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by Val Ellicott
Staff Writer
Betty Garrity usually knows enough to shoo away
glib salesmen greedy for a chunk of her modest savings.
But the representative of Senior Estate Services
who visited Garrity at her Palm Springs home in December really
seemed to care about her future.
For about 45 minutes, Garrity recalled Wednesday,
the salesman worked to win her trust, asking about her family and
showing her pictures of his own son and twin daughters.
``He was the most comfortable, warm person,'' said
Garrity, 75.
Within a few hours, she said, the man had sold her
a living trust for $1,895 after wearing her down with alarming
predictions that her existing estate plans could cost her children
thousands of dollars in probate costs.
State officials say Garrity is one of thousands of
Florida seniors who bought unnecessary, worthless living trusts - and
in some cases, unnecessary annuities - from Senior Estate Services
Inc., a Florida corporation with offices in Tampa and Boca Raton.
On Wednesday, Attorney General Bob Butterworth and
the American Association of Retired Persons filed a civil suit
against the company in Broward County Circuit Court, accusing company
officers Charles M. Huechtker and his son, Jason C. Huechtker, of
training staffers to use deceptive, high-pressure sales pitches that
lasted as long as seven hours and reduced at least one elderly Boca
Raton woman to tears.
``It's flat out a scam,'' Butterworth said at a
Wednesday news conference in Fort Lauderdale. Usually, lawyers would
charge from $500 to $700 to set up a living trust, he said.
Charles Huechtker, the company's chief executive
officer, said the suit was ``very much a shocker.''
``We deny all those allegations, and we intend to
vigorously defend any actions taken against us,'' he said, declining
further comment.
A critical element of the company's strategy was to
refer to the AARP in mailings and phone pitches, giving potential
victims the impression the association had sanctioned the company's
activities, state officials said.
An AARP attorney singled out the Huechtkers'
operation as particularly dangerous for seniors.
``The AARP does not get involved in litigation like
this very often, '' attorney Deborah Zuckerman said. ``These
companies clearly target vulnerable older people who are concerned
about how to pass on their assets.''
The Huechtkers trained their ``trust
representatives'' to spend exactly 45 minutes ``warming up''
potential victims, state officials said.
Lawsuit seeks civil penalties
``This might be accomplished by discussing the
elderly person's family, children or grandchildren or by talking
about the parents or grandparents of the trust representative,'' the
suit said.
It also names an affiliate company, Remington
Estate Services of Florida Inc., a Texas-based firm that shares
Florida offices with Senior Estate Services. The suit seeks an
injunction halting both companies' operations, restitution for senior
citizens who say they were duped into buying trusts and annuities,
and civil penalties.
State officials said they don't know how much money
seniors lost.
Butterworth said the state also may file criminal
charges against the Huechtkers.
He estimated that Senior Estate Services may have
conned 5,000 elderly Florida residents since March 1997, when the
company opened an office in Tampa. The Boca Raton office opened in November.
The suit is based largely on information provided
by Katherine Rutherford, a former employee of Senior Estate Services.
Rutherford said she came forward after watching
Jason Huechtker ``badger' ' Virginia Albrecht, 83, of Boca Raton for
seven hours to persuade her to liquidate her assets and put the
proceeds into an annuity, a deal that would have netted Huechtker
$20,000 in commissions.
``She was in tears,'' Rutherford said of Albrecht.
``What I saw happening wasn't right.''
Albrecht signed the liquidation papers, but her
financial adviser was able to invalidate the documents, and the
annuity deal was never finalized.
Owners took commission cut
Rutherford said the Huechtkers made the bulk of
their money by taking a cut of the commissions their staffers earned
selling annuities.
``They lived well,'' Rutherford said of the Huechtkers.
The father and son sold the living trusts, which
cost from $1,895 to $2,995, primarily to win the trust of the seniors
they would later pressure to buy an annuity, Rutherford said.
Top salesmen for Senior Estate Services earned
$3,000 to $3,500 a week, she said.
Garrity, who was able to get her $1,895 back from
Senior Estate Services, said her experience with the Huechtkers'
sales force has changed her forever.
``I've always trusted people,'' she said. ``For the
first time in my life, I'm going to think twice about making
decisions like this.' '
*top
Living trusts
Living trusts are designed to avoid probate or
guardianship of a person's
assets if they become incapacitated or die.
People who create a living trust act as the trustee
while still alive, naming an alternate trustee to manage the trust
after their death.
The alternate trustee may distribute, without court
supervision, the trust's assets according to the wishes of the
trust's creator.
SOURCE: West Palm Beach
attorney Michael Shalloway
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