My favorite joke about Elderly folks is the one about 85 year old Harold getting a call on the cell phone from his wife, Harriet. "Harold!" she warns, "be careful on the freeway today, the news report says there’s one car going in the wrong direction."

"What do you mean, one car?" blasts Harold back at her, "there’s hundreds of them."

Most of us have encountered an elderly person who has lost his or her sense of direction. Their lives overwhelm them: they are undernourished or even abused.

Our elderly population is especially vulnerable to abuse and neglect, in one form or another. While prevention is always better, I am experienced in dealing with situations in which our frail elderly citizens have been mistreated.

A wise colleague once told me that whether by death or dementia, when someone in our lives is gone, it is a tremendous loss. What I have learned is that the aging process is difficult because of the losses, big and small. Aging is often accompanied by minds or bodies that are infirm, family members moving farther apart, and loved ones who are leaving us behind.

With the best interests of the elder always in mind, we are committed to recovering assets if financial elder-abuse has occurred...to remove the elder from a neglectful or abusive environment as quickly as possible...or simply, to give guidance to friends and family.