My mother-in-law was diagnosed with moderate to severe Alzheimer's dementia type in October of 2015. Within 2 weeks my brother-in-law and his wife (who took her to the diagnosed neurologist appointment) took her to her bank and began changing beneficiaries on accounts. Since that time they have had her sign to replace her long hired attorney, changed beneficiaries on all her bank accounts, closed out some accounts and moved them out of state, hired 2 new attorneys, changed POA, trustees of trust, revoked the trust, had her sign a new will, placed her in a nursing home and refuses to let us see her, took the farming operation away from my husband (, (who had farmed it with his father all his life, my fil passed away in 2007 and my husband continued to farm for his mother on an oral contract). We were advised to get guardianship. That fell through b/c of a technicality. We took them to court in2006, and we are still fighting to get things put back the way they were. We were told to report them to APS. we did but when APS went to my mil house, she said nothing was wrong and referred APS to her POA(her son who is taking advantage). Her son also took her to local businesses and wrote checks for larger amounts over the purchases to have extra cash. He also did not rebuild her house that was damaged by straight line winds. He put the insurance check into an account that will go to him when his mother passes away. This house was to be left to another brother and now is worthless. As I said, we reported to APS and one of her banks reported, as well as our State Representative Norrine Hammonds office and the APS office in Peria Il. that is over the local APS office in Quincy Illinois that we delt with.

Reporting to our local APS was a waste of time. My mil does not know anything about what goes on in the world, she cannot make financial decisions (this was documented by a GAL report and by several health care professionals), and her only concern when APS visited her house was where she was going to get a ride to the local coffee shop b/c that is what the sister in law did for her daily after the sister in law quit her job at a local university. This was a plan that they decided to do and has cost us money for attorneys, loss of income from the farm for 5 years and has taken a mental toll on not only my husband and myself but our 3 grown children. APS needs to talk to all family members.

This type of abuse is planned by family members and kept secretive about making changes. By the time we found out about several discrepancies it was difficult to get anything reversed. Even though my mil attorney sent letters out to all of us to leave her estate plan alone. It was what she wanted. He even threatened how the mis use of POA can bring certain charges. It seems like it is difficult to "prove" my mil state of mind and they knew it was going to be an arduous task for us to prove they had brainwashed her and get the changes they made reversed. They were smart enough to always have my mil sign all documents. I know in my heart she did not know what she was signing.

That APS can interview family members. They should have sat with us and asked appropriate questions. They should have taken into account that a bank, state rep office and a higher APS office made the request to look into this family problem. When an elderly person has dementia, they cannot think or rationalize clearly. It should not matter what degree of cognitive disability they have.

We are also so frustrated with the court system. We are placed on delays constantly. We would like to be involved with making some changes about elderly that have a cognitive diagnosis and at least asking all immediate family members to be involved in decision making. APS needs to be able to talk to the elderly person without consent from the POA. They also should reach out to other family members to understand the scope of the problem.