this role you probably have a lot of questions. Under Colorado law, a guardian is a...
After a debilitating stroke, the adult children of an 80-year-old woman gathered at the hospital. The doctors wanted to insert a feeding tube. What were their mother’s wishes? The decision was agonizing and emotions were running high. As the siblings started going...
At some point an aging relative may need more care. Often stubborn elders who have lived on their own for years can hide problems for awhile. It might be a neighbor who reports concerns or loss of money through a tax scam that really brings home the situation.While an...
The answer is a qualified yes. This comes after a change in Colorado law that has not received wide news coverage. Too frequently, the right to counsel has been denied to adults the court has deemed incapacitated (legally considered wards or protected persons). The...
As more of the baby boom generation enter the so-called “danger age” it is important to discuss what can go wrong after a decision regarding incapacity. For instance, the U.S. Government Accountability Office in a 2010 report found that people in these...
