Affordable Christmas Gifts for Parents from Santa Claus and Brooke Astor
I guess this shows us that the rich are just like everyone else. Greed is no more a condition of poverty than hunger is a condition of obesity. Humans with a nature to cause harm to their families for their own profit come in all shapes and sizes. Brooke Astor is no more immune to her family's greed than any other elderly woman suffering from the ravages of dementia. Probate, estate taxes and trust issues for the rich are the same as for everyone else - just magnified by the scale of wealth.
A big part of our estate planning process is developing strategies to prevent abuse of the elderly. Using co-fiduciaries, professional trust services and checks and balances built into our documents, we are able to give our clients strong lines of defense. Brooke Astor may have had access to the best lawyers in the United States because of her wealth, but without an understanding of elder law and the dangers of elder abuse, even the best lawyer in Boston cannot imagine the opportunity for fraud within a parent-child relationship. Our experience tells us that the "big firm" lawyers are ill equipped to deal with what is often more social work than legal work.
Our practice is to approach mental health issues in our elderly clients as a multi-disciplinary issue. Working closely with medical providers, financial planners and social workers we craft bespoke plans that respect each individual client's unique personal situation. House, hospital or nursing home calls are commonplace in what we do, how else could we know how our clients live? Ask your downtown Boston lawyer to visit the nursing home on a Saturday morning.
In her day Brooke Astor, was a great philanthropist. In a great twist she will continue to be philanthropic through her own son's misdeeds by giving America an example of greed to the umpteenth degree. For elder law lawyers, Santa Claus could not have brought a more perfect Christmas present for elder parents than the example of the consequences of poor planning. Do your grandparents, parents and self a favor and give the affordable Christmas gift of good estate planning. And, yes, I would be happy to sell you a gift certificate for estate planning!
