Legal Question in Elder Law in Wisconsin

Banking

My father is 87 years old. has a pseudoparkinson tremor, and is legally blind in his right eye. He is much more forgetful than he was 10 years ago. He was dealing with a local bank and felt very safe/ comfortable with these people taking care of his financial matters. On 2 different occasions, approximately 1 year apart, he inheritated large sums of money. He went to his '' personal banker'' and thought he was opening up cd's. well apparently they opened up 2 different annuities. He says that he had no idea what this was and did not understand what was happening. My sister and my father have attempted to correct the error and the bank just says, ''He signed the papers''. Is there a law that protects the elderly from such happenings? The people at the bank and their higher ups just keep blowing us off. If they did this to my 87 year old father how many other elderly victims have they done this to! Any advice?


Asked on 11/19/06, 1:05 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Mark Mahoney Cassiani Law Office, Wise Shepherd Law Office

Re: Banking

Hello,

I am sorry to hear about your father's experience, but it is not unique. There is a good chance that the bank can be made to cancel those annuities. The bank earns much more on the sale of the annuities than they do on a CD. There is a legal requirement that annuities be suitable, and it is questionable that an annuity sale with surrender charges is suitable for your father. It is also likely that the bank will do nothing without more aggressive action taken against the bank. I have years of experience with this very subject matter. If you would like me to help, email your contact information. I would need to obtain additional facts about your situation before I can offer more specific advice.

Best wishes, Mark J. Mahoney

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Answered on 11/20/06, 9:12 am


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