Beware, guard your elders ! There are people out there who deliberately take advantage and do so without any regard for the people that it effects.
As you all know by now, my husband's mother lives with us, and a great deal of work has gone into pulling the financial leeches off of her in the last year. She has never been the best manager of her finances but things have gotten progressively worse in the last couple of years. There were several automatic drafts coming out of her account that when investigated were dinky little insurance policies for "when you're hurt and miss work", she is retired and 74 years old. After requesting copies of these policies three of them had expired upon her turning 65 (but in the event she had not canceled them they were still good until the date of termination , BET NOT !)and one reduced it's money to be paid out by 50% at age 70.
I worked in home health and hospice for years and my biggest pet peave was with insurance agents that came collecting from these old people, taking their grocery money to pay the premimum on a $2,500 death benefit policy that they had been paying on monthly for years and had paid out far more than their family would receive upon their death.
Yesterday, mother-in-law had a very long day, she had made a doctor's appointment for 2:30 p.m and had to ride the Mid-Cumberland bus because we were all at work. They drop her, pick her up and are really very helpful. She did however have to ride all over the county holding on to her walking device so that it didn't roll all over the bus. When she got home at about 4:45, she noticed someone pulling in the driveway , so thinking it was me, waited for help to get in the door. Chick gets out, says how are you today, no other information other than "I've came to pick up your insurance premimum" to the tune of $65.00. The lady has dementia, did not remember all that had transpired a couple of months ago, and that these very same policies had been canceled. Needless to say, I was furious, she was devasted that she had forgotten and had been taken advantage of, again. We set the wheels in motion first thing this morning, stopped payment on the check, called the insurance company (Chicago) and told them what we had done. They made a notation that she was not to be approached again. I've gotten on the web site and requested that a local agent call me. BECAUSE !!! my husband said that the last couple of weekdays while he was working outside a little white car had pulled into the drive and upon seeing him, had turned around and left. A LITTLE WHITE CAR is what Chickie-doo was in yesterday, when no one was home but the victim.
While I'm ranting, there are also a couple of stores in town that don't treat their old folks right. They get to know them, are very sweet, know all the kids names and ages and what they like and take her money , then she has to charge her medicine and accrue interest on the account.
That's not happening anymore either, we have paid off almost $723 of $5 to $10 copays and she cannot go into the local department store unescorted. We now have another new rule, do not write a check for anything unless one of us knows about it, getting her to remember it is a different hurdle. I'll put a note in her check book.
Your parents and grandparents may not like you meddling in their business, but warn them to look at their policies, etc. and keep and eye on the stipulations. They are paying on things that they will never get back.
