Susan was faced with a horrifying situation, watching as her brother used their father’s gradual decline as an opportunity to chip away at the family’s farming assets.

“Unfortunately, my father had a business partnership with my brother,” she says. “Gradually I realized that my father was becoming demented and that the money was disappearing. My brother was living the high life, with TVs in every room for the kids, an in-ground pool and flash cars.”, states Susan.

“I had power of attorney over my father’s affairs, together with my uncle. We sought legal advice and tried mediation, but my brother was having none of it.” Susan says she believes her brother was involved with drug trafficking. “I had to make several intervention orders and move away because of the risk of violence to myself because of his links to drugs.

“After my brother was arrested a couple of times, I called the elder abuse helpline and requested guardianship. The public advocate appointed an independent company to manage Dad’s affairs, but it took 12 months of me being at them for them to respond. Even during guardianship, my brother managed to get his hands on $40,000 of Dad’s money. Dad was a sitting target.

“Two years of litigation against my brother cost thousands. Eventually the court decided that he had to pay my father’s legal costs. I got Dad into emergency respite and he now lives in care. But our family has been wrecked by this experience. The financial administrator now has a mortgage on the farm and my brother works on it.”

Anther reminder that you should put your documents in place today.  You need to have the appropriate estate protection in place to protect yourself and your family.