Elderly and vulnerable people

When our client was diagnosed with an aggressive form of early onset dementia, he was forced to retire earlier than he or his family had expected and planned for. Leaving his job overseas and relocating to the UK brought about greater difficulties. We assisted his children as their father's attorney in resolving a complex retirement and permanent health insurance package with his employers. We also made an application to the Court of Protection for its approval of the package.

Preparing a Will in respect of a terminally ill individual with assets in jurisdictions including Hong Kong, Singapore and the US (value in excess of US$500m). The Will created a testamentary trust that, following the administration of the estate, allowed for assets to be decanted to a US trust. Following the testator’s death, we oversaw the administration of the estate.

We assisted our elder client who did not have an established estate plan and sadly became incapacitated. We were successful in obtaining the court approval to create an estate plan for him that ensured an efficient transition of his assets in accordance with his known wishes.

We represented the children of an elderly disabled man to successfully obtain a conservatorship and and help to return millions of US dollars of assets which had been wrongfully transferred from the elderly man by his second spouse.

In a sad case in which our elder client had been subject to financial abuse by one of their children, we were able to obtain a restraining order on their behalf to stop the ongoing abuse. We also appointed a support team to protect the client and ensure they had the right financial assistance.

Obtained dismissal of elder abuse claim by dispositive motion without the need for discovery or trial.

Withers helped an elderly client defeat aggressive efforts by her daughter to force her to endure a medical examination or submit to a guardian ad litem. Withers is often asked to zealously represent parties in California elder abuse actions in a variety of scenarios, including both those situations where the older person is still alive or is deceased.

Often, Living Wills are associated with people who wish to refuse treatment should they become seriously ill and lack capacity to make decisions. However in one instance we acted for a seriously disabled client who used her Living Will to request maximum treatment, preserving her life as long as possible.