According to NEAPS, the main perpetrators of financial abuse were adult children, with sons being twice as likely as daughters to financially abuse their parents. This was found to be commonly due to the adult child experiencing financial problems or mental health problems.
What constitutes financial abuse? It includes:
- Threatening, coercing, pressuring or manipulating you to hand over assets, money or property.
- Taking control of your finances and denying you access to your own money.
- Unauthorised use of your funds and bank accounts.
- Not contributing to household expenses and refusing to vacate your house.
- Pressuring you or influencing you to change your Will.
- Pressuring you or influencing you to appoint them as your Attorney, with power to deal with your finances and property.
Help is available
If you have been the victim of financial elder abuse, you can seek legal advice and assistance.
Only 14% of the people who reported experiencing elder abuse in the NEAPS study sought legal advice. And yet legal advice and representation may help the older person return, as much as possible, to the position they were in before the financial abuse occurred.
In the case of Grant v Grant (No 2) [2020] NSWSC 1288, the daughter Nerez Grant, while acting as her father’s attorney, transferred $134,700 from his bank account. She also transferred her father’s Killcare property to her daughter Kashaya. Nerez was ordered to pay the amount back with interest and Kashaya was ordered to transfer the property back.
In the case of Issa v Owens [2023] QSC 4, Hind Issa was about 78 years old when she discovered that her son James Karbotli had mortgaged her home in Mermaid Waters, Queensland in order to secure a $1 million loan for his business. James defaulted on the loan and the lender was in the process of taking possession of the property. James had forged his mother’s signature on the loan documents.
Following legal proceedings, the mortgage was deemed to be null and void and she was able to keep her home.
In the case of Petrovski v Nasev; The Estate of Janakievska [2011] NSWSC 1275, for years Alex Nasev harassed, threatened and coerced his sister-in-law Vasilka Janakievska to get her to make a Will that left a property she owned in Erskineville to him. When Vasilka made the Will, she was 82 years old, suffering from a defective memory and directed by Alex.
The Will was only discovered after Vasilka’s death. The Court determined that the Will had been executed subject to Alex’s undue influence and ordered that Vasilka’s estate be administered in accordance with her earlier Will.
If you believe that you or someone you know may have been the victim of financial elder abuse, seek legal advice. There may be a legal remedy.
