Events / Blog

“Last Will and Embezzlement” Honored on World Elder Abuse Awareness Day 2013

5/31/2013

World Elder Abuse Awareness Day, in support of the United Nations International Plan of Action acknowledging the significance of elder abuse as a public health and human rights issue, was launched on June 15, 2006, to provide an opportunity for communities around the world to promote a better understanding of abuse and neglect of older persons by raising awareness of the cultural, social, economic and demographic processes affecting senior citizens.

Conferences, symposiums, seminars and training classes happen all around the world with this mission in mind.

As a victim’s daughter and also one of the two producers of the ground-breaking documentary “Last Will and Embezzlement”, Pamela S. K. Glasner will be addressing audiences in Washington DC (hosted by Wells Fargo Advisors, at the Mayflower Renaissance) and Phoenix Arizona (hosted by the Area Agency on Aging, at the Chandler Fashion Center) at events where the topic of the day will be the growing epidemic of elder financial abuse.

The DC event is on June 13th and the Phoenix event is on June 14th. If anyone is interested in further information, please visit the film’s official website: www.lastwillandembezzlement.com

Details of both conferences:
Washington DC Event:
Day & Time:
Thursday, 13 June, 2013, beginning at 5:30PM
Location:
Mayflower Hotel, 1127 Connecticut Ave., NW, Washington D.C. (202-347-3000)
Event Description:
Introduction and Welcome Reception followed by screening of “Last Will and Embezzlement”, which will by an audience Q&A featuring Film Producer Pamela S.K. Glasner. After that there will be a Panel Discussion with Professionals
·        Liz Lowey – Chief, Elder Abuse Unit, Special Victims/Special Prosecutions Bureau New York County District Attorney’s Office
·        Barbra Dieker, Director of Elder Rights, AoA
·        Rachel Lakin - Administrator for Adult Protective Services - New Hampshire
Closing comments by Angel Zapata of Wells Fargo Advisors
Conference Contact:
Tobie Steele
Assistant Vice President, Regulatory Affairs
Wells Fargo Advisors
St. Louis, MO 63103
314.955.4592 (T)

Phoenix Arizona Event:
Day & Time:
Friday, 14 June, 2013, beginning at 10:30AM
Location:
Chandler Fashion Center, Chandler, Arizona (right near Phoenix)
Event Description:
Introduction and Welcome Reception followed by a performance by Ms. Senior Arizona. After that, there will be a screening of “Last Will and Embezzlement”, followed by comments from Keynote Speaker, Film Producer Pamela S.K. Glasner.
Awards will then be given for annual Junior High Arts Poster Competition: “Why Should I Care About Elder Abuse?”
Closing comments: Thank you and Call To Action
Conference Contact:
Sally Dawn
Area Agency on Aging – Region One
Phoenix, AZ
Phone: 602 280 1050

Tags: Pamela Glasner, Starjack Entertainment, Last Will and Embezzlement, Senior Citizens, Embezzlement, Harry Glasner, Victimization, Forgiveness, Financial Exploitation, Elderly, wills, advocacy, power of attorney, medical surrogacy, taking advantage, Elder Exploitation, Elder Abuse, Senility, Dementia, Alzheimer’s, Mickey Rooney, Artie Pasquale

Something Beyond Survival – Part Four

4/9/2013

In 'Part Three' of this series of articles, I closed with the very explosive idea of sympathy for the devil: feeling sorry for — and going so far as contemplating forgiveness for — someone who victimizes and devastates you, or those you care deeply about.

The question I posed last time was: after everything the perpetrator has done, in light of all the wreckage he has left behind, does he not deserve every bit of hate and venom my wounded heart can dredge up? I used to think so. In fact, I was certain of it. But then a dear friend said something to me, one single, simple sentence which I must have heard a million times throughout my life, and probably a million more since 2011, when I joined the ranks of those who wear the label of “victim” on their backs, just slightly below the hastily-scribbled sign which reads “kick me!” She said she felt sorry for the man, and it was clear, in the way she said it and in they way she looked at me as the words passed her lips, that she was suggesting I follow suit.

Feel sorry for him???

Except for instances in the entertainment industry, I have never heard the words “I feel sorry for you” used as anything other than a weapon. In fact, I cannot think of a single phrase packed with more insincerity than that one. When I was growing up, mothers used it as a precursor for how their errant children’s hind ends were going to feel as soon as Daddy got home from work; members of the Bertha-Better-Than-You cliques at school used it as reminders of their families’ financial superiority; I am not proud to admit that during my formative years, I myself bandied it about as an insult when all other verbal methods of humiliating some young foe had been exhausted. I never once thought of that phrase as something which could actually be a positive force in anyone’s life.

Then along came this woman-friend who calmly, lovingly, led me to what I have come to know as one of those Ah-ha! moments in life, a.k.a. an epiphany.

She said the perpetrator had to be a miserably unhappy man, that every act of hostility and misconduct from him was a pre-determined, ill-fated, piteous attempt on his part to fill a bottomless pit inside himself, a place where love should reside but, because of some twist of fate or some twisted wiring, simply does not. Like a heroine addict, he temporarily numbs the pain of his emptiness with another injection of human misery, but as soon as that short-lived euphoria wears off, which is as inevitable as the proverbial sunrise, he is off in search of another fix.

Yes, he may well be deserving of hate but, what he is, even more than that, is pathetic, and if I am going to spare him any part of myself at all, better it be my pity than my venom — better for me, if nothing else.

Join me next time when I discuss, in greater depth, actually letting go of the hate, finding a way to forgive, and healing my heart. One footnote: Please indulge me as I take a moment to extend a very special thanks to that woman-friend I mention above — first for being one of the most insightful women I know and, second, for being a good enough friend to generously share her love and her peace.

Pamela S. K. Glasner is a published author and a filmmaker. Learn more about Ms. Glasner at http://www.starjackentertainment.com/ and on Facebook at http://tinyurl.com/am5mjoy . You can read parts one thru three of this series of articles on The Huffington Post.

Copyright by Pamela S. K. Glasner © 2013, All Rights Reserved

Pamela Glasner, Starjack Entertainment, Last Will and Embezzlement, Senior Citizens, Embezzlement, Harry Glasner, Victimization, Forgiveness, Financial Exploitation, Elderly, wills, advocacy, power of attorney, medical surrogacy, taking advantage, Elder Exploitation, Elder Abuse, Senility, Dementia, Alzheimer’s, Mickey Rooney, Artie Pasquale

“Power of attorney: It’s easily abused”

3/20/2013

“A friendly neighbor offers to go pick up an elderly couple’s license plates. He has them sign a specific power of attorney for that sole purpose, printed from an automobile-club website. He takes that to the bank and uses it to withdraw money from the couple’s account.”

“Power of attorney: It’s easily abused”
‘How to protect ailing relatives from fraud and abuse’

Excellent article by renowned journalist and prolific writer Elizabeth O’Brien (Wall Street Journal’s MarketWatch).
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/power-of-attorney-its-easily-abused-2013-03-19

Something Beyond Survival

3/17/2013

The first of a series of new articles by Starjack partner Pamela S. K. Glasner is now on the Huffington Post: an uncompromising look at being victimized, the long road to recovery, the hunger to live again, and one woman’s successful journey.
Bill Clinton, Alan Rickman, China, American Idol, Tim Allen, Obamacare, Sarah Palin, Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, Charlie Sheen,
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/pamela-glasner/something-beyond-survival_b_2878145.html

Click on the image to go to the Huffington Post to read the complete article … and then check back weekly for the next chapters!
(and, after reading it, if you feel so inspired, it'd be lovely if you could scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page and post a comment. Thanks!!)

LAST WILL AND EMBEZZLEMENT ~ honored by the State of Utah

1/17/2013

What a pleasure it was to wake up this morning to such awesome news!!

The absolutely stunning Nancy Tessman Auditorium seats 300 — that’s 300 people who will learn, just four weeks from now, how to protect those they love and those they care for.

Our deepest gratitude goes out to Karolina Abuzyarova (USLL Court Visitor Program Coordinator) for organizing this event, and for being part of the solution to this global epidemic which is now being called the “Crime of the 21st Century”

For more information about the Utah State Law Library’s “Court Visitor Program” and the work they do on behalf of vulnerable adults, please visit: http://www.utcourts.gov/visitor/

Pamela S. K. Glasner, Deborah Louise Robinson, Mickey Rooney, Senior Citizens, Embezzlement, Starjack Entertainment, Financial Exploitation, Elderly, wills, advocacy, power of attorney, medical surrogacy, taking advantage, Elder Exploitation, Elder Abuse, Senility, Dementia, Alzheimer’s, Artie Pasquale, The Sopranos

America’s preeminent authority on educational films can’t say enough about “Last Will and Embezzlement”

11/12/2012

Called “the best single all-around source of video information available,” Video Librarian has been the review publication of choice among librarians for over 25 years. And Mr. Phil Hall, the well-respected author of “The History of Independent Cinema” and “The Encyclopedia of Underground Movies” — and one of Video Librarian’s more prolific contributors, who also regularly reviews films for such notables as EDGE Boston, American Movie Classics Magazine, and the New York Times — has given “Last Will and Embezzlement” 3 & ½ stars out of a possible 4, and has proclaimed to his readers that our film is a “timely look at a serious social issue,” and is “highly recommended.”

Director Deborah Louise Robinson says of the review, “What an honour to receive such praise from this highly respected publication. Getting such a fantastic review from a completely objective source reaffirms our belief that “Last Will” is truly needed by our society.”

PBS HONORS "LAST WILL AND EMBEZZLEMENT"

8/27/2012

PBS HONORS "LAST WILL AND EMBEZZLEMENT" --- they asked producer/director, Deborah Louise Robinson to write an article for their new online site, NextAvenue. And she did! Please read it and share it -- it's beautifully written and very memorable!

http://www.nextavenue.org/article/2012-08/what-making-documentary-about-elder-fraud-taught-me

TAGS: PBS, Mickey Rooney, Last Will and Embezzlement, Pamela Glasner, Deborah Louise Robinson, elder exploitation, elder abuse, financial exploitation, embezzlement, Starjack Entertainment, senility, dementia, olympics, Alan Rickman, Tom Criuse, Bill Nye, oil prices, Obamacare, mortgage rates, Romney, The Amazing Spider Man, Channing Tatuma Stone, magic Mike, Ted, Brave, Johnny Depp, Nora Ephron, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Aber,

The Council on Social Work Education honors 'Last Will and Embezzlement'

8/1/2012

The Council on Social Work Education honors "Last Will and Embezzlement" … one of only 12 films chosen for their 58th Annual Program, to be held this year in Washington DC

Go to
http://www.cswe.org/Meetings/2012apm/52079/2012CSWE-Film-Festival/2012CSWEfilms.aspx
for additional information

TAGS: Mickey Rooney, Last Will and Embezzlement, Pamela Glasner, Deborah Louise Robinson, elder exploitation, elder abuse, financial exploitation, embezzlement, Starjack Entertainment, senility, dementia, olympics, Alan Rickman, Tom Criuse, Bill Nye, oil prices, Obamacare, mortgage rates, Romney, The Amazing Spider Man, Channing Tatuma Stone, magic Mike, Ted, Brave, Johnny Depp, Nora Ephron, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Aber,

“Last Will and Embezzlement” featured in the Journal Inquirer

7/30/2012

Manchester woman’s film details embezzlement from elderly
By David Huck, Journal Inquirer
Published: Wednesday, July 25, 2012 11:47 AM EDT
MANCHESTER — It wasn’t until resident Pamela Glasner traveled 1,300 miles to Florida to bury her mother last April that she began unraveling a web of mistrust in which she learned a complete stranger had embezzled her parent’s life savings.

Since the start of 2011, it is estimated that 11,000 Americans each day are turning 65 years old. With that aging population is a shifting of money from one generation to the next — and increasingly it is finding its way into the wrong hands.

Glasner’s story and others, including that of actor Mickey Rooney, are chronicled in her first film, “Last Will and Embezzlement,” which recently premiered in New York City to a packed theater and a standing ovation. In the documentary, the New York City-born author and filmmaker details how a man in his 60s had befriended Glasner’s parents, who were both in their 80s, at their local synagogue. In time, the stranger drew up a will giving him the ability to make all of Glasner’s parents’ financial decisions “unconditionally.”

Glasner’s father, a veteran who served during World War II in Normandy, France, died this year. He was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and was living in a nursing facility in the Orlando area. The couple had lived in Connecticut for years, but moved south for their retirement. Though the care facility was only a short drive away, Glasner’s mother was left isolated in their modest home. They had several hundred thousand dollars saved from the father’s pension as a former pharmacist in their checking and investment accounts.

Several days before their mother’s death in April 2011, Glasner’s brother called up the nursing home and said he was going to take care of his parent’s finances. Though Glasner has only one sibling, “The social worker said you don’t need to worry about it, your brother is taking care of it.” They learned that a new will had been generated by a man they would soon meet face-to-face.

“The day of my mom’s funeral in Orlando, the perpetrator came to my parents’ house and told me what he had done,” Glasner said. The man calmly explained that years earlier he had become executor of her parents’ will, had put his name on their checking account, and visited the nursing home where her father was and had the power of attorney transferred to his name. “He told me he was going to sell my parents’ house and put the proceeds into the checking account and said there is nothing you can do to stop me because I have more money than you and I can keep you tied up in court forever,” Glasner said. “And he was exactly right.”

She reported the incident to police — but by that point “everything had already been cleaned out of the accounts.” The detective said he spoke to the man and said he seemed like a really nice guy, Glasner said.

When the hospital gave their records to the chief state’s attorney’s office in Seminole County, that office said there was “insufficient evidence to warrant an investigation.” A paper trail was nowhere to be found — likely burned as part of a finely executed plan.

The perpetrator hasn’t been charged and the money hasn’t been recovered.

“Now looking back, I see the signs, but I didn’t at the time,” Glasner said. In hindsight, she says, she should have recognized something was wrong when her parents called and said they didn’t need her to fill out their tax filings any more.

Following her mother’s death, Glasner’s father’s health began deteriorating because the family couldn’t afford to transfer him to a more intensive care facility to help him recover from a bout of pneumonia.

Glasner said. “My parents died paupers. There was nothing left.”

Feeling helpless and having read a story about the millions of dollars that a member of Rooney’s extended family had embezzled, Glasner decided in the summer of 2011 to write her first film. She runs a production company called Starjack Entertainment with her friend and screenwriter, Deborah Louise Robinson, who lives in North Yorkshire, England.

“I said, you know what we really need to do is make a documentary about this because it’s a bigger problem than I made it out to be,” Glasner said to her friend soon after her mother’s death last year. “We wanted to make the point that this crime doesn’t know any bounds.”

The most common victim of these types of fraud schemes, Glasner says, are women between the ages of 80 and 89, alone, and generally dependent. The most common embezzler is a family member, followed by a stranger. A lack of security at the nursing home where the perpetrator frequently visited Glasner’s ailing father also played a role in keeping the fraud secret for several years.

During the incident, the perpetrator’s wife was also complicit in the scheme, having acted as a witness in the signing over of the power of the attorney, Glasner said. Pushing the case through court would have likely cost between $20,000 and $70,000 — money she didn’t have. “It was ridiculous big business, so I could never get the court to challenge those documents,” she said. “The perpetrators exist just within the law and exist with impunity because they know what the law is.”

In some states, Glasner says, there is a threshold where the “the state doesn’t even bother prosecution,” such as if the amount of embezzlement is less than $100,000.

Similar fraud cases happen to about 5 million seniors each year, in which a reported $2.9 billion changes hands, Glasner said. In some instances, the victim never reports it, for fear of being relocated to a nursing home due to perceived incompetence.

Glasner says the response to her film has been overwhelming, including positive reviews from Elizabeth Loewy, a prosecutor who works in the elder abuse unit of the New York County District Attorney’s Office, the office that investigated the fraud case involving the socialite Brooke Astor.

Other institutions, like Penn State’s law school, have purchased copies of the film, which was produced on a $130,000 budget, to screen for fraud courses. Another theatrical screening is scheduled for Los Angeles in early August, while a distribution deal is being worked out to bring it to a wide audience.

Glasner graduated from Eastern Connecticut State University with a degree in English after moving to the Nutmeg State at the age of 18. Her second film, a “rockumentary” that chronicles a heavy metal music festival in Leeds, England, is set to be released later this year or in early 2013. Her first book, “Finding Emmaus,” was released in 2009 and is a historical novel that covers the treatment and mistreatment of mentally ill patients over the course of 300 years. She is currently working on the second part of that trilogy.
TAGS: Mickey Rooney, Last Will and Embezzlement, Pamela Glasner, Deborah Louise Robinson, elder exploitation, elder abuse, financial exploitation, embezzlement, Starjack Entertainment, senility, dementia, olympics, Alan Rickman, Tom Criuse, Bill Nye, oil prices, Obamacare, mortgage rates, Romney, The Amazing Spider Man, Channing Tatuma Stone, magic Mike, Ted, Brave, Johnny Depp, Nora Ephron, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Aber,

Deborah Louise Robinson hits the headlines with 'Last Will and Embezzlement'

7/17/2012

Last Will and Embezzlement director, Deborah Louise Robinson, hits the headlines as she speaks to journalists
about the experience of making Last Will and Embezzlement

Tags: Deborah Louise Robinson, Director, Last Will and Embezzlement, julianne hough, Mickey Rooney, kitty wells, Artie Pasquale, 123getsmart, Financial Exploitation, jennie ketcham photos, Elder Abuse, kitty wells death, Seniors, write my paper, Elder Law Attorney, marissa mayer,

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