SCAMMING ELDERLY MILITARY VETERANS?

Comrades in Arms: This is a warning about a POSSIBLE scam directed at elderly military veterans. I emphasize the word, "POSSIBLE", because it might NOT be a scam. The fact is, I really don't know, although my suspicions have been piqued. Due to declining health, my ninety-two year old stepmother, who served in the Women's Army Corps during the Second World War, and who is the widow of a United States Army retiree, is currently being transferred from her comfortable apartment at Heritage Place in Fayetteville, North Carolina, into a fully assisted living facility at that same location. Over the past several days, she's conferred with a representative from VETERANS FINANCIAL, INCORPORATED. Because my stepmother had selected me to be a co-executor of her estate, they wanted her to put all of her money under my name, giving me her power of attorney to pay her bills, so she could be eligible to obtain financial assistance from the Department of Veterans Affairs and not lose all of her life's savings in paying for long term medical expenses. That sounds logical, doesn't it? All SEEMED to be on the "up and up", and the VETERANS FINANCIAL, INCORPORATED web site appears VERY professional and impressive. Then, the representative from that corporation said something that got my stepmother upset and suspicious. She wanted my stepmother's life savings placed into a bank in Louisiana, plus a bank in some other unspecified state. My stepmother says Louisiana is the LAST place she'd ever consider for banking, due to that state's history of corruption, instability, and unreliability. Yesterday, my stepmother very wisely met with her attorney, and also sought advice from the office of the Judge Advocate General at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. They advised her to avoid doing further business with VETERANS FINANCIAL, INCORPORATED, as there were too many unanswered questions and unresolved issues. As I stated earlier in this message, it's POSSIBLE that this was NOT a scam, and that firm's operations MAY be perfectly legitimate. But, I don't know, and I am suspicious. So, please be warned, just in case. You may wish to consider investigating this for yourself, and/or to share this information with others. Thank you. John Robert Mallernee Armed Forces Retirement Home Washington, D.C.  20011-8400