Senior Concierge Blog

The purpose of this blog is to explain the Senior Concierge profession and to provide on-going assistance to senior concierge professionals with tips and tools for their business, and information from the field about the day and the life of a senior concierge. Enjoy! Rachel Laws Senior Concierge

Sunday, December 21, 2014

"I think I won $1,000,000.00 and a Mercedes Benz"

She tells me she met a man in a parking lot to pay the $500.00 in taxes on the Mercedes Benz that will probably be delivered to her tomorrow.  I find thousands of dollars of receipts from the Green Dot purchases that she made and shared the numbers of the back of the card to the callers.  There are hundreds of letters about her winnings, "but it looks so real, it has my name in print and on such nice paper". In my 3 hour visit I get 20 questions about the legitimacy of these letters.  "If it's too good to be true then it probably is", I respond.  

This is the most frightening situation I have ever come upon as a Senior Concierge. Luckily, someone else was concerned too.  The police had been called and Adult Protective Services has visited in the previous weeks. Thank goodness..

Seniors are so ripe for fraud.  As a Senior Concierge it is my obligation to make sure that they are protected.  I called the Adult Protective Services contact my client had and we had a nice conversation about what I had learned.  Slight memory loss and a desire for a big win is a bad combination and these issues should be reported immediately.  

Adult Protective Services had recommended that she change her phone number so they would stop calling every 10 minutes.  They also recommended that my client continue to work with me to help to monitor this situation. We go through mail, organize it and throw away those unwanted letters.  Hopefully these solutions will help.

A cognitive study may be done and then a fiduciary may get involved to help pay her bills and assist her in managing her money.  It's dangerous for a concierge to help with finances when you're working with someone that has memory loss.  It's important to work in conjunction with your client on these issues or if they are unable, work with a family member to help them pay bills and keep the finances straight.  If there is memory loss and they are alone a fiduciary is really the only solution.  

If you need a fiduciary contact the Professional Fiduciary Association in your area.  




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