(Warning: Typos Intact, Not Legal Advice)

My mother has dementia. My mother took out an insurance policy and named her paid caregiver as beneficiary. Is this legal?

My mother is being cared for by a neighbor who is being paid to care for her. The caregiver has changed my mothers phone number twice and now has cut off her phone so that I can’t contact her.

Answer: My mother told me that she signed papers on an insure policy so that her caretaker wouldn’t put her in a rest home.

This situation sounds like it may require an investigation by Adult Protective Services to determine whether there has been financial abuse of a vulnerable adult. It’s not unusual for older individuals who can afford to pay a caregiver some amount, but not a lot, to purchase life insurance on their own lives to provide a benefit to the caregiver after they pass away. Whether this is appropriate or constitutes exploitation depends on the specific facts of the case.

To determine these facts, an investigation is necessary. You could involve Adult Protective Services, or you might consider hiring your own attorney to go to probate court and file a claim to assess whether there has been a breach of fiduciary duty or exploitation of the vulnerable adult.