What is elder abuse?
Elder abuse can happen to anyone, regardless of sex, social status or ethnic background. It wears many faces and, alarmingly, typically occurs at the hands of the people who are most trusted by the victims — like their spouses, children, grandchildren, caregivers or financial or other advisors.
California’s laws set forth several specific types of elder abuse:
But nearly any behavior leading to harm, pain or mental suffering of a vulnerable adult may qualify as elder abuse — regardless of whether those specific results actually were intended.
Financial abuse frequently turns on undue influence, which California defines by statute as excessive persuasion that overcomes another person’s free will and results in inequity. Courts weigh four factors: (1) The victim’s vulnerability; (2) the influencer’s apparent authority; (3) the tactics used; and (4) the equity of the result. Viewing the relevant facts through that lens often can be very informative regarding how a case of this type will be decided.
These protections are not limited to people 65 and older. The same statutes protect a dependent adult — an adult between 18 and 64 whose physical or mental limitations restrict their ability to carry out normal activities or protect their own rights, and anyone in that age range admitted as an inpatient to a 24-hour health facility. Separately, California’s treble damages statute for unfair or deceptive practices now reaches veterans as well as senior citizens and disabled persons.
What are the signs of elder abuse?
The signs of elder abuse may be very subtle, particularly when the abuse is something other than physical. A few things to look for are:
- Changes in the physical appearance, grooming or general behavior of the elder;
- Unusual banking activity;
- Sudden changes in estate planning, or transfers of assets, deeds or trusts; or
- A new acquaintance, friend or partner who appears suddenly and takes an active interest in the elder’s finances.
Other signs of elder abuse might be more apparent when observing relationships between elders and their caregivers:
- Does the caregiver seem to express more concern about the elder’s finances than about his or her physical and/or mental health?
- Has the caregiver isolated the elder, or does the caregiver prevent the elder from interacting with friends or family members unless the caregiver is present?
- Is the elder reluctant to speak freely when the caregiver is in the room?
Any of these warning signs — alone or combined — may suggest the elder has fallen victim to neglect, abuse or financial exploitation.
What can be recovered?
California’s Elder Abuse Act and Probate Code provide remedies that go well beyond ordinary damages. Which of them apply depends entirely on the facts, but the range is worth understanding before deciding whether a case is worth pursuing:
- Double damages and attorney’s fees for a wrongful taking. Where property has been taken in bad faith, or through undue influence in bad faith, or through the commission of financial elder abuse, Probate Code section 859 imposes liability for twice the value of the property — on top of the order returning the property itself, so the practical recovery can be threefold. The court may also award attorney’s fees and costs.
- Mandatory attorney’s fees for financial abuse. Under Welfare and Institutions Code section 15657.5, a court that finds financial abuse proven by a preponderance of the evidence shall award reasonable attorney’s fees and costs. Liability alone triggers the award.
- Heightened remedies for physical abuse, neglect or abandonment. Section 15657 lifts limits that ordinarily protect health care providers, where recklessness, oppression, fraud or malice is established. As of January 1, 2026, a court may apply the lower preponderance standard against certain care facilities that have destroyed evidence.
- Forfeiture of an inheritance. Probate Code section 259 can treat an abuser as having predeceased the victim (at least partially, or sometimes even completely). The abuser is barred from receiving any property, damages or costs awarded to the decedent’s estate in the abuse action — whether their entitlement arises under a will, a trust or the laws of intestacy — and from serving as a fiduciary.
- Restraining orders that reach the estate plan. An elder abuse restraining order can do more than order someone to stay away. In certain circumstances it even can prohibit a person from making or facilitating any further change to the elder’s estate plan, and it can be obtained on an expedited basis without any adjudication of the elder’s capacity.
- Freezing assets before judgment. Section 15657.01 opens California’s Attachment Law to financial elder abuse claims, allowing an attachment lien on a wrongdoer’s assets before trial — a meaningful safeguard against a defendant who intends to ‘run off’ with the money.
Time limits matter, and they are shorter than most people expect. A civil action for financial abuse must generally be brought within four years of when the abuse was discovered, or should have been discovered through reasonable diligence. A trust contest is far more urgent: Once a trustee serves the statutory notification, the deadline is 120 days, and the period runs from the date the notice is mailed rather than received. Waiting to see whether a situation resolves itself can forfeit the claim.
What should you do first?
Because such a high percentage of abusers are the elder’s own family members, caregivers or advisors, the people we would expect to solve the problem are often the ones causing it. Elder abuse is widely understood to be badly underreported — and the scale of what is reported is striking. In a single twelve-month period, financial institutions filed more than 155,000 reports of suspected elder financial exploitation with federal regulators, associated with over $27 billion in suspicious activity.
If you suspect abuse:
- Do NOT confront the suspected abuser first. This is the most common and most costly mistake. Confrontation frequently accelerates the harm: assets are moved, documents disappear, and the elder is isolated further. Preserve your ability to find out what happened before anyone knows you are looking.
- Write down what you have observed, with dates. Contemporaneous notes are far more persuasive later than recollection.
- Preserve records rather than gathering them informally. Bank and brokerage statements, deeds, estate planning documents and correspondence matter enormously, and how they are obtained can matter as much as what they show.
- Get eyes on the elder. Increase your own involvement in their care and daily contact where you can do so safely.
- Report it. Adult Protective Services takes reports statewide, 24 hours a day, at 1-833-401-0832. For abuse or neglect inside a licensed facility, the Long-Term Care Ombudsman CRISISline is 1-800-231-4024. If anyone is in immediate danger, call 911. Additional reporting and oversight contacts are on our Hotlines, Help and Oversight Links page.
- Get counsel involved early. The remedies above depend on evidence, and on deadlines that begin to run before most families realize a legal claim exists.
Talk with us about your situationSchwartz & Schwartz has handled elder and dependent adult abuse matters throughout California since 1996, for elders and their families, for trustees and other fiduciaries, and as associate or litigation counsel for other attorneys. Contact us or call 888-404-0111 for a confidential discussion.
The law behind this practiceWe do our best to maintain the governing authority on our site, current and annotated: the statutory definitions of elder abuse, the statutes that carry the remedies, and the California appellate decisions that shape how they are applied — including Delaney v. Baker and Covenant Care on the reach of the Act against health care providers, Arace v. Medico Investments on mandatory attorney’s fees, Mahan v. Chan and Bounds v. Superior Court on what counts as a taking, and Herren v. George S., White v. Wear and Newman v. Casey on the scope of an elder abuse restraining order. A dated record of legislative developments runs from 2007 to the present.