We are finding in assisted living facilities unscrupulous investment advisors who are marketing themselves as VA experts. At seminars and free lunches, they offer to meet with veterans and surviving spouses at no charge. Typically they have patriotic sounding names. Incredible harm is done by these bogus advisors who promise to secure the veteran or surviving spouse VA pension benefits; however, they ignore (or are unaware of) the possibility that Medicaid will be necessary in the near future to pay for more extensive care needs of the veteran or surviving spouse. As illustrated in the AARP article, I have seen too many cases where the veteran’s assets are gifted to a family member, and a high-commission annuity for a long term is sold to the family member with disastrous results. From clients I learned of situations where the family member had to declare bankruptcy after the gift is made. If the family member tells the bankruptcy court it is really grandpa’s money, he or she is admitting to VA fraud. If the money is claimed as an asset of the bankrupt person, it must be used to pay that grandchild’s debts. Remember if things appear to be too good to be true, they probably are not true.
For the complete article from the AARP Bulletin titled TAKING AIM AT OLD SOLDIERS, go to the AARP website: http://www.aarp.org/money/scams-fraud/ and in the upper right “search” box enter “taking aim at old soldiers”.
