Practice Areas
Financial Exploitation of the Elderly, Infirm & Incompetent
Our most vulnerable citizens are those most in need of protection from financial exploitation. Silver & Garvett takes special pride in representing victims of exploitation and seeking recovery of assets fraudulently transferred to exploiters. Fredric Garvett heads the firm’s practice in this field and is available for consultation.
There is no typical or “usual suspect” when it comes to exploitation. Exploiters come from all walks of life and can include:
- children of the victim;
- a trustee charged with responsibility for managing the victim’s trust;
- a stranger or neighbor who has befriended the victim;
- a much younger girlfriend or boyfriend filling a gap of loneliness in the victim’s life; and
- a same-sex partner taking advantage of an older, wealthier partner.
The law provides many remedies and protections for victims of financial exploitation. This holds true even when the victim has allegedly “gifted” an asset to the exploiter. Under Florida law, relief for financial exploitation is not limited to the elderly, infirm, or incompetent. In appropriate circumstances, the law also protects those whose minds are so affected by persuasion, pressure, artful or fraudulent contrivances, or insidious influence that the victim is not able to act intelligently, knowingly, and voluntarily.