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Purpose The purpose of this study is to highlight how people acting as Enduring Power of Attorney (EPoA) abuse their privilege in relation to real estate transactions through analysis of five court cases. This study thereby provides insight into how and why adult children cross the line into the realm of misconduct. Design/methodology/approach The approach involved a review of various court proceedings relating to elder financial abuse, and the synthesis of the important facts and judgements made that constitute unconscionable conduct, undue influence and passive acceptance of benefit. The cases selected focus on real estate transactions. Findings The research revealed some key commonalities and that property and living arrangements are the issues highly contested in courts for small estates. Practical implications The case review provides some critical findings that are valuable for wealth management professionals or managing an ageing person’s care and living arrangements. It provides practical insights for the importance of independent legal and financial advice when entering real estate transactions. The findings also inform real estate agent practice in helping to reduce elder financial abuse through robust checks if an Attorney is acting on behalf of a Principal. The authors also support improving EPoA guidance and professionalization to assist Attorney’s to carry out their duties with appropriate care. Originality/value A review of cases relating to EPoA in relation to real estate is novel and makes an important contribution to developing resources to educate Attorney’s and financial service professionals, including real estate agents.

The robo-advisor excels at simplifying the process of making investments, improving its efficiency. Since its first appearance in the market, it has been welcomed by investors across the world. However, the current regulatory system in China is not only overly restrictive, but also unable to provide proper guidance to regulate securities investment advisors. The development of Chinese robo-advisor business faces various obstacles, such as high entry barriers, the inability to provide comprehensive wealth management services. These difficulties are due to prohibitions on granting securities advisors full power of attorney. The uncertain legal status of robo-advisors also creates issues with legitimacy. In addition, there is severe information asymmetry and a lack of investor protection in the operation of robo-advisors. These problems have impeded the development of the robo-advisor industry in China. In light of the approaches of the US and Australia in regulating robo-advisors, this paper suggests that China should consider an incremental approach that is tailored to domestic conditions to promote the growth of its robo-advisor industry. Recommended measures include: improving information disclosure requirements, refining the fiduciary duties of robo-advisors, and regulating the algorithms of robo-advisors. Regulatory sandbox may also be considered, as it could encourage the development of financial technology while mitigating the risks arising from the use of such technology.

Revocable trusts are common will substitutes that also provide a mechanism for managing a person's assets in the event of mental incapacity. Generally speaking, these trusts are grantor trusts for federal income tax purposes, which means that the person who created the trust, the grantor, will continue to report the income and deductions from trust assets as if the trust did not exist. When a grantor is afflicted with mental incapacity, say as a result of dementia or a stroke, a serious question is raised about the income tax status of the trust. Specifically, absent a specific state law or trust provision to the contrary, the trust arguably ceases to be a grantor trust. This has numerous potential adverse tax consequences, including increased taxes due to a compression of income tax rates, the potential loss of the exclusion of gain on the sale of a primary residence, and the potential loss of S corporation status if the trust owns S corporation stock. This Article proposes a straightforward solution: the law should be changed to create a default rule that grantor trust status for a revocable trust will continue until an incapacitated grantor's death.

Efforts to promote the completion of advance directives implicitly assume that completion rates of these documents, which help ensure care consistent with people's preferences in the event of incapacity, are undesirably low. However, data regarding completion of advance directives in the United States are inconsistent and of variable quality. We systematically reviewed studies published in the period 2011-16 to determine the proportion of US adults with a completed living will, health care power of attorney, or both. Among the 795,909 people in the 150 studies we analyzed, 36.7 percent had completed an advance directive, including 29.3 percent with living wills. These proportions were similar across the years reviewed. Similar proportions of patients with chronic illnesses (38.2 percent) and healthy adults (32.7 percent) had completed advance directives. The findings provide benchmarks for gauging future policies and practices designed to motivate completion of advance directives, particularly among those people most likely to benefit from having these documents on record.

Data from a national study showed that more than one quarter of older adults who died between 2000 and 2006 required decision making at the end of life but lacked decision-making capacity. Most of these subjects had advance directives (living wills, health care proxies, or both) and received care consistent with their preferences. These findings suggest that advance directives are valuable. This national study showed that more than one quarter of older adults who died between 2000 and 2006 required decision making at the end of life but lacked decision-making capacity. Most of these subjects had advance directives and received care consistent with their preferences. Advance directives document patients' wishes with respect to life-sustaining treatment (in a living will), their choice of a surrogate decision maker (in a durable power of attorney for health care), or both. First sanctioned in 1976, advance directives were designed to protect patient autonomy 1 under the belief that patients who lose decision-making capacity are more likely to receive the care they want if they choose a surrogate decision maker, document their wishes in advance, or both. To promote the use of advance directives, Congress passed the Patient Self-Determination Act in 1990 2 mandating that all Medicare-certified institutions provide written information regarding . . .

Health and legal professionals must advocate together for the strongest possible safeguards

BackgroundThe use of digital technologies has been promoted by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to accelerate global attainment of health and well-being. This has led to a growth in research exploring how digital technology can be used to aid the early detection of dementia causing diseases and its successful implementation into healthcare systems. We conducted a qualitative study exploring healthcare professionals (HCP) opinions on the key considerations when developing and implementing digital technology for the early detection of dementia causing diseases in the NHS.MethodsWe recruited primary and secondary care HCPs from various NHS clinical networks. We explored participants’ views on the early detection of dementia causing diseases, and any potential implementation challenges. An inductive thematic analysis approach was taken to identify emerging themes within the interviews. A list of main and sub-themes was applied systematically to the whole data set using QSR N-Vivo (Version 1.6.1). Using the ‘constant comparison’ technique, the researchers moved backwards and forwards between these data and evolving explanations until a fit was made.ResultsEighteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven secondary and 11 primary care HCPs. Key themes included considerations for healthcare users and the use of digital technology. HCPs shared their concerns around how ‘if we’re now looking at screening people who don’t have symptoms, [...] the waiting list for memory clinics [referring to secondary care] would dramatically increase’ (P6 GP). There were also concerns raised around health equity, particularly around how we plan to include the ‘big proportion of the population who are actually possibly a much higher risk [...] [but] aren’t as engaged or as involved with their healthcare’ (P6 GP) and to ensure that we are ‘not excluding people who already are in digital poverty’ (P5 GP). Many HCPs felt it was important that the digital technology could ‘tests different modalities’ (P6 GP) to help differentiate between the different types of dementia causing diseases. Some healthcare professionals felt early detection would provide healthcare users with the opportunity to ‘tak[ing] out lasting powers of attorney’ (P3 GP) and organise social support for the future.ConclusionThese results will inform future research in developing and implementing digital technology for the early detection of dementia causing diseases. Future work is needed to explore how best to support patients receiving information about their early detection, and the HCPs involved in this process. More research is also needed to develop digital inclusion strategies to promote health equity.

Each month we take a close look at a recent legal case with implications for the surgical profession.

1 lutego 1933 r. doszło do przedterminowego rozwiązania przez prezydenta Paula von Hindenburga Reichstagu VII kadencji. Stało się to pod wyraźną presją Adolfa Hitlera, dążącego do uzyskania upragnionej większości konstytucyjnej. Kanclerz Rzeszy przedstawił swoje cele polityczne w swoim przemówieniu, wygłoszonym 10 lutego 1933 r. w berlińskim Sportpalast. Wystąpieniem tym zainaugurował również oficjalnie kampanię wyborczą NSDAP. Szef niemieckiego rządu zaatakował w ostrych słowach system polityczny Republiki Weimarskiej.Niecały tydzień przed wyborami doszło do wydarzenia, które miało stanowić symboliczne pożegnanie Niemiec z systemem demokratycznym. 27 lutego 1933 r. po godz. 21.00 w płomieniach stanął gmach Reichstagu. Następnego dnia prezydent Rzeszy zdecydował się na skorzystanie z zapisu art. 48 konstytucji o „stanach nadzwyczajnych”, składając podpis pod dekretem „O ochronie narodu i państwa” (Verordnung zum Schutz von Volk und Staat) i „Rozporządzeniem Prezydenta Rzeszy przeciwko zdradzie narodu niemieckiego i przygotowaniu zdrady głównej” (Die Verordnung des Reichpräsidenten gegen Verrat am Deutschen Volke und hochverräterische Umtriebe). Decyzja głowy państwa o „zawieszeniu praw obywatelskich” stworzyła podstawę do dalszego demontażu niemieckiej demokracji.Ostateczne pożegnanie Niemiec z systemem demokracji parlamentarnej nastąpiło wraz z uchwaleniem 24 marca 1933 r. ustawy o specjalnych pełnomocnictwach. Jej najpoważniejsze następstwa prawne wynikały z faktu dopuszczenia możliwości stanowienia przez rząd ustaw z pominięciem konstytucji. Do tego typu kwestii zaliczone zostały decyzje dotyczące się spraw budżetowych. Trudno się nie zgodzić z ówczesnym stwierdzeniem Hitlera na zakończenie debaty nad ustawą: „Dajcie mi cztery lata a nie poznacie Niemiec”.Uzyskanie przez NSDAP hegemonistycznej dominującej pozycji w Niemczech nie oznaczało bynajmniej końca działalności Reichstagu. Odtąd, miał się on jednak stać się instytucją czysto fasadową. Począwszy od listopada 1933 r. wszystkie kolejne wybory parlamentarne miały wyłącznie kadłubowy charakter. Obywatele Rzeszy mogli oddawać swoje głosy wyłącznie na jedną listę NSDAP. Wszystkie pozostałe partie polityczne zostały zdelegalizowane. Aż do swojego ostatniego posiedzenia w kwietniu 1942 r. Reichstag służył Hitlerowi wyłącznie do wygłaszania kolejnych przemówień, przepełnionych narodowosocjalistycznymi sloganami propagandowymi.

The worldwide elderly population grows annually. Life expectancy is increasing in modern societies, requiring governments to adjust various services provided to this community. Notwithstanding this shift, the growing view is that emphasis should be placed on the right of individuals to have a say in how their affairs are managed, even as their capacity to manage themselves deteriorates.