"Granny Snatching" Expected To Soar As A Prime Form Of Elder Abuse, Allowing Perpetrators To Hijack Control Over Aged Relatives' Assets

The Connecticut Watchdog reports:

• Granny Snatching. What is it? It’s an ugly phrase and an uglier practice and it is increasingly affecting more and more American families. Granny Snatching occurs when younger family members take custody of an elder relative under false pretenses, convince a judge to declare the elder person incompetent, allowing them to then force their aged relative into a nursing home or similar institution, and strip them of their assets. In the coming decades trillions of dollars will be at stake as America’s population ages, and we must prepare now to defend ourselves and our finances in the future.

• We hear about these incidents when they involve rich or famous people with lots of money at stake, but not the day-to-day incidents involving regular folks with modest incomes or nest eggs. Yet according to advocates for the elderly, incidents of Granny Snatching are growing exponentially across the US and in Canada. With the first Baby Boomers turning 65 in March 2011, Granny Snatching is expected to quickly become one of the prime forms of elder abuse.(1)

For more, including an account of the author's experience with his own siblings' attempt to "snatch" their own mother by attempting to commit her to a nursing home and hijack control over her assets, see GRANNY SNATCHING: Ron Winter’s New Weekly Blog.
(1) For other resources on "granny snatching," see:

• Uniform Laws Needed to Deal With Interstate 'Granny Snatching',
• The "Granny-Snatching" Phenomenon - Filing for Guardianship,
• Granny Snatching - growing menace in North America,
• Dealing with 'Granny Snatching' (Model law aims to untangle adult guardianship),
• Utah the first state to enact anti-'granny-snatching' law.