The Retirement Success in Maine Podcast Ep 115: Staying Safe and Scam-Free: Protecting Your Retirement from Financial Fraud

 

 

Transcript:

Intro (00:01):

Do you struggle with what it means to be successful in your retirement? Trust us, you're not alone. Welcome to the Retirement Success in Maine podcast. Here you'll go in depth with guidance point advisors, investment consultants, to hear stories about how retirees in Maine are navigating a successful retirement. Get insight into the inevitable challenges of aging and define what a successful retirement looks like.

Ben Smith (00:26):

A hoy there listeners, welcome back to the Retirement Success in Maine podcast, where we explore how to live well, plan smart, and find deeper meaning in retirement. I'm Ben Smith and joining me as always is the captain hook to my Mr. Smee, the Man with a plan. The charts, maybe just a hint of pirate swagger, my co-host and coworker Curtis Worcester. How are you doing today, Curtis? I'm

Curtis Worcester (00:50):

Doing well, Ben. I'm doing well. I don't know how much time I've spent chasing Peter Pan around, but I'll take it. Just trying to protect retirees from scams, financial scams and

Ben Smith (01:02):

Fraud.

Curtis Worcester (01:02):

That's what we're doing,

Ben Smith (01:03):

Which is exactly what we're going to talk about today in today's show. It's not just Pixie does that we're talking about. It's about protection. So financial scams obviously, and we see it as financial advisors, they're targeting older adults at alarming rates, and the real crime rate is the shame that often keeps people from asking for help.

Curtis Worcester (01:21):

That's right, Ben. That's right. So that's why today we're going to dig into the latest fraud tactics, how to recover if you or someone you love falls victim, and most importantly, how to protect ourselves from the start.

Ben Smith (01:33):

Right, and there's also good news. Today's guest has made it her mission to protect and empower aging adults and their families. She's going to walk us through what scams are out there, how to recover if you've been victimized, and what we can all do to stay safer. So before we bring her in, just a quick reminder, if you enjoy this show, we'd love to hear from you. You can reach out to us at Ben Smith at guidance point rs com. You can find us on Facebook and LinkedIn just by searching retirement success and Maine podcasts. You can visit blog dot guidance point llc.com to catch up on our past episodes and resources or even the resources we're going to talk about in today's show.

Curtis Worcester (02:12):

That's right, and everybody listening, if there's a topic that you really want us to cover or if you know a guest you think that would be great for the show, please reach out. We do love hearing from you all when you reach out.

Ben Smith (02:23):

Alright, well let's get into it.

Curtis Worcester (02:24):

That's right, Ben, you teased up our guest there a minute ago. Our guest today, Princella Seymour. So someone we believed is a perfect fit for this show. She is known as America's Solutionist for the Aging Community, which is just a fantastic title if I do say so. She has spent over 30 years helping families navigate the often overwhelming challenges of elder care. She's the CEO of Complete Elder Solutions and a former vice president of the National Association of Social Workers. Her newest book, everything You Need To Know About Me is a practical guide for families looking to honor their loved ones wishes while facing the realities of aging. But for us today, what makes her especially valuable is her advocacy for protecting seniors from financial scams. She's helped thousands find clarity, compassion, and dignity, and we are so thrilled to welcome her to our show today. Princella, thank you so much for coming on the Retirement Success in Maine podcast.

Princella Seymour (03:26):

Thank you so much for having me. Such a pleasure.

Ben Smith (03:28):

Yeah. Well Princella, obviously with our show we want to hear about you a little bit, learn a little bit to dig in, and then before we kind get to the topic at hand, love to just ask you this First question is, you've been called America's Solutionist for the Aging Community. Can you share with us in our audience how that name came about and what it means in your day-to-day work?

Princella Seymour (03:51):                                      

It came about after 30 years, over 30 years of working with seniors and it is really quite simple. I problem solve every day and provide solutions. So why not be America's solutionist and the elderly population over 30 years working in the industry as an end user starting from a CNA, from the little girl in the village going to the grocery stores and picking up snacks for the elderly population. So I say 30 years, but it probably would date back to about 45 because I've been doing it since I was 10 years old, 45 years old, not realizing I was advocating for them because they trusted me with their money. They're going to give me some money, I'm going to go to the corner store and buy or whatever they asked for and not bring their change back and in return I'd earn money. So obviously that was a trust from the very beginning, I guess at 10 years old, that's where the whole notion of being American, a solution came about solving problems, providing solutions.

Curtis Worcester (04:56):

I love that. I love that. And I know I mentioned it a little bit there in your bio, but you founded Complete Elder Solutions to help families navigate everything from long-term care to estate planning. Just want to ask just kind of generally, what inspired you to start that and what are the biggest needs you're seeing among retirees today in your day to day?

Princella Seymour (05:16):

So this was inspired really after working in a long-term care facility in a nursing home, a couple of 'em, several of 'em and working closely here in the state of Florida with the elderly and the seniors. So I remember when my residents, we called them residents at that time in the facility, they would get discharged and the children would be panicking because they're going back to another state and they're leaving mom here and there was no advocate. They really couldn't figure out how to put the pieces or what's going to happen here. Now you've stabilized them, she's great, she can return home, but there's a missing gap. And there weren't a lot of professionals like myself in the early two thousands. We're now just really starting to evolve and people are starting to understand what a care manager is, and I don't think they quite get it all together, which is why I'm starting really pushing to be the voice to let the families know that there is help someone that can actually navigate. So they would leave or you'd have Mrs. Smith passed away and Mrs. Smith is all alone. There are no children, no grandchildren, so there were no trusted advocate. And so this is the truth. One day I decided I was just going to hold my nose and jump. I made little cards up at Walmart and just told one social worker what I'm interested in doing. And that has been 17 years later that I've been able really work in the terrain and work with the families and help them connect.

Ben Smith (06:51):

Well that's awesome, especially from entrepreneurial spirit there and seeing a need in the community and going, Hey, this is something I can do to help and making your own business work. And obviously 17 years later thriving it and obviously is from that and your work with Complete Elder Solutions, you have a book that you have as well and I want to ask you about it because it's pretty brilliant. Everything you need to know about me again, hit pause. You can go look this up on Amazon as well. It's full of practical advice for families trying to honor their loved ones wishes. So I want to hear a little bit about what motivated you to write it and how does it help prevent the confusion and conflict that many families face during crisis moments?

Princella Seymour (07:37):

So having worked in the industry, obviously when I speak to thousands of families, they have no clue who their parents really are because let's think about it. You get married, let's say you leap off for college, 1920, you then get married, you start raising your family. Mom and dad are doing their own thing, right? They're living their lives, they're here. And I'm going to always say Florida and I decided to move to California and live the great golden life at the palm trees. We're talking and we see each other during holidays, but we really don't know who our parents are. Sometimes they don't tell us or inform us that they made a decision to invest here or they've made a decision to retain this attorney, or I have 10 bank accounts, or I have a password, I have a login. And so they don't share it because they really don't think about it. Sometimes it's not because they want to, it's just not important at that time. So after really seeing that, and also more importantly, having my own personal experience, my sister in her fifties, she was doing a nice young lady a favor sitting in her vehicle, waiting on her friend to come outside, not in a bad neighborhood. And there was a drive by and was on the ventilator for almost two months.

(08:57):

And I spoke to her 10 times a day and she worked in my office. And half of the things that I thought I knew about her, I didn't know. I really didn't know her social security number unless I looked it up. You understand? I didn't really didn't know her banking unless I literally remember the moment when she came through a little bit and she was trying to scribble because I was asking questions because now I dunno the outcome. So I've got to pick up because she's not married, so I've got to pick up and run things, run her off, run her house as if she were running it, make paying bills, speaking with a banker. I didn't have power of attorney. Can you imagine? And I teach this every day and I decided at that moment, not another person, not another person. And I knew it in my head, but I never wrote it down.

(09:46):

And I decided I would just draft just a pamphlet and I was giving it out to my clients and when they were coming into my office and say, Hey, just fill this information out. And I realized that the world needs to know this, not just my clients, but this will avoid probate. This will avoid guardianship because if you can get a handle knowing who handle your finances and who's going to take care of you, it's far more important, even more so than myself or your attorney because you've been handling my portfolio, you know what I can afford, but what happens when I don't even know who your financial advisor is or who you trusted. So I included all this information so that it can be kept in a safe place so that in the event preferably it doesn't happen, but you can share it and no one has to figure who you're out because we really don't know our family members. Once we move away and we start moving about our daily lives, we just don't know. So I was inspired from a personal experience and also working daily with families missing information.

Ben Smith (10:52):

Princella, I love that just because Curtis and I in our roles as advisors, as we see this on the financial lens as you go, Hey, well not only just who the power of attorneys are, but who the beneficiaries are and what happens in capacity or Hey, I'm worried about my own aging and I'm slowing down a little bit. I need someone to maybe step in and take over time. And so I think we try to introduce this, of course, seeing people at all those stages of life as you are. So we're attacking it from the financial advising lens as you're seeing it from the aging ones. So it's really just kind of cool when we talked, I know when we talked offline that both of our businesses kind of seeing the same thing, seeing that need and kind of pushing those populations towards it. So I really applaud you for that because that's really amazing that you identified it and also just took another step to address it.

Princella Seymour (11:40):

Thank you.

Curtis Worcester (11:41):

And again, I'll remind everybody listening, we'll have links to that book as well. So pause, go find it, go get it, and then come back and listen to the rest of the conversation. I really want to dive in now to our topic today, scams and financial protection. Again, just want to start with just laying a foundation. I think we've all heard the fake IRS calls or social security text, grandparent needs or grandchild needs money, they're overseas. So it just seems like the fraud landscape just keeps changing. So I want to ask you, in your role, what kind of scams are you seeing targeting elder adults today and how have those evolved in recent years?

Princella Seymour (12:28):

So it is evolved. I really know because of social media

(12:34):

In the past, we would write checks, remember that we'd have to write a check and mail it off and wait 10 days for it to clear. So the liability was less, right? Because it go from one hand to the next, unless you had mailman fraud, if he was actually taken and that wasn't as common. But now I can get into a computer and I can figure out, I mean, I just had my own personal experience this weekend. So in San Francisco, using my card, ordering DoorDash, you understand on a small scale. So the male has really changed it from, most people really don't. But sadly to say scam is actually cohered sometimes among the families. That's what I've been seeing. I've been seeing it from the families, I've been seeing it from the caregivers. So they move away from the IRS or from the grandma scam, it's more to, can you help me with my daughter in college?

(13:36):

And they're trusting and loving this caregiver because this is the person that takes care of me. There's no accountability. My children are moving and they don't really check finances because they trust the caregiver or there's no children. I mean, I've got one now that I'm working with where they're just moving softly and I'm like, I'm saying in my mind I'm doing this over 30 years, so I know what you're up to. So she's just trying to make sure that she get the house at his demise. And I'm like, no, my client is first now it's okay if you want to leave her in your will, but you are first, and so you need to spend your money on your care first, and if you feel this way, let's do it. So he slowly being walked into transferring, and fortunately I got him as a client sooner rather than later transferring his entire deed over to this woman and she's going right along.

(14:30):

So what I'm seeing is not so much they call now, I do also see I've got another client, interestedly enough, he was scammed out of seven 50,000. He was told to make this purchase in another country and then he's going to make X, y, and Z dollars. And mind you, the community that we work in is a very affluent community. So I know he had to have money, and sadly to say I had to use federal government money to care for his wife for the remainder of her life, and she just passed away two weeks away. God bless her soul. You see, so my industry may be a little bit different. I don't get them. I get some of the Ponzi scams scheme, but it's right among people that they're circling with every day. It really is

Ben Smith (15:15):

Princella. And I think obviously that's just too bad because I think naturally as we're aging is I think there's a level of, our world closes a bit where we're less able to physically get out. Our circle is maybe a little bit closer or maybe there's less people in our circle as people have passed away, our friends and our neighbors. So it's like we have less and less people we can trust, and in that way we maybe have a little bit more vulnerabilities there. So I guess my question is obviously from an older adult side is this is a group that I think is commonly thought as a target for these types of schemes. So I want to ask about, well, what is it about that? Is it just age or are there other vulnerabilities at play? Because in Maine, for example, we're a rural state, and I know we're isolated.

(16:07):

Again, we're one of the older states as well because a lot of our younger generations have gone, but maybe we're just a bit more trusting because of just being this rural nature, but maybe it's just generational. So I want to ask you, obviously Florida has its own level of aging, the population here. So what do you see from, is it geography based? Is it, hey, you obviously got people from New England that come down a lot. Is there differences there? What do you see from, is there a group that's maybe more at play for falling to these scams or another?

Princella Seymour (16:43):

Well, you know what, I'm going to hit it from a different angle. Many of them are empty nesters, and so they're vulnerable, so they believe in and everything. So they're here hanging out by themselves. And so again, families are not local. They don't watch and their attention seekers, so they love attention. So whomever comes across that seems willing and trusting and caring, automatically they let their guards out. So a lot of them, like I said here in Florida, they're here by themselves. They came with a beautiful weather, you understand? It's great here. I don't want to move back in the cold or romance. Also, a lot of them are falling into the romance scam, rather be online because they're lonely and a lot of them are empty. And I had to really think about that when I saw the question and wanted to make sure that it's not just because it's rural. You could be anywhere and be nest. You can live anywhere and seek attention and lack attention.

Ben Smith (17:51):

I want to add to that Princella, because I think we see it too, is I think people, there's even just hiring of services. Because if I can create a subscription or somebody's even somebody dropping off like, Hey, just think of the swans schwans salesperson that would come and deliver ice cream or frozen treats or something. Well, hey, I get a relationship with 'em because they drop it off food every Wednesday, so maybe I don't want that. Maybe I don't need it, but hey, there's a person that's coming to my house and takes five minutes to just say hi. And we see it as financial advisors as well. Do we really need to catch up? No, they're just really searching for companionship and they want to check in and they want to see us because they're lacking attention and they want to be able to talk to somebody and they want to see and be reminded that they're valuable, which I completely 1000000% understand and get. So I echo what you're saying from a loneliness piece, especially for empty nesters and your network not being around you is you're searching for ways. And if you have financial resources, that's one way you can use your resources to maybe replace some of that connection.

Princella Seymour (19:03):

And they do that. Another thing I see is they overpay, they'll tip. So if they're still living in their house, they'll tip. And you know what I noticed? They continue to write checks and unfortunately they'll take them. I have a client now, she rolls around in a nursing home and she's passing out 50 bucks, a hundred bucks, just going to the atm. And I'm like, whatcha doing? Because he was nice to me. You don't really owe him because he was nice. It's not a reason. You understand, if it's not a holiday, it's not his birthday. And so she's just passing out not dollars. I'm a power attorney, and she's like, I need money. I'm like, you can't possibly need any more money. Your meals are provided. And again, you should think and appreciate the people that are serving you, but not $50 a day lunch doesn't cost that much day.

(19:59):

Agreed.

(20:00):

But they're giving her attention, so it's making her feel good. It's actually filling a void that is so empty.

Curtis Worcester (20:07):

Yeah, no, I like that. I appreciate you taking that angle in your answer there. It's very important one. I want to kind of maybe fast forward to maybe I've fallen victim to a scam. I think we see this a lot and I know we tease it earlier, it's very natural to feel very ashamed or embarrassed once you realize you've fallen victim to one of these scams and so much so that I think it stops people. And I think you would echo this from asking for help, right? Because they're so embarrassed. Why is that shame so powerful and why is it keeping people from asking for help?

Princella Seymour (20:44):

You know what? Because most of the people that this happened to, they're affluent people, right? They're smart, they're educators, they have great careers. No one's going around taking anything from someone in a social economic or a certain demographic. I'm brilliant. This will never happen to, and it did happen to me. I actually failed for this, right? So the same young man I was telling you about with the seven 50, he's a retired obgyn,

(21:14):

You understand? He's a retired ob and even more so I can speak personally, I was almost scammed. I mean, I was on the phone for hour because they blocked my computer, Microsoft, I mean they were very well put together. Had me calling a phone number with an extension with a team number, and it was gift card fraud. So he was like, well, your daughter went online and she's been looking at porno and you can go to jail. And so you punch me in the right spot. My daughter going to jail, Oro, who's introducing my daughter, and guess what I'm falling for? Driving all the way to Lowe's. He says, if you go to Lowe's and get the cars, Wells Fargo will give you your money back. And instantly, I'm thinking Wells Fargo doesn't do business that way. But I was panicking because porno jail. So something just told me to go to Wells Fargo and they were closed. But fortunately I started to realize this can't be true. So I called for Wells Fargo and customer service and they're like, no, we'll never do this. And so can I tell you how small I felt? Because I'm young, I know scams happen. But they hit me at my pain point. That sensitive point was my daughter

(22:26):

Corner exposing my then 10-year-old daughter. And it was so orchestrated, and guess what? I was embarrassed to tell my husband. He was like, you fell for that. And so the shame comes from the reaction that you're going to get from the other end. How could you do that? Why did you fall for that? Why didn't you call me? Are you dumb? Are you stupid? So they know this is the remarks that they're going to get because I got them. Are you serious? You really fell for that Princella. And I'm telling my husband, yeah, because it was well orchestrated. So imagine a senior

(23:00):

That's right,

(23:01):

Who's not computer literate. You understand? Who just doesn't think. So that's why, because most of us are intelligent enough to know better and we actually don't know better. And then we know the response that's going to happen on the receiving end, which I knew my husband was going to say something like that because I know him, right? I've been on for years. So imagine someone coming to you as a financial advisor and you're going, you an accountant, you yourself was a financial advisor. That's the last thing you can say is the best thing is to say, oh, I'm so sorry it happened. Let's start from here and let's go. It can happen to anyone.

(23:39):

And

(23:39):

That will bring all of the anxiety down. So if we can start a movement to say, it's okay that it has happened to me, I think we can defeat some of this. We need to start a movement. It's really okay. We're not ashamed. It happens to the best of us.

Ben Smith (23:56):

And I want to a plug in there, and I want to put a plug in there too, pri, because I just think about my parents for example, and every time I see 'em and they show me their phone and they go, Hey, I just got this email from Netflix and it says that somebody logged into my Netflix account from Louisiana, but that can't be true. So should I click on this email link? No.

Princella Seymour (24:21):

If

Ben Smith (24:21):

You think on that, go to Netflix. But you have to go, Hey, the people that they go to, you need to be welcoming and helpful and not be agitated and say, what are you bringing this to me for? Don't that? That's not real. You got to be kind of very empathetic. You have to be very, Hey, let's pause for a second because they're looking for help as they age, and they want to know that they can go to somebody they trust and they can get an answer and not feel small. Because if things are really bad and they are small now, they're not going to go to anybody and they're not going to go to isolated. So I think that's an important thing as both sides of this. And if

Princella Seymour (25:02):

You're out there and you support, it's just without children. It's like without children. I had my cousin living with me for a couple of weeks. He was going to school here and he said, I remember going to my mom telling her I've been bullied. And so he said to me, I shut down from that moment because when I went and told her, she says, you're probably the reason, never really listened, he says, and from there, I've been closed and I felt like my mom never supported me. So can you imagine as a child, so children, older adults revert back to children? Do we start parenting them?

(25:39):

You

(25:39):

Understand? We start parenting them as we're older. And so that's why that's the biggest shame because he said to me, I've never been able to talk to my mom ever since because she made me feel like I was stupid. I was a blame. And he said, and I really wasn't. So sometimes just taking that moment and not projecting out and not letting that be our response to them, that's the biggest thing. The fear of the response. That's really, it's where the shame comes, the fear of the response.

Ben Smith (26:08):

Love that. Well, I want to keep going on your example Priscilla, but so obviously you had a moment of clarity when you were being scammed and you go low low's, gift cards doesn't make sense with Wells Fargo, I should reach out to Wells Fargo. Well, let's say you didn't have the moment of clarity and you go, you went through with it and you did the Lowe's cards and maybe it got, maybe they're like, well, that wasn't enough. Now we need an EFT from your checking account. So let's go to the next step. So you've realized you've been scammed afterwards, there's damage and you've given away sensitive information, your social, your date of birth, your checking account, something, and all of a sudden there's financial damage. I've given away information at that moment. I have my moment of clarity. Oh no, what did I do? I shouldn't have done that. I shouldn't have given away money. What would you do first here? Right? Is there a specific checklist of actions that should be taken in those first 24 to four eight hours after I release information? I paid somebody, something like that.

Princella Seymour (27:16):

Well, yes. I did it myself actually. So the first contact I thought of is notifying the proper authority, right? My proper authority was banking number one, to make sure no other things were accessible because he went down the line of all my credit cards, they knew my cards, they knew my banking information. That's why it sounds so real. I also took another level, another step, and I went, I called the fbi, my local FBI agent. Now a lot of times the senior are not going to think about that. Then a senior, if you have family members, contact your children, make sure you always have that point of contact, that key point. You can have 10 children, but there's always that one that you go to and you spill all the beans to right away. So I would say contact your family member or the person that you trust to handle your affairs, the right authority.

(28:11):

You've got to also contact the credit bureaus. They're important because sometimes they've gotten in touch with your pertinent information like your social security number, your tax ID numbers, and they can start a whole business with this information. They can start a whole new life. So these are the things you need to do right away. Checklist number one, contact your trusted person. It's your child, rather it's your financial advisor. You realize, I speak to clients all the time. The first person they want to call is Vinny. Lemme run this by him and make sure that I'm making the right decision. And I go, terrific. I love that. Why don't we merge a call? Why don't we get a conference call so he can understand why we're making decisions as to what we're doing so that we can team up. So that's the first thing on the checklist that I provided in my head as you were asking me these questions, Ben, because it may be a lot to call the local authority.

(29:10):

And not only that, they're so shaken within that first 24 hours, they're probably not doing anything. That's why I said revert back to the trusted person who handles your financial affairs and who trust and love, and they'll probably start getting on that right away. I couldn't really find any what you say, checklist. But what I will say to the audience is aarp, they have an excellent fraud network. So if you're a member of ARP or if you're considering, it's definitely something you can call it. They have a fraud watch program for seniors. And I'd imagine it's for anyone, because again, I'm a senior. I'm 55 now, so I'm in the club myself.

Ben Smith (29:56):

I was getting a RP notifications at 32. So yeah, I think at any age you can start joining a

Princella Seymour (30:02):

Rrp. You can start. Exactly. Exactly. So a RP has the fraud watch network. And if that has happened and you're a member, that may be your first place to start as well because they'll start giving you the resources that you need to recover if you can recover.

Curtis Worcester (30:19):

And that last point, ELA really leads me into my next question. So obviously in your day to day, you unfortunately work with people and families in the aftermath of scams like this. So can you just talk through what, whether it be emotional, certainly financial, what kind of damage do you see most often in the aftermath of these scams and how you and you work with beginning to help them recover from something like this?

Princella Seymour (30:48):

Well, some of the things that I've seen sadly, so it changes their entire life. And why I say that is money gives you options. It says I can live over here in a 10 star retirement home, or it says I can live over here in a five star or a three star. So sometimes after these things have happened, your whole life change. You have to move because sometimes there's no recovery, the money is gone. If they're in another country, the money is just gone. It's left. So what I see sometime is, or what I work with is I've got to move. I've got to move mom. I've also have to depend on public benefits that are otherwise did not have to depend on that in itself becomes shameful. So they'll come to me and say, well, what can we do? Because I planned I had the money and I lost X, Y, and Z, and now they're on Florida Medicaid, or they're looking at if they're a veteran, they're looking for veteran benefits to help pay for the cost of care. It changes the dynamic or it says, I've got 24 hour care at home and now I can only afford 12 hours or I can only afford five hours of care at home now because I only have five years of dollars left. Or they took everything and it breaks my heart to see it. And it does happen more often than it should not.

Ben Smith (32:10):

Yeah, absolutely. So Princella, so I want to go to the other side of that story because I hear you going, this is obviously why you want to try to catch any financial schemes or scams in the early stages. You don't want them to escalate and continue to build over time and then take more and more of your resources of your time, of your family's resources. So I want to maybe see if we can flip the script here of like, Hey, can you share with us a real world story? Maybe it's anonymized here, of course, where someone that you worked with overcame a scam situation, so there's a positive outcome and I just want to see other lessons that we can learn from that experience where someone was able to, again, maybe repair damage or they were able to catch things early enough where they were able to then take steps to prevent further things or further damage from occurring.

Princella Seymour (33:11):

I can really speak more about it was caught in time. That's more likely than overcoming it. And I have to be totally honest with you, because sometimes once a caregiver has cashed a check and she's spending money, most of time she can't give it back to you.

(33:29):

Of course,

(33:31):

Yeah. So we can catch it because sometimes the bank will realize, okay, these checks are out of order, or more commonly, Mrs. Smith is paying her caregiver three times a week now instead of once a week, we can see the change and the momentum of the checks. So sometimes it's done on the back end with the financial institute or sometimes it's during a conversation with a family member, I decided to help her because she's really struggling. Her daughter's in college and I want to help. And then the daughter or the son would go like, wait a minute, mom, you should be doing that. And they decided to take a look. And I've seen that where it's like, wow, thank God I stepped in and I'm going to now take over mom's finances and I'm going to now, or you as a financial advisor, have you ever seen where they're actually coming in and asking for a 30,000 transfer?

(34:24):

You're going like, what? So that was caught in time because you are involved, the patterns of your clients, what should and should not be happening. You pretty much know the financial expenses and what you put in place. So there is some positive movement with that. And it has been times where you have been able to overcome by a small conversation, by also including you all or the family members and saying, Hey, I really do want to help X, Y, and Z. And she's been great. We're like family 10 years. And so sometimes the story is true and sometimes it is not. So there is some hope there really is and it happens and we can recover quickly by conversations. We really can.

Ben Smith (35:15):

I want to add to that prl, because I think just what you said, and you were referencing our role as advisors too, and I think that's something that maybe people pass on is or they just don't really think about is I think when people call up and they need access to a retirement fund or they're trying to take money out, and I think that's something that we're, they want to, obviously their lives with us, they want to say, geez, we're going on vacation and we've been talking about this vacation and we're able to go afford Paris for the first time and we want to go do that. Or visiting my family in Colorado and I'm seeing my grandbaby for the first time. You hear these stories, but I think when you go, Hey, we got a financial plan and we know that $500 a month from this account is affordable and makes it work well now all of a sudden it's not 500 a month, it's now turning into 2000 a month or 3000. Hey, what's going on? This plan is not what we talked about and is now draining faster and you have this conversation, they go, well, yeah. So to your point, my caregiver, I'm paying more for that or something's happening there. And I think that those are triggers in our

Princella Seymour (36:25):

Issues

Ben Smith (36:26):

As well. That doesn't seem like that's something we talked about before. So I just want to bring that up too, is that that's something I think we're on the front lines as well, trying to spot elder abuse or financial scams and things like that. I think that's something that you'd mentioned. I want to just enforce too, because I think that was really a good point that you brought up there.

Princella Seymour (36:49):

Yes, for sure. And most of the financial advisors that I've happen to see, most of them are really, really at the best interest. So much so they won't let withdraw anything. Even when you're trying to do the right thing, which is a good thing. It's better to be cautious than not. So I would say to the listening audience, if you have a financial advisor that you do not feel comfortable with or you're not engaging with, you need to find another person.

(37:19):

That's right.

(37:19):

Okay. Because they themselves, I mean it happens all the time, but you need to make sure you connect with an agency that you trust and that they have the best interest at your hand. You don't want them to just agree with everything that you're saying because the reason why you hired them is to make sure that your dollars are stretched and they're used appropriately. Right. Would you agree with me? Absolutely. That's right. That's the reason why all the time to protect your assets.

Curtis Worcester (37:47):

Yep, absolutely. And I want to keep going on this conversation about network, and I know the couple examples, whether it was the banks catching it, it's someone in our role catching it. Sometimes it may already be happening before we catch it. So I want to talk kind of on the prevention side of things and really around maybe it's adult children or trusted family members. Are there tools that if you're giving advice to say it's to me to help me with my parents, I'm worried that my parents might be vulnerable here. What can I do? What conversations can I have? What are you recommending that families do around their parents to hopefully prevent things like this from happening? Do you have any advice there?

Princella Seymour (38:30):

Yes. Yes, I do. So I'm going to go back to the role where we become the parents to the children we become, right? So when we were little, we couldn't do anything without asking. For the most part, you couldn't even have a snack without asking. So I would advise you don't spend or do anything without asking, talking, having conversations. Certainly those things that you are skeptical or you're not sure, or if it's in volumes, don't make major purchases. Don't give out your personal information. Engage the trusted person, rather be the family member, the financial advisor. You have to reverse the roles now you have to ask for permission. And that in itself is the best prevention to be sure and to know before, don't make the purchase or don't give the information without talking. Don't do it the opposite. Don't do it and then tell me, lemme know first and then let approve it so that at least you've got a second I or a third I or fourth hour that's actually watching out and that has your best interest.

Ben Smith (39:36):

Yeah, I like that. And Princella, I'll add to it too, and this has just come up in our, obviously we've done quite a few episodes of this podcast at this point, and a lot of our guests have kind of brought this up of the concept of independence is all of us want to retain independence. And I think one concept that is, I think it's difficult as we age, and to your point about parents become the children and children become the parents, is that maybe losing a little bit of independence where I'm asking maybe my adult children to maybe help me is losing independence, but losing a little bit of independence is better than losing a lot of independence. If I've lost a lot of my financial resources, maybe I can't afford to live at home at all. As you said, there's maybe I'm going on to state Medicaid or I'm going to other resources because I have no other options and now I really don't have independence.

(40:32):

So I think there's a sliding scale here of that conversation of talking through this of I know I'm giving a lot of power to my kids or my caretaker or a family member, whatever that is, but giving over a little bit of power is way better than losing all of it, losing everything. Exactly. So I just wanted to emphasize that because I think that is a really good through thread for those that have listened to our show, maybe even from episode one to now, I think that that is continued to become a theme here about independence. So I wanted to just kind of wrap that bow there, but I want to ask another question to you. ELA is, you've said, obviously planning ahead and documenting wishes can help protect people, not just from scams, but also just disorganized crisis decisions is I don't know where everything is. I have to then come up with something where I'm filing for maybe going into an assisted living facility. They need to see what my assets are, whatever the thing is. And I just am not organized, and it takes me a lot of effort to kind of get there. So I want to just ask a question about your book, everything you need to know about me, how can a simple document from that actually prevent fraud or confusion in those times?

Princella Seymour (41:54):

Well, you know what? Having that information handy. So how can you prevent fraud? The book was definitely created so that again, it's given to a trusted resource. That's number one. Okay. I would always say lock it up in a say or make sure someone knows exactly where it's because it's got some pertinent information in there. If you fill it out, if the wrong person obviously get hold to it. I mean, that's your whole life. So that's why I'm recommending in a safe somewhere where it's not laying on. If you have a visitor and they can just easily walk away, walk away from it. But I can tell you this, if I know certain things about my family member that are in there and I have that information, I myself can always go and check. I can always go online and take a look at things.

(42:41):

So mom's not talking to me, but now I know her password, I know her login. I can go in myself and take a look at the things that are going on, the expenditures, what's going in, what's going out. And so if I'm able to do that, or the families would create a pattern monthly go through, right? Go through and take a look at the information. And also it would allow your family member or the trusted person to become organized with what's going on and your personal affairs. So when we begin to move into the future and we're now in that direction, things are where they should be. We know what we need to know, but if I don't have this information, so I highly suggest you're not losing independence, you're only getting support. That's the way I word it all the time.

(43:26):

Love that

(43:27):

You're not losing anything. You're gaining support. And if you're a point of power attorney is exactly what it says in the language, in the event. So you really don't lose your power. You get to get more power by having someone else there to walk on this journey with you. So going back to the question with the book, this will help create, like I said, if I know more, then I can do more. If I know how to log in, I can keep that extra eye. I can take a look at whoa, whoa, what happened? Why did you write this extra check? Well, why did Netflix charge you? Or what happened over in Louisiana? You never joined as a member. Little things like that that you didn't catch, and it may seem minor, but they're huge. They're huge. These are when you can see, you'll start seeing that things happen. So they can be prevented by just taking this simple stuff or this extra step to make sure that these things are there in place.

Curtis Worcester (44:25):

I really love that. And again, just to repeat there, you're not losing the independence, you're gaining support. I think that's a fantastic way. Even going back to the question a couple minutes ago about how can family members help, I think that's such a great way to spin that too with your loved ones, is really hammering that home that you're not taking anything away from them. You're really just trying to help more and build that power around them. So I'm really glad you said that in there because that's a fantastic takeaway there. Princella, I do have one kind of final question for you on our show. Again, thank you so much for coming on and sharing your expertise with us and our listeners. This question here is going to be more directed at you. I have to ask all of our guests this question. Okay, so again, we're a show all about retirement success, right? We're helping people find that successful retirement. So I got to ask, when you get there in your life, how are you personally going to find that retirement success?

Princella Seymour (45:24):

Well, I'm having this conversation now with my daughter. She's 11, right? So we were in this nice facility on last week and I said, I don't mind staying here. And she said, really? Because she was saying, oh mom, this place is so nice. I said, yeah, it's this whole myth that when you move out of your house, you're going into this dungeon. I said, I want to be treated like a queen. I've served the seniors all my life. Now I'm going to sit back and I want to be served. I don't want to worry about laundry. I don't worry about food. I don't worry about what we're going to eat, what the meal, they're going to plan the meal out. And I said, and I projected, so this is what I'm doing. My husband and I, we sat down and went our portfolio because we're getting closer.

(46:02):

So I projected what it would cost to live in a facility because at 55, you can go on one now you can go in independent living. So average lifespan for a female right now, according to the state of Florida is 90. I'm 30 years. So projecting out as to what it would take, what it would cost even 20 years from now, that's what I'm doing now, is to, okay, this is what I need without biding a burden to my daughter, marrying a financial advisor, knowing the habits or the things that, the sacrifices that I have to give up now financially, it's called giving up immediate gratification. I had to learn that that is such the key to financial success. We're so accustomed to immediate gratification. I want to buy that because I get it now and it makes me feel good. So the sacrifices don't feel so good immediately. Right, because there's no immediate gratification.

(47:00):

That's right. That's right.

(47:01):

You just know you're investing and you're sending your money. But now as I look back and I really learned that entire concept of immediate gratification, which one is more important to me, and now what's important to me is not becoming a burden to my daughter. I only have one biological child, so I have to now, or I'm now looking at 20 years from now, building a plan, working with the respected authorities to say, this is what you need to do and this is what you need to give up. This is what you need to give up. You need to live your life. Nobody else cares. And I know who makes that slogan, so I don't want to call this name here. And it makes so much sense. So if you can discipline and discipline is what I had to learn. So I realized working with my seniors, working with the families, I'm not talking to the part. I'm with you all. And so I know what it takes. I know what it looks like, and I know how I want to live, and I don't want to live at home with my daughter. I want to be out so that she can enjoy her life. And I always tell her, just stop by and see me. Just don't forget about it. Just say hi. Just

(48:07):

Stop by. I love that. I love that. Stop by and say hello to me. Live your life, but love on me while I'm here.

Ben Smith (48:13):

That's so great. Well, I really can't thank you enough for coming on our show. I know Curtis and I both learned a lot from you today, and a lot of the things that you help your customers and clients with is something that I know we can use for our tools for our clients as well. But really appreciate you coming on, sharing your knowledge, sharing your expertise. Thank you on behalf of the audience, and we'll catch you next time.

Princella Seymour (48:40):

Thank you so much. I thank you for the pleasure. I mean, I love this topic because I see it all too often. So if I had a magic wand to just prevent this, I would. And I just can't stand those people that do this to innocent people. Innocent people. You are innocent. Just keep your eyes and your ears open. That's what I want to say to your audience. Keep your eyes and your ears open and make sure you have someone you trust, know and love that has the best interest, have you in your best interest always please.

Ben Smith (49:13):

Yeah. And just because, again, because one person is untrustworthy, doesn't mean all people are untrustworthy, but we need to trust but verify a lot of these things. So yeah, that was a really great theme today. And again, Princella, we love to maybe bring on another time and maybe we can do an update show here on things that you're seeing here as things progress. Again, things are more sophisticated every day and more things

Princella Seymour (49:35):

That every something different. Yeah, they're crafty. They do this for a living. They don't want to go to work, so they do this for a living, so they're going to come up with more things. So definitely we make sure the audience is always aware of what's going on.

Ben Smith (49:48):

Alright, well ELA appreciate you and you be well.

Princella Seymour (49:51):

You do the same. Thank you for having me on yourself.

Ben Smith (49:54):

Really great to have Princella Seymour on today talking, staying safe and scam free, protecting your retirement from financial fraud. Some good things in there, some good tips. Good. Hey, if I'm digging, if I feel like I'm digging into a situation, what to do, who to talk to, who to trust, what we're kind of maybe the attacks are right now that are being seen. So again, we've mentioned a few resources, especially her book that has that checklist in it. Everything you need to know about me. So we'll go have that on our blog. If you go to blog guidance point llc.com/ 1 1 5 for episode 115, and you can find that there and links to her website at Complete Elder Solutions. But again, hopefully you learn something today. I know we did. We really appreciate you tuning in and we'll catch you next time.

Outro (50:53):

Ladies and gentlemen, you've just listened to an information filled episode of the Retirement Success in Maine Podcast. While this show is about finding more ways to improve your retirement happiness guidance point, advisor's mission is to help our clients create a fulfilling retirement. We do financial planning so that people can enjoy retirement and align their monetary resources to their goals. If you are wondering about your own personal success, we invite you to reach out to us to schedule a 45 minute listening session. Our advisors will have a conversation with you about your goals, your frustrations, and your problems. Make sure you check out guidance point advisors on our blog, Facebook and LinkedIn, and you can always check out more episodes of this podcast on iTunes and Spotify, and of course, keep on finding your retirement success.