The legal battle for control of Abigail Kawananakoa’s $215 million trust should sound as a warning to anyone with an elder parent, especially one being cared for by a third party.

To me, her story — which continues to play out in the courts and on the evening news — feels uncomfortably familiar.

My 85-year-old father suffered financial abuse at the hands of his caregiver in California.

After receiving anesthesia during surgery, he began to have difficulty remembering and making decisions.

Courtesy Eric Epling

Kawananakoa is alleged to be suffering a similar debility after having an apparent stroke. Several months ago, a medical expert said she lacked “sufficient mental capacity” to understand her complex financial situation.

Recently, Civil Beat reported that the trustee of her estate has asked a judge to “appoint a guardian ad litem for the aging heiress because he believes she is not able to make sound decisions about her ongoing court battle.”

Unless you’re living with a person who is experiencing these things you might not notice the decline in their mental acuity, or simply attribute it to getting old. I didn’t notice how severely my father was affected until it was too late.

It was during this time that the financial abuse began. It continued for more than a year until his bank called to notify me of irregularities in his account, on which I was a signatory.

More than a thousand purchases — sometimes three or four a day — had been made on the Home Shopping Network using my father’s bank debit card. I would later learn that two of his credit cards were also used to charge purchases.

I Got An Attorney

After flying to California and confronting the caregiver, it became apparent that I couldn’t go it alone. Protecting the elderly can be complicated, even if it’s a parent and you have the law and social services on your side.

I turned to the sheriff’s office. A deputy was sent to my father’s house, where he took photos of a bedroom filled floor to ceiling with the items purchased from the TV shopping channels. A report was filed. He encouraged me to get an attorney.

I contacted the county’s office of Adult Protective Services. A caseworker was dispatched. The caseworker reported back that in his estimation, my father was suffering from diminished capacity. He encouraged me to get an attorney.

I got an attorney. Almost immediately, we began the process of seeking conservatorship of my father.

Before I could return to California, the caregiver married my father. This greatly complicated things. She hired her own attorney to contest my petition for conservatorship. She attempted to make herself the beneficiary of his estate, handwriting changes onto a copy of his will, which had been previously signed and witnessed.

Before I could return to California, the caregiver married my father. This greatly complicated things.

The county prosecutor’s office explained that my father’s case fit the modus operandi of those who perpetrate elder abuse.

Typically, the perpetrator attempts to isolate the abused from friends and others. That’s what happened with my father, as I would later learn.

Victims of elder abuse are often unable to help you to help them. My father had become dependent on the caregiver and attempted to defend her.

In a prescient moment, he seemed to have anticipated this future for himself. A few years earlier, still sharp as a tack, he’d given me a letter instructing me what to do if he “lost his marbles.” My father’s estate was modest but he had a clear vision for its disposition. His letter gave me the strength to carry out his wishes.

Abusers Are Insidious

Now years later, I’m struck that Abigail Kawananakoa also articulated a vision. She wanted half the money from her trust — about $100 million — to go to the Abigail Kawananakoa Foundation after her death. The foundation provides financial support for Iolani Palace and Hawaiian education and language preservation projects, among other things. Board members said they want to add to its mission by providing housing and healthcare assistance for Hawaiians.

After Kawananakoa suffered her medical emergency in 2017, her former attorney was appointed to administer her trust.

Two months later, Veronica Worth — Kawananakoa’s long-time caregiver — married Kawananakoa. Soon thereafter Worth went to court to remove the trust administrator and take control of Kawananakoa’s fortune. She also terminated Kawananakoa’s long-time housekeepers, and has prevented them from contacting her.

Board members of the Kawananakoa Foundation say they worry that her legacy is now in jeopardy.

If you have an elder that you think might be in an abusive situation, financial or otherwise, you should understand that abusers are insidious.

The elderly victim is often talked into giving the abuser power of attorney, which is a license to steal the victim’s monies for the perpetrator’s use.

Abusers take advantage of joint bank accounts in the same way. They use ATM cards and steal checks to withdraw monies from the victim’s accounts.

Typically, the perpetrator attempts to isolate the abused from friends and others.

They threaten to abandon the victim unless he or she gives the perpetrator what they want.

Proving that financial abuse has occurred will likely take some investigation on your part. In my case, my attorney helped me access my father’s credit card accounts. The bank supplied a year’s worth of transaction records. I talked with neighbors. I gathered statements from the sheriff’s office and Adult Protective Services.

Before I could make it to court — and to what by then had become a contested case for conservatorship — my father died. It troubles me to this day that the last months of his life were spent with people fighting over him.

My father’s story is just one of many. By one estimate, elder abuse affects as many as 5 million people per year, and 96 percent of all cases go unreported.

The problem will continue to grow, as the U.S. becomes an increasingly aged nation. The U.S. Census Bureau expects people aged 65 and older to climb from 46 million today to 83.7 million in 2050, due largely to aging Baby Boomers.

The population group growing the fastest includes those who are older than 85 years of age. They’re expected to number 19 million by the year 2050. Hawaii has the largest percentage of these super-aged people.

Courtesy Eric Epling

If you’re ever in a situation like mine, understand that you can’t count on the police, Adult Protective Services, or even the courts to resolve things in your favor. Things aren’t always black or white. These agencies can assist you only as far as the law allows.

Depending on the circumstances, they may not be able to do much at all.

An assistant district attorney told me that if I wanted to reach a resolution, I needed to stay involved. Most people don’t, she said. It takes a financial commitment to pursue a court case. But unless someone keeps pushing, cases typically end in inertia. San Luis Obispo County, where my father lived, has an abundance of older retirees and widowers, I was told.

Elder abuse is common in these parts. Resources are stretched thin.

The same can be said for Hawaii. We have the fifth highest incidence of elder abuse in the nation and rank 40th in protection of elders, according to a survey by WalletHub.

In Hawaii, the Elder Abuse Justice Unit of the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office prosecutes felony crimes where the victims are age 60 or older. Since 2008, the EAJU has seen close to a 300 percent increase in elder abuse cases.

Talk to your elder ahead of time. Have them document their wishes in a letter and sign it, so you’ll know what they want. Make sure they have a will.

Better yet, encourage them to set up an irrevocable trust, which can’t be modified or terminated without the beneficiary’s permission. It also provides substantial protection from creditors. Once assets are transferred to the trust, they no longer belong to the grantor. Rather, they become the legal property of the trustee to hold for the beneficiaries. This is what saved my father’s estate for his family members.

One thing more. Get an attorney.

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