What do I do when I suspect fiancial exploitation of an elderly parent?

APS is always going to do two things that we may find frustrating. They will focus on the physical well-being and safety of the person needing care, and financial exploitation they will tend to leave to law enforcement and guardianship/conservatorship proceedings. They will also give the benefit of ANY doubt in competence to the person, as they cannot legally override the autonomy of a legally competent adult and will not try to. I would stop short of calling them "a joke" because they have a very hard job and not enough staff to do everything that needs done, and have to cope with decisions from judges who may not understand or agree with their point of view...more often than not they do protect vulnerable people from real abuse, and may even help a family function better if they get any cooperation at all.

My Aunt is being taken advantage of financially by my half-sister and her son (that is a whole different story).
How can I report this without them knowing it was me? My half-sister hates all of us and will retaliate in ways you have no idea about. Help!!
Oh yes... my Aunt has been diagnosed with dementia.

No one in a position of real authority ("no one") cares about the financial abuse of ordinary people.

No one cares when the Prince of Nigeria gets money.

No one cares when someone scams the deed to a house.

No one cares when someone gets an elder loved one to pay fake debts.

No one cares when older people lose their money to telemarketing scams.

No one cares when older people end up in the poor house because of fake investment schemes.

No one cares when older people get ripped off by fake sweepstakes and lottery scams.

There are hotlines and websites that purport to care but I have yet to encounter a single person who had any success recouping any money.

The only people who get back any money are the wealthy who get scammed by someone like Bernie Madoff. He had hundreds of victims. But when you're just another ordinary person, no one cares.

If you had the resources to fight the daughter I would suggest taking her to court. But you don't so, sadly, my suggestion to you is let it go.

What type of attorney do you see if you KNOW through financial records $ has been stolen/transferred to a POAs account? I was a beneficiary on one of my mother's accounts, but the POA transferred over $180,000 from it in less than 6 months (and almost $85,000 less than 2 weeks before her death) - not to mention all the money he transferred withing the last 4 years. Please note, he put my mother in a "hell hole of an assisted living facility" to basically die - which she did do! This makes me sick. And to top everything off, he has her ashes & won't bury her...just found that out today! Do I even have a chance at recovering any of this money? I want to do this solely out of principle. No one should be allowed to get away with this. He has even sold ALL of her personal belongings, including an expensive vehicle and has pocketed that as well. Doesn't he have to have some accountability for all the wrongs committed. And I hate to mention it, but he was also trying to get his hands on medication to kill her a few weeks before she died. He is a sicko!!!!!...always has been & always will be.
Do you think I even stand a chance on doing something? DCF and Adult Protective Services are USELESS. The sheriff's department has been no help either. Why is this so rampant? What is wrong with our system for protecting the elderly.

Heartbroken, so sorry to hear about your mother's death and her POA's exploitation of the situation both before and after her death. It sounds so familiar to me, I almost thought it was my sister-in-law writing about my husband's mother's death. In their case, their controlling brother was sole beneficiary, so he did pretty much everything you described, but it was his mother's wishes he was carrying out. He threw away boxes of family photos, took her new car, etc. My sister-in-law had to dumpster dive in the rented trash bin (while the house was being worked on to put on the market), and retrieve what she could. She found photos that we had never seen before, and is sorting and sending them out to us and her two other siblings. She also found newspaper articles from when my husband played football in high school that his mother had saved. In your case, it sounds like your mother intended you to have the funds in the account the POA (your brother?) siphoned off into his own account. You could consult an elder law attorney and see if you have any recourse. But from what I understand, the POA has total control over financial matters both before and after death of the elder person. Your mother essentially gave him the power to act as if she herself were making the decisions. Not sure if anything can be done, but it's worth a try to run it by a lawyer and see what he/she thinks. Best of luck to you - seems a lot of us are in the same boat.

I take it he was executor as well. (POA actually ends at death.) If there was a Will and he did not follow it there might be some recourse also.