Fraud Protection

Senior financial safety, without taking control away.

Most help offered around money in later life involves giving up control — signature authority, power of attorney, sometimes conservatorship. This service works differently. You keep every account, every signing authority, every decision. The practice adds a designated professional contact, ongoing visibility into unusual activity, and a written rule that slows down the kind of transactions scammers depend on.

Format
Monthly subscription · cancel anytime
Authority
None transferred · you stay in charge
Direct line
(707) 941-4818

Companies, universities, and state government all have professional teams defending against today's scam landscape. Now you do too.

AI-powered scams in 2026 are sophisticated enough that the institutions you trust your money with already dedicate full-time staff to fighting them. The threat is genuinely new — five years old, not fifty — and the defenses that worked then ("be careful with strangers," "hang up on robocalls") don't work now. Most people haven't caught up yet. If you're reading this, you have.

Bringing a professional onto your side gives you the same kind of defense at a personal scale. A small set of structural moves — a Trusted Contact at your brokerage, view-only account access for a trusted professional, a written "call before you wire" rule — sit between you and the threat without taking a single signing authority away. You stay in control of every account. You stay in charge of your money. And when something needs attention, you get the same person on the phone every time — not a service center.

What the service includes

Six structural defenses, in place before anything happens.

01

Trusted Contact designation

Under FINRA Rule 4512, every brokerage and RIA in the country can list a Trusted Contact — someone they call if they suspect financial exploitation. A CLPF in this role brings professional duty, regulated practice, and continuity a family member or friend cannot.

02

View-only account monitoring

Read access to checking, brokerage, and credit-card statements. No transaction authority. Unusual outflows surface in hours rather than after the next statement arrives. You retain full authority over every account at all times.

03

“Call before you wire”

A short written agreement — voluntary, made in advance — that any unusual transaction gets a phone call before it happens. One forced phone call defeats most scam scripts. Scammers depend on urgency and isolation.

04

Quarterly threat briefings

A short written briefing — what is currently circulating, what changed this quarter, what to watch for. Reviewed by phone or in person if you prefer.

05

Annual tech hygiene review

Password manager setup, two-factor authentication on email and financial accounts, removal of unfamiliar remote-access tools planted by tech-support scams, device audit, browser and operating-system updates. Once a year, on the calendar.

06

Recovery support

If fraud occurs, the response in the first 48 hours determines how much is recoverable. FTC and IC3 reporting, bank chargeback procedures, credit-bureau freezes, identity restoration, coordination with law enforcement. Included in Premium; billed separately on other tiers.

Service tiers · effective January 1, 2026

Three tiers, plus a mail-monitoring add-on.

Essentials

$300 / month

  • Quarterly threat briefings
  • Monthly Scam Watch digest plus real-time alerts when a specific scam is surging
  • Standing access for questions by email

Best fit: if you (or a parent) are already comfortable with the basics, and want expert eyes on the threat landscape and a credible source you can act on.

Concierge

$600 / month

Most clients begin here

  • Everything in Essentials
  • View-only account monitoring across designated accounts
  • Trusted Contact Person designation
  • Written “call before you wire” agreement
  • Annual tech hygiene review

Best fit: most prospective clients begin here. Establishes the structural defenses without touching your authority over your own accounts.

Concierge Plus

$1,200 / month

  • Everything in Concierge
  • Family liaison role — coordinated communication with adult children, advisor, CPA, attorney, care providers
  • Recovery hours included when fraud events occur (most cases resolve within the bundled hours)
  • Weekly mail monitoring & scam triage included
  • Priority response on urgent matters

Best fit: if your family is managing care at a distance, your situation spans multiple advisors or institutions, or you want a single professional holding the threads together.

Standalone or add-on

Weekly mail monitoring.

$400 / month

Included by default in Concierge Plus. Can be added to Essentials or Concierge at the rate above, or operated as a fully standalone service.

Mail-based scams are the surging fraud category of 2026. Fake traffic tickets, fake IRS notices, fake Medicare re-enrollment, fake utility shutoffs, fake court summonses — at print quality good enough to deceive most readers.

A CLPF picks up and triages your physical mail once a week, identifies scam mail before you respond, flags legitimate items needing attention, and disposes of the rest.

If you're reading this for a parent

Same answer, with one addition.

Many of the people who reach out about this service are adult children, not the senior themselves. If that's you: same answer, with one addition. Professional fraud protection takes the work off your plate without taking authority away from your parent. The structure goes around the accounts, not over them. Nobody handles your parent's money but your parent. Bringing in professional defense isn't a move toward conservatorship or a power-of-attorney handoff — it's the opposite. It's the move that lets the autonomy stay where it belongs.

The result, in practice: you stop worrying about an unusual transaction surfacing too late. Your parent keeps the independence they've earned. Both at the same time.

Honest framing

What this service is not.

When more help becomes necessary

Daily Money Management.

If you eventually need hands-on help with bills, banking coordination, or day-to-day money management, the practice offers a separate service — Daily Money Management — that handles those tasks under a limited power of attorney scoped only to the banking authority required. Everything else stays with you.

Existing Fraud Protection clients have a known practitioner ready to step into that role — no starting over with a stranger.

Free

Scam Watch — senior financial-fraud coverage by email.

Free email coverage of the scams currently targeting older adults: a monthly digest plus real-time alerts when something is surging. Plain language, no hype, written by a California Licensed Professional Fiduciary.

Sign up at napavalleyfiduciary.com/scam-watch →

The newsletter is free and stays free. Sharing with family, friends, and neighbors is encouraged.

Free initial conversation — no obligation.

There is no charge for an initial conversation. We talk through the situation honestly, I tell you whether the service is the right fit, and you decide whether to move forward.

Get in touch