Clients might not know they are being defrauded.
Estate planning attorneys must act with integrity at all times but, unfortunately, that does not always happen, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation in “Lengthy Prison Term for Estate Planner Who Betrayed Clients.”
Estate planning attorneys are often employed to handle large sums of money on behalf of their clients. They need to have the honesty and integrity to handle that money properly and not take any of it for themselves.
This is more important for attorneys than for many other types of people who handle money.
An estate planning attorney in Florida was investigated by the FBI. She was found guilty of defrauding her clients out of $2.7 million. She was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Some details of her case can be found in the article the FBI posted.
What this shows is that you always need to be careful about who you hire to handle your estate matters.
Fraud can be difficult for the victims to recognize, until it is too late to prevent.
Reference: Federal Bureau of Investigation (August 15, 2017) “Lengthy Prison Term for Estate Planner Who Betrayed Clients.”
