Guarding against financial abuse: lifetime risks and remedies

This webinar will help practitioners to better detect, prevent, and address financial abuse of older and vulnerable clients, focusing on the legal and practical framework for trustees, attorneys, and deputies. It will cover risks such as self-dealing, conflicts of interest, and misuse of assets, along with how to spot warning signs, reduce risks, and recover funds from wrongdoers.

While financial abuse can occur alongside other forms of mistreatment, it is often perpetrated by those in positions of trust—frequently family members without formal authority but with access to accounts and assets—as well as by appointed trustees, attorneys, and deputies whose powers are misused or abused.

Topics covered include:

• Statutory framework: lasting power of attorneys and deputies
• Fiduciary duties
• Financial abuse
• Mental capacity
• Self-dealing and/or conflict of interest
  • Selling or buying property to a family member
  • Severing a joint tenancy
  • Charging for services
  • Making gifts, maintenance, and making family care payments
• Applications for authority from the Court: before or retrospective
• Costs and wider considerations
• Other remedies or options:
  • Appointment of professional deputies
  • Account
  • Constructive trusts
  • Injunction
  • Criminal offences
  • Proceeds of Crime Act
  • Setting aside transactions or transfers
• Residency or contact orders