My Mom Was Financially Exploited, And We Can't Keep Fighting To Save Her. What Can We Do?

Location: Tennessee. I'm involved in a conservatorship and suspected financial exploitation case concerning my elderly mother in Tennessee. We have an attorney, but we're approaching the point where we may have to abandon the case because of the financial risk. I'm at my wits end trying to protect her.

My mother has chronic medical conditions that have increasingly affected her ability to manage daily life independently. Recently, she became heavily dependent on a man who began taking control of significant aspects of her personal and financial affairs.

My sisters and I believe he isolated her from family and exerted undue influence over her decisions. And every lawyer we consulted with and the one we retained said it was textbook elder financial abuse. Our lawyer said we should file for conservitorship, so we did.

My mother is opposing the conservatorship and defending the man. She has significant resources and we do not.

Some of the concerns include:

• Significant changes to her accounts and estate plan
• Substantial financial transfers identified by the guardian ad litem (GAL).
• Communications showing he anticipated benefiting financially from his control of her estate.
• Home security recordings that document manipulation, concerning behavior, and her increasing dependence on him.

The recordings were obtained through security equipment my mother had authorized in her home. However, my mom hired a fancy legal team challenged their use, and we've encountered significant obstacles to getting them admitted as evidence.

A capacity evaluation concluded that she retains the ability to make her own decisions, despite evidence of functional difficulties and dependence on others. The evaluation did not assess the alleged undue influence or review the evidence her team objected to.

After interviewing Mom the GAL said that my mother needed protection, but now appears to be backing away from that position after receiving the capacity evaluation.

Is there anything else we can do to protect our mom? Or are we facing a situation where we have to walk away and let the chips fall?