Aged Finances

Smaller benefits. Higher taxes. Later retirement. More reliance on private pensions. Desperate problems demand desperate solutions, and the major industrial powers, their public pension programs hurtling toward a fiscal cliff, are trying desperately not to go over the edge. Compared with the rest of the industrial world, the United States has time on its side. Social Security is accumulating a surplus big enough to keep the system solvent until 2032.

Every month, after Judyth Hurst paid her bills, she was left with three tens and a five. "Thirty-five dollars. What can you do with it?" asked the 87-year-old retired bookkeeper and insurance saleswoman living on a fixed income. "If I got more money, I could do some of the things I wanted to do." With even a little extra cash, Hurst said, she could buy lipstick, face powder or get her hair permed at the salon. So Hurst called her assemblyman.

A lonely 80-year-old Huntington Beach woman is befriended by a charity volunteer, then quickly loses her home and money. The volunteer's lifestyle soars. The assets are recovered and police seek a complaint, but the case is never prosecuted. A retired Los Angeles judge is gradually bilked of more than a million dollars in cash and belongings. Police are still looking for his housekeeper. A 77-year-old Hollywood man marries a 36-year-old ex-convict and five months later is dead from starvation.

A Baltimore insurer that sold annuities through Alliance for Mature Americans said Tuesday it will refund as much as $18 million to about 400 Californians who were allegedly pressured into purchases or were sold unsuitable investments. The settlement with Fidelity & Guaranty Life Insurance Co. is the first among insurers and others who provided annuities for the retirement plans marketed by Alliance, said Matt Ross, spokesman for the state attorney general's office.

Glen Hawkins, 89, had pedaled two miles from his Leisure World condo to his bank and was conferring with his investment counselor when he got the startling news. Without legal notice or a chance to object, Hawkins had been declared too feeble and addled to manage his financial and personal affairs. On its own, a Long Beach firm of caretakers had petitioned a judge and had been awarded virtually total control of Hawkins' life. He no longer had the right to touch his money, about $380,000 in all.

Glen Hawkins, 89, had pedaled two miles from his Leisure World condo to his bank and was conferring with his investment counselor when he got the startling news. Without legal notice or a chance to object, Hawkins had been declared too feeble and addled to manage his financial and personal affairs. A Long Beach firm of caretakers had been called in because of Hawkins' allegedly hostile remarks to a social worker asserting that he had no relatives.

For 10 years, the Promenade apartment complex, one of the most prominent buildings in downtown Burbank, has set aside nearly 80 units for poor and moderate-income residents as part of a deal in which the city helped finance construction costs. But as of this month, notices have gone out that the owner will exercise its right to end the arrangement, leaving residents with a grim choice: come up with more rent, or move.

The Senate Finance Committee's precedent-setting move to make affluent Medicare recipients pay as much as $2,060 a year more for doctors' services ignited a firestorm of protest Wednesday by advocates for the elderly. The committee's action, if approved by Congress, would impose the first income-related test for receiving benefits since the massive federal health program was created in 1965.

The American Assn. of Retired Persons and the IRS have joined forces to aid the old and those of moderate income with income tax preparation. For the 29th straight year, the association will offer its Tax-Aide Program at various spots around the county beginning Feb. 3. Volunteer counselors trained by the Internal Revenue Service will be available to help taxpayers, who need only make an appointment.