Living Trust Scams
I wrote a post about my experience with trust seminar scams here.
Basically, an unscrupulous financial planner sells an estate plan, usually based upon a living trust for free. This strategy is a trojan horse meant to get the crook past the defenses of the target, usually a senior couple. Once the salesmen find out what investments the couple have by "creating an estate plan," they sell them highly profitable investments that are often very bad for the investors.
I am glad to see others getting the word out on this illegal practice. Professer Beyer of the Wills Trusts & Estates Prof Blog did a post here. Here is a list of seminar scams by David Goldman of the Florida Estate Planning Lawyers Blog. This list was prompted by a post from Michael Bonasera of the Ohio Trust and Estate Blog. And, the posts were also picked up by Connecticut Elder Law Blog.