ESTATE PLANNING COUNCIL OF NORTHERN NEW JERSEY

Summary:  We know that senior citizens can be vulnerable to abuse and exploitation.  But what happens when concerns are misguided or unfounded, and lead to unnecessary restraints upon the elderly investor?  What can financial advisors and other trusted professionals do to help their elderly clients restore their investment autonomy and retain it in the future?

Topics Will Include:

• Red flags of financial abuse and requirements for reporting (15 minutes)
• What do “we” (trusted advisors) do if a client’s account has been frozen based upon an incorrect or unfounded concern? (25-30 minutes)
• How do “we” best guide or work with our client to avoid such mistakes in reporting? (10-15 minutes)

Andrew C. Egan, Esq. 

Andrew Egan is one of New Jersey’s premier fiduciary litigators. He focuses his practice on navigating emotionally-charged, high stakes probate, trust and guardianship litigation. Andy is an experienced trial attorney with a history of success in guiding clients to the most efficient business result in contentious disputes.

Andy has significant experience representing individual and charitable beneficiaries; fiduciaries including executors, trustees, guardians, and persons acting under powers of attorney, and is frequently appointed by courts to handle difficult or contentious matters. He handles disputes involving challenges to wills and trusts or TOD beneficiary designations; contested guardianship involving millions of dollars in assets; accounting proceedings and other challenges to fiduciaries’ management of the assets in their care; and “corporate divorce” disputes among partners or owners of closely-held or family businesses. Andy also has significant experience detecting, preventing and remedying fraud and financial abuse of elderly or otherwise vulnerable people.

Audrey Rizk, Esq. 

Audrey Rizk is an associate in the Firm’s Financial Institutions group, focusing her practice on securities-related matters and the defense of broker-dealers and other financial services professionals. 

Audrey earned her J.D., magna cum laude, from the University of Florida Levin College of Law, where she earned the Dean’s Leadership Award, an Excellence in Pro Bono and Community Service Certificate, two Certificates of Outstanding Merit, and the Book Award for the top overall score in several classes including Business Association, Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, and the Law, Trusts and Estates, and Trial Practice. At the same time, she also earned a M.S. in Food and Resources Economics with her thesis, The Social Cost of Invasive Species: The Case of Citrus Greening.