…your daughter-in-law’s sister, Melissa. She’s listed as sole trustee.”
The “retirement investment” my son, Chris, had set up for me was a trust with my name on it and my daughter-in-law’s sister in control. Six months later, Melissa had moved the $120,000 into an escrow account for a house closing scheduled the following week.
The bank manager, Mr. Lane, explained that because the trust had been created using a signature I hadn’t given, it could be challenged. He contacted the escrow company that afternoon. The money hadn’t been released to the seller yet. It was frozen.
My lawyer filed an emergency motion the next morning. The judge ordered the trust dissolved and the money returned to me. The house closing collapsed.
Chris came to my house that evening. He said his wife, Dana, had told him the trust was a “safer investment” and that Melissa was a financial professional. He’d signed my name on the paperwork because Dana said it was “just a formality.”
“I spent forty years on my feet in a hospital for that money,” I said. “It is not a formality.”
Melissa and Dana were charged with fraud. Chris received probation for forging my signature. He cried in court.
I moved my savings to a credit union where I know the manager by name. I check my statements every month. I’m sixty-nine, and I’ve earned the right to be suspicious.
