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In the News : SAIF
Publication: The RecordX
By: Will Shuck
Date: October 7, 2002
Fraud Fest addresses seniors' fears, worries
SACRAMENTO -- This may have an all-too-familiar ring, but financial experts say that senior citizens have little to fear beyond fear itself when it comes to planning for the final chapters of their lives.
Con artists of every stripe feed on the fear of seniors, offering them bogus solutions to exaggerated problems. That was the message from a panel of experts at Northern California's first state-sponsored Fraud Fest in Sacramento on Wednesday.
All too common a fear is the loss of resources, even a person's home, in the event a spouse must go to a nursing home. Elders are told they'll lose everything unless they participate in one kind of financial-protection scheme or another, said Patricia McGinnis, executive director of California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform.
"Don't fall prey to them," McGinnis told a crowd of about 200 gathered at the Sacramento Convention Center. "You can keep your family home, you can keep your assets."
And you can do it without buying annuities or family trusts, she said. "Not that there's anything wrong with these products," but they should only be obtained through legitimate firms or known attorneys.
Seniors, desperate to protect themselves as their health begins to fails, need to slow down, reject the telephone offers and the fancy brochures, and make their plans with the help of "neutral third parties" who have nothing to gain from the financial planning.
There are 8.5 million Californians older than 50, a group that California Corporations Commissioner Demetrios A. Boutris called "a vulnerable population whose money is the target of scam artists."
"Only you can help yourselves," Boutris said. "Deal with people you know, and don't trust people who want access to your wallet."
Lupe de la Cruz, a legislative director for the AARP, warned seniors not to fall for refinance scams by predatory lenders who encourage borrowers to take out more equity from their homes than they can afford to repay.
Don't keep financial decisions a secret. Talk to trusted third parties. If something seems funny, don't sign on the dotted line, the experts said. Instead, call the California Department of Corporations at (866) 275-2677.
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