For the first while it was everything I had hoped, warm and full and centered where it belonged. And then came the interruption, right on cue, the news that always …

My uncle had this habit anytime attention stayed on anybody else for more than thirty seconds. Reunions, birthdays, holidays — hed drop some purchase or achievement and the whole conversation would swing back to him. Read More

For the first while it was everything I had hoped, warm and full and centered where it belonged. And then came the interruption, right on cue, the news that always …

My daughter-in-law had this habit anytime the room settled on someone else for thirty seconds. Holidays, birthdays, get-togethers — shed announce some purchase or plan until the whole table swung back to her. Read More

For the first while it was everything I had hoped, warm and full and centered where it belonged. And then came the interruption, right on cue, the news that always …

The aunts always just laughed it off because thats classic her. At my new-job celebration — my first real job after two years of searching — I really hoped shed let me have the dinner. Read More

The protection from the nursing home my brother kept describing was, when you looked at what he had actually done, simply the transfer of our mother only real asset into …

My mothers house ended up with my brothers name on the deed and she has no memory of signing anything and she is eighty-seven. He took her to a notary in February and had her sign a quitclaim deed transferring the house to him, which he says protects it from the nursing home, and now the deed is recorded and the house is legally his. Read More

The advisor who had befriended my grandfather, taken him to lunch, called him son, had done the whole thing for one reason, the enormous commission that annuity paid him the …

My grandfathers retirement account got rolled over into something new in January and by summer it had lost half its value in fees and surrenders and he is eighty-four and confused about what happened. A financial advisor who befriended him moved his entire nest egg into a high-commission annuity that locked it up and paid the advisor a fortune, all of it technically with my grandfathers signature. Read More

What my sister had not counted on was that a life insurance payout does not even belong to the estate she was executor of. It belongs directly to the named …

My fathers life insurance paid out in April and my sister was the one who filed the claim and I have not seen a cent of a policy that was supposed to be split three ways. She is the executor of his estate. Ninety thousand dollars. She deposited the whole payout into an estate account she controls and stopped answering the three of us who are the other beneficiaries. Read More

What saved my daughters was a clause their grandmother had insisted on when she gave most of that money in the first place, back when the accounts were opened, a …

My twin daughters college accounts were both drained in the same week last year and I found out when I went to pay the fall tuition. My ex set them up when the girls were babies. Thirty thousand dollars between them. He is the account owner on both 529 plans and he withdrew everything, which the plan allowed, and used it on a down payment. Read More

The estate-planning strategy my aunt kept talking about turned out to be a single account in her own name, into which the entire proceeds of my grandmother house had gone …

My grandmothers house sold in June and the money never reached her and she is ninety-one and living in a memory-care facility that is asking where the payment is. My aunt has power of attorney and she sold the house and put the proceeds somewhere none of us can find, which she says is an estate-planning strategy. Read More

The family investments my daughter uncle had steered her trust into over eighteen months were every one of them his own failing businesses, and there was a reason he had …

My daughters trust fund was emptied over eighteen months and I only saw it when she turned eighteen and asked for the statement. Her late fathers parents set it up for her. Forty thousand dollars. Her uncle was named trustee and he moved the money into what he called family investments that all happened to be his own ventures. Read More

The account my brother had been quietly routing our mother pension into for six months was not a protected account for her benefit at all. It was his own personal …

My mothers pension started going to a different bank account in spring and she didnt notice until the fall because her rent stopped coming out. Shes seventy-nine. My brother has power of attorney and he redirected her checks to an account he controls, which he says was to protect her from scammers. Read More