The Expert Podcast

So we've had a lot of questions on how to protect yourself from a probate fraud scam. If you are in a family or part of an extended family where somebody has died and there's assets to be distributed, how do you make sure that some of the relatives or heirs aren't going to take more than their fair share or maybe some people that weren't supposed to get anything take money from the estate? This is the most common type of fraud we're seeing in our agency in the last 18 to 24 months. People within a family are stealing money from each other when a person is deceased. Even before they're deceased, if somebody's sick, they're in hospice, they are going to start diverting assets and conveying assets back and forth. Sometimes relatives will even put an older person into conservatorship so they can start stealing their assets, which is tragic.

So how do you protect yourself? Well, first, make sure that there is an appointed, assigned trustee for any estate. Don't leave it up to the family or just multiple people to do this. Have somebody appointed, established in writing as a trustee. Make sure that person is bonded. Make sure they get a shity bond; it only costs a few hundred dollars. You can get a link below to a shity bond company that we recommend. It's called probonds.com, and they can bond a trustee.

Also, during the course of the time where these assets are being distributed, make sure you get regular updates—at least once a month—on what's going on with the assets. If there's bank accounts, real estate, vehicles, or stocks, make sure that whoever the trustee is has a reporting system to give monthly updates about what's going on with these assets. The biggest problem we see is a year or two goes by, and all of a sudden nobody knows what happened to the assets because there was no following the flow of funds or tracing of assets during that time. It's very difficult to go back and recreate all that.

Make sure you have regular reporting. Don't be shy about asking your relatives about what's going on with the assets. You're not being rude; they're being rude if they're not giving you updates. If they're in charge and handling the money and they're trying to hide it from you, that's being rude. They're going to use your kindness and intimidation to try to keep you from finding out what's going on with these assets.

Here's the problem: the economy is bad, inflation is up, and the younger generations don't have the same privileges and advantages that older people do. Baby boomers did, so they're grasping at straws. They're struggling and panicking about how they will survive financially, how they will be able to afford retirement, and how they will be able to pay their bills. The only place they know that there's any money they can get is from older relatives.

Remember, if the person who is dying or has died has very specific instructions about what to do with their assets, if those instructions or wishes are not adhered to, if they're violated, that's not honoring their wishes. If you decide you get money and then you want to give it to another relative, that's fine; that's your prerogative, that's your choice. But don't let the relative just take it without proper authority.

Probate fraud is rampant. Almost every single case we look at has fraud in it. Even something as small as Grandpa's old Camaro that was in the barn that nobody knew about—somebody took it and sold it on eBay. Make sure you do a full asset search, and you can get information about that from our website, activeintel.com. Make sure that you get a full accounting of any assets owned by the person. You can also use our website to do consultation. If you'd like to book a live one-on-one video consultation with a licensed investigator, you can do that on the website.

If a person has been put into conservatorship, find out who the beneficiary is. Find out who benefits from this, who gains, who's in control of the money. Check for life insurance policies, pensions, retirement, and assets that have been switched over recently. Even if the person died this week, go back six to eight months to see if their house was quitclaimed to somebody else. When somebody's dying, usually they know about it. They know that they're sick and might die within a year. Sometimes relatives will jump the gun a little bit and start shifting stuff around.

They're going to lie to you, hide records from you, and gaslight you with information. They may have other relatives in on it with them. Sometimes there's two sides of the family: one that's taking the money and one that's getting ripped off. Don't let it slide; take advantage of resources you have to get to the bottom of it so that the assets go where they're supposed to go.

Like I said, if you decide later you want to give some away to somebody, you can do that. But don't let them do it on their own because that's going to set a bad precedent that they can mistreat you and lie to you anytime they want. In the future, if there's another situation that comes up—maybe with another relative or just something in general—they know, “Hey, I can steal from this relative, and no one's going to call me out on it.”

Call them out on it; don't let them get away with it. If you like this video, be sure to click on a few others on our channel to see if there's other information that might be helpful to you about this same subject or maybe even other related subjects that could assist you with the resolution of your issue.