Golden years? Financial elder-abuse now epidemic

The 2009 trial of Anthony Marshall, the son of Brooke Astor, heiress to much of the Astor family fortune, was daily fodder for New York newspapers. So were the attempts by the daughter of Liliane Bettencourt, heiress of the huge L’Oreal fortune, to petition a court for guardianship of her mother. Ms. Bettencourt, later diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, was intent on making her photographer sole heir of her $1.4 billion estate.

The highly publicized fights are the most obvious examples of a growing epidemic of elder abuse in the United States, said Cameron DeGuerre, an attorney with Peck Bloom LLC. Ms. DeGuerre, who focuses on trust and probate litigation, gave advisers at the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors conference in Chicago an overview of the problem.