HUSING MATSON ELDER ABUSE

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WHERE DID ALL THE MONEY GO??????

My aunt passed away September 20, 2016.

She had just under $3,000,000 in stocks and bonds and cash when David Matson took over as trustee in 2004.

There was just under $300,000 in the trust at the time my aunt died.

So, WHERE DID ALL THE MONEY GO?

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My aunt was a 97-year old widow who had Alzheimer's Disease, Parkinson's Disease, Macular Degeneration, Osteoporosis and heart problems. Her name was Dorothy Husing and she lived in Durham, California, just south of Chico. She has two children, Pam, who lives in Colorado, and Tommy, who lives next door to her.

The Matsons: David Matson is a CPA in Chico, California, and was my aunt's accountant. He specializes in the wealthy elderly. His little brother, Richard Matson, is a lawyer in Chico, and was my aunt's lawyer. He specializes in elder law. He is a "paper" lawyer, and has no trial experience. David Matson steers his clients towards his brother.

Tommy Husing: Pam's brother. We don't know why he doesn't like Pam, but he definitely hates her, and will do anything he can to destroy her. He is an alcoholic and does drugs.

Marc Bergen: Pam's eldest son. Working with Tommy and the Matsons, he had my aunt change her will and leave her property to himself. Everyone in the family, and the Matsons, KNEW that the property was supposed to go to Pam. They used her disease to "convince" her to leave it to Marc. And Marc kept it a secret from Pam. He stabbed his own mother in the back. If he could do this to her, who else could he do it to? His wife? His children?


BACKGROUND

We do not know when my aunt was diagnosed with dementia. Tommy knows; Marc knows; the Matsons know. After my uncle passed away in 1995, David Matson convinced my aunt to change lawyers and become his brother's client. Tommy and Marc, in cahoots with the Matsons, had my aunt change her will. This change did three things:
  1. It removed Pam from finding out anything about her medical conditions;
  2. It left her property to Marc, not Pam as she and my uncle had wanted;
  3. It removed Pam from being in the loop to be trustee if my aunt was unable to perform her duties, and replaced her with David Matson.

My aunt did NOT know what she was signing when she changed her will. Yet Richard Matson will swear in court, under oath, that my aunt did NOT have dementia when she signed a new will. Due to the HIPAA laws, Pam cannot get the medical records and find out just when her mother was diagnosed with dementia, and how bad it was when she changed her will. Yet, all of us cousins knew that she was coming down with dementia in 1994.

In 2004 David Matson had his own doctor sign a letter stating that my aunt had advanced dementia and could not handle her own affairs. My aunt was then coerced into signing over control of her trust to David Matson. Richard Matson drew up the papers. David Matson then had free rain over the trust and it's assets.

THE MATSONS USED THE LAW TO GET AWAY WITH FINANCIAL ABUSE. THEY USED MY AUNT'S TRUST FUND AS THEIR OWN PERSONAL BANK ACCOUNT! AND SINCE DAVID MATSON WROTE THE CHECKS, THERE WAS NO OVERSIGHT.

My aunt had "caregivers" who were supposed to be taking care of her. There are no standards for hiring private caregivers; California state law does not care who is hired or takes care of people if it is done privately. David Matson hired people that were his friends and who were not family members to "baby-sit" my aunt. None of the caregivers had medical training, worked in a doctor's office, a hospital, or had a current CPR certificate. They even hired an illegal Mexican, who couldn't speak English!, to be a caregiver! And one caregiver was fired for being drunk while watching my aunt. The last time I looked in on my aunt I found her dull and listless with bruises on her arms and legs and she smelled like she hadn't been cleaned for days. Dorothy Showmaker, who was head caregiver and was on duty that day, was playing a video game on the TV. Inquiries by state and county agencies responsible for elder abuse were sent to Richard Matson's office, where he told those agencies that my aunt was being well taken care of. Due to state budget cuts, those agencies accepted his excuses and did not investigate. The Matsons also made sure that no one took my aunt out anywhere. They wanted to keep her isolated from other people.

They did not want Pam around her mother, especially alone. They were afraid that she would find out how much her mother had been abused. So they did everything in their power to keep Pam from seeing her mother, including calling the police and threatening to have her arrested after she once showed up to see her mother. Richard Matson even sent Pam a letter telling her she is NOT to visit her mother. David Matson also told the caregivers not to talk to Pam. They did everything they could to keep Pam from seeing her mother and finding out anything about her or her financial picture.

They were not worried about Tommy, since they believed he was stupid and could be easily manipulated.


NOTES

NO ONE notified Pam that her mother had died. Tommy called one of us cousins, who called another cousin, who then called Pam. And nobody informed Pam as to when the funeral was; they did not want her to be there to say goodbye to her mother.

According to California law, Pam was allowed a full and complete financial disclosure of her mother's assets. She was allowed to know how much was in her estate at the time David Matson became trustee in 2004 and at the time of her death. She wrote THREE TIMES to David and Richard Matson, asking for this information. She was ignored all three times. Pam had to finally hire lawyer to get them to give her this information. David should have given Pam an accounting each calendar year.

When Pam finally did get the information, it showed some surprising facts (Pam sent all of us cousins, and others, copies of the financials and the trusts):

-- The first rule of a trustee is: PRESERVE THE ASSETS OF THE TRUST. The trust generated quite a bit of income. Yet David Matson systematically sold off all the income producing stocks and then proceeded to spend the money. Why? The trust was generating income, which should have been sufficient for her needs, if monitored correctly. It appears as if David Matson was trying to get rid of all the assets. Shouldn't he be more concerned with keeping them intact? My neighbor is a retired CPA who has handled trusts. He said that as a trustee he was supposed to preserve the assets of the trust, not get rid of all the assets. Obviously David Matson ignored this rule for trustees.

-- When asked about this by Pam, David Matson told her that my aunt wanted to keep the estate value less than $1,000,000. Yeah, sure. This from a woman who had dementia and didn't even know what day it was.

-- David Matson was spending her money at the rate of about $300,000 a year.

-- David Matson "paid" himself over $350,000 during the time he was trustee. That was MORE money than Pam got for her inheritance!

-- Richard Matson was paid over $150,000.

-- Other lawyers got a total of about $100,000. Why? What did they do that Richard Matson couldn't do? There is no documentation for any of these expenses. And one of the lawyers specializes in divorce! My aunt was a widow; what did she need a divorce lawyer for?

-- David Matson gave Tommy over $10,000 a year out of the trust. There is no documentation for the reason for this. And there is a clause in the trust that says that NO beneficiary is to get any distribution from the trust. So why was Tommy paid anything?

-- David Matson wrote checks and spent my aunt's money without any accountability.

-- About $47,000 was paid for "health care" expenses, yet only about $9,000 was paid to actual medical providers. What happened to the rest of the money? Who got it?

-- And there are questionable entries in the disbursements: high grocery bills--my aunt didn't eat much; payments for pet care--my aunt didn't own any pets; high expenses lumped into the categories "sundries" and "miscellaneous". And checks written to "Unknown". What are those? And there are about thirty checks unaccounted for.

-- Did Matson just pay on any receipt handed to him without checking the validity or necessity of the receipt?

-- Matson appeared to be selling the investments in order to keep up with the spending.

-- How many times has David Matson been trustee?

-- It appears that David Matson was given too much power without any accountability.

-- After reviewing the papers, my CPA says that there appears to be numerous accounting irregularities.

-- I wonder if there may be two sets of books.


CONCLUSION

Was all this legal? Apparently, Yes. A local judge signed off on the accounting. Was it morally ethical? NO! These people ripped off my aunt.

This is how the Matsons work on people. A search of the Butte County courthouse database shows the Matsons working together on other elders. My other neighbor, who is a retired lawyer, said that there is a "conflict of interest" in having a lawyer and a CPA, who are related, complete power over an "at risk" elder. These two had complete control over my aunt's property, person and money. SHAMEFUL!

The Matsons spent the past TEN YEARS keeping Pam from seeing her dying mother. And after she passed away, NO ONE had the decency to call her and tell her. And NO ONE told her where and when she was buried, so Pam was NOT able to say "Goodbye" to her mother.

THE MATSONS ARE DESPICABLE AND SCUM; ANYONE DOING BUSINESS WITH THEM DESERVES WHAT THEY GET.

And Marc Bergen and Tommy Husing are not much better.


ADDENDUM

Two additional items:

First: In 2004 my aunt fell and broke her hip while under Marc's care. Marc did not bother to check up on her after he got off work or the next morning before he went to work. She lay on the floor for twelve hours with a broken hip until Tommy found her the next day. Pam called the APS, who said that this may involve criminal charges against Marc and Tommy. After talking with Marc and Richard Matson the APS white-washed the affair. Marc then told his mother that he would make sure that she got NO information about her mother. He kept his word, and until she passed away, NOBODY told Pam anything about her mother.

Second: Tommy periodically comes down to the Bay Area. We all figured he does it to buy drugs. When he comes, he sometimes stays overnight with another cousin. A while ago I went to visit this cousin when Tommy was there. As usual, he was drinking. Some people, when they drink, get quiet and fade away. Not Tommy. He gets loud and brags a lot. One of the things he told us was that, Yes, indeed, he was in the Bay Area to buy drugs. He takes the drugs back to Chico to sell to the college kids. When prompted, he also admitted that he provides drugs to others, INCLUDING David and Richard Matson! (Perhaps their drug habits contributed to the break-up of their marriages?) Of course, everyone knows that Tommy is a congenital liar and braggart!

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LINKS:
janegranville.blogspot.com husingmatson.blogspot.com richardmatson.blogspot.com davidwmatson.blogspot.com hmeb43.blogspot.com jkmat43.blogspot.com drm43.blogspot.com dsho2350.blogspot.com husingmatson.wordpress.com richardmatson.wordpress.com davidwmatson.wordpress.com anna2350.wordpress.com rmat2350.wordpress.com dmat2350.wordpress.com thus2350.wordpress.com mber2350.wordpress.com jwal2350.wordpress.com dhus2350.wordpress.com lpet2350.wordpress.com jgra2350.wordpress.com jgra2350.wordpress.com richardmatson.livejournal.com davidmatson.livejournal.com anna2350.livejournal.com rmat2350.livejournal.com dmat2350.livejournal.com thus2350.livejournal.com mber2350.livejournal.com jwal2350.livejournal.com dhus2350.livejournal.com lpet2350.livejournal.com jgra2350.livejournal.com dsho2350.livejournal.com