Hearing: "Death Planning Made Difficult: The Danger of Living Trust Scams"
Date/time: Tuesday, July 11, 2000, at 9:30 a.m.
Location: 628 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Description: As the nation ages, a growing number of Americans are planning their estates. Living trusts are an increasingly popular estate planning tool. With a living trust, an individual sets up a trust for his or her assets. The trust goes into effect while the individual is still living. A designated beneficiary receives the assets upon the person's death. Living trusts have advantages over traditional wills. Namely, they allow heirs to avoid probate court, which can be time-consuming and/or costly.
Many living trust sales outfits are legitimate. However, more and more outside opportunists are targeting older Americans with living trust scams. These scams take a variety of forms: expensive but ultimately useless products; the use of living trusts to access financial information and steal from the consumer; and the sale to the consumer of additional, expensive financial products.
In Iowa, some consumers have gone out of state for estate planning seminars and returned with living trusts that, unknown to them, are useless under Iowa law.
The leaders of the Special Committee on Aging, Sen. Chuck Grassley, chairman, and Sen. John Breaux, ranking member, will convene a hearing to educate older Americans about existing living trust scams and to open a dialogue regarding the best way to put an end to such fraud.
Witness List
Panel I
Judy Kulinski, on behalf of her father-in-law, Walter Kulinski, an 84-year-old victim of living trust scams, Pewaukee, Wisconsin
George Hoffman, Former Salesman, Alliance for Mature Americans, a now-defunct living trust sales firm, currently President, George B. Hoffman Estate and Retirement Planning, Long Beach, California
Esther "Tess" Canja, President, 2000-2002, AARP, Port Charlotte, Florida
Panel II
Elmer C. Prenzlow, Regional Manager, Bureau of Consumer Protection, State of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Elaine Kolish, Associate Director, Division of Enforcement, Bureau of Consumer Protection, U.S. Federal Trade Commission, Washington, D.C.
Paul F. Hancock, Deputy Attorney General for South Florida, Florida Attorney General's Office, Tallahassee, Florida.