They didn’t have to go far to find the trouble that would follow and haunt us for the next 6 years; what was to turn out to be nothing more than a mere fender-bender happened a kilometer from our home just off of Lonsdale Ave in North Vancouver B.C.

We knew that we only had $2M liability coverage by our ICBC insurance and all our lawyer kept telling us was that the odds were in our favour for a successful defense but there was no way to bring this guy’s monetary claim down into our Insured coverage area.

The ‘poor’ guy that my ex-husband bumped into with my van claimed that we owned him $8M for loss of work in the present, and undetermined future, mobility, his ability to see or even eat properly ~ he blamed us that his sex life came to an end with his wife of 18 years. This ‘victim’ was to have us pay for everything he could think of. Everything that he would ever need to not get out of bed for the rest of his life and still live in luxury – all on the sweat off our backs and at the risk to our boy’s education and future.

This guy had his lawyer chase down both me and Eric and caused us to spend in excess of $100,000 over the next 6 years just to file the response documents to keep our defenses up in lieu of a judgment going out on my house and Eric’s successful business, not to mention any and all of our savings.

Its been 3 years since the ICBC lawyers and investigation team FINALLY got to our file and got pictures of this guy trampoline-ing with his kids in their backyard which blessfully ended this horrible stalking nightmare. I am just now beginning to feel ‘safe at home’ again; I still don’t park my vehicle in the garage, though – that’s where the $100,000 investment in our defense files lives – nice and dry and safe - in case this horror story somehow revives itself again.

I don’t know if anyone counter-sues for nuisance, but this guy would be a terrific candidate. I’m just too tired to do it. His lawyer must file attack-documents as part of his everyday regular tasks on his daily to-do list ~ how better to play the odds that someone caves under the pressure of nasty and unjustified campaigns rather than keep up the negative energy over the years to fight.

Somedays I wonder if I will develop cancer or some other ugly, awful fallout from this chapter of my life; from the bad things I had to harbor inside just to get through to the next day.

If something like this happens again – well, I can’t even imagine surviving it – I think I would just walk away from the house, my friends, my life and take my son and start out all over again in another part of the world."

Marjorie's Story: Greedy Boyfriend, worse brother!

I was really looking forward to getting on with my life.

I finally got my boyfriend, Shaun, to leave.

I thought we were in love but I realized too late that his real motivation for staying with me was only my ability to make money and have nice things.

It was torturous to believe, but it was torturous how he just stayed and yet didn't work on the relationship. Then he started to sleep in the other bedroom.

He simply remained as though my house and my life were rightfully his; like he was waiting for ME to leave in order to end things. He was never nasty but now that I look back, it was though he was just watching waiting to rob me blind.

Even so, it still took my girlfriends almost 2 years to get me to extract him emotionally from my life.

Shaun and I had an equal, fair and signed agreement regarding the "appreciation" on the price of my house that we lived in - and it even included the improvements that he did as 'the man around the house" while we were living together and still not married.

But once he could sence that I was not under his emotional control anymore and he was packed up and moved out - the worst of it happened.

NEVER would I have guessed... never in a million years would it have occured to me that a member of my own family .....my older and used-to-be-favourite brother - Murray - would collaborate with Shaun " to get more of my money that Murray felt Shaun deserved" from me.

My brother Murray had always had a drinking & drug problem that he had been able to hide behind his sociopathy; his uncanny ability to charm & manipulate people and have them think what he wanted them to think.

Not even Shaun realized Murray's full capabilities as a master manipulator; but Shaun enjoyed having 'one of the boys' support him and introduce him to a lawyer-friend of Murray's who would help to sue me.

So when Murray started to talk to Shaun about the 8-balls of cocaine that Murray could get 'wholesale' and how Marj's (my) money would go alot futher if he and Shaun were to go into business together, Shaun's greed hooked him in.

As Murray made more and more of an impression on Shaun, Shaun started to agree that our repayment arrangement that we had signed was not fast enough for his new get-rich-quick partner - my own brother Murray. Drug purchases had been arranged and it was time to complete on plan.

The Legal letters began and Shaun was encouraged to send more and more threatening ones from his lawyer that now included a blanket lein on any and all of my property, investments, businesses, banking systems - you name it. Everything and anything that I had, and had before knowing who Shaun was.

The only good part of this story was that I was able to afford the extra $25k in defence letters over the next 3 years to prevent a full Estate garnishee and to string both of them along long enough that Murray, at the age of 48, finally lost interest and went onto other 'prey'. Shaun finally came down to earth again on our original arrangment and was paid out on it as we had originally agreed.

Murray continues to live in my parents' luxury basement suite on the very comfortable West side of Vancouver, as he has always done in between bouts of living off of rich women in the city. He's quite the charmer and makes everyone laugh and feel at ease (read 'Without Conscience" to learn more about sociopaths in our midst).

I guess my Dad has more money than I do and although this natural, inherited winfall is guaranteed for Murray, all my brothers & sisters and I know, and Murray will tell you when he has had too much to drink - that while he keeps Mom and Dad laughing and in good spirits, Murray really feels that living with his parents is just good business sence; it helps him keep influence and an eye on Dad and his money to see how much more of it will come his way, instead of ours, when our parents pass.

Maury's Story - Bad, Bad Banks

2001 – As a 17 year old successful business owner, I applied for a small business loan at RBC to start a new company division for food manufacturing.

A postponement of claim on the existing family company and a personal guarantee for the $125k small biz loan that was also guaranteed by the government, was requested.

The loan was granted and all payments were made and all was up to date as it had been in my business activities for the past 17 year.

1.5 years closed down family business due family disagreements and transferred business operations to another sole owned corporation.

When RBC was notified of the family business closure, they wanted to transfer the postponement of claim to the new company. But the new company has no claim on it. We were told to allow this or pay back the loan immediately,

We said yes to transfer the same security and signed off on the new paperwork.

6 mths later, I needed a LOC to purchase a new manufacturing warehouse and it operations.

We were approved for the Mortgage but were told the RBC had a GSA, not just a postment of claim on our new business and could not get the LOC for business operations going forward.

The problem began when RBC took more than 6 months to remove their GSA and they did not notify me when this occurred.

Because I could not get the LOC, my business spiraled down and the problems got bigger and bigger.

The worst of which is that RBC got nasty; they bounced cheques when I had adequate money in the business account, they closed the account and then reopened it and charged massive fees.

When we called and asked what why they were bouncing chequest, the girl who was our account rep at RBC responded with ‘talk to our lawyer”.

Bad credit ensues and before you know it, we could not get any credit due to poor repayment history.

Today - January 2008 - I am up to my ears in debt, having to sell my family home that I built with my own hands for my wife and kids. At nearly 50 years of age, after an impeccable business track record and success; I am having to start all over financially in order to survive the rest of my life.

Tell me, though, where does one find Insurance that covers Bad, Bad Bankers.

Carl's Story - My Bad Investment; didn't use good advice

My situation is so pathetically cliche I am embarrassed to write about it. I suppose knowing about all those poor people who got stung in the ERON Mortgage scandal in 1999/2000 makes me feel a little better; knowing that I am not the only sucker to fall for a "if it sounds to good to be true, it probably is" scheme.

I was even warned NOT to invest any money into the deal; my friends and some very key business people including Tess told me NO; Tess had even seen a deal, like the one that has taken my money, happen in Kelowna in 1994/95 - one of her colleagues threw in $10,000 and then Tess watched him chase it all the way to Paradise Island in the Bahamas to get it back - it never came back. It never does.

I wish I had only put in $10k. What I did instead was get totally fouled up by the 'sure bet', the 'it can't lose' and the 'of course its legal - its an International Bank deal' and I lost my bearings; I was in uncharted waters and only let myself, for some ungodly reason, be guided by a smooth talking thief.

Once I had my first $50k into 'the deal", it was like a drug... the lure of freedom that all my returns were going to provide for me.

So, instead of spending the time investigating and waiting out some demonstratable & measurable goals that the 'knows-better-me" would have put into place to have this slippery operator meet, I spent the time dreaming about how I was going to spend the money; how happy my wife and I were going to be when we retired before the age of 45 - how I could buy each of the kids their own condo, how SMART my inlaws & neighbors and friends were going to think I was; how envious they were going to be of me...... yeah, right.

I suppose I don't need to tell you that when Tess told me her story of why she uses a Trustee to watch over her assets; how to put all of the hard work that she had been helping us with over the years by providing business financing & equipment leasing through her other company to grow our business, into a Family Trust and have the Trustee that she uses, Michael Hines CA, to oversee it all - that I told her, "yeah, sure, that's a good idea" - But of course, I never did do it.

And now it is too late and instead of being a hero - I am a goat.

And just like those poor suckers who invested in the ERON Mortgage debacle that hit Vancouver, I am now dancing with the Canada Revenue Agency as they determine whether the money I "invested" should have been their GST. I'm pretty sure they will take the house; we have it up for sale anyway; we have to move ~ my in-laws live down the road and they want me to go to jail because it was the family-business tax money that I used. Nobody is being understanding about this - and quite frankly , I don't blame them.

In hindsight, I've always felt responsible enough to manage the freedom of my own money and now of course, I really wished I would have gone to Michael Hines, or at least had the gumption and humility to burst the dream-bubble that this snake-oil salesman had me conjure up in my own mind, and confide in Tess the full extent of what I was really doing( I told her I only put in $50k and not the $400k that is now missing). Only now I realize the awful power that money can have when it is left unchecked.

Money requires discipline and I guess I just took that for granted because I had always had that discipline ~ I just don't know what got into me. I don't even know the guy inside of me who was capable of doing something like this that makes my wife and grown kids look at me the way they do now.

One thing is for certain, if I am blessed with an unbelievable second chance; if I have the strength to get through this, survive and am able to start again, I will have my cash accounts set up with the requirement of two signatures, instead of just only mine. Better yet, I think I will just give Michael a call and ask him to be my overseeing Trustee and if it's ok to call him and ask him for advice on the next 1000+ or so, decisions I make.

Jerry’s Story - Neighbors Nightmare

My neighbor Trudy is only 71 years old but when her husband finally died from Alzheimer’s complications, Trudy’s step-children didn’t want her between them and their father’s estate so they called a public Trustee to investigate Trudy’s stability as a human being.

Today, 3 years after Trudy’s husband died, Trudy’s power of attorney over her husband’s estate and her legal rights as a spouse have been quashed by a “Public Trustee” who don’t even have a report of her mental capabilities or stability in her file; her body was old therefore she was determined by the Trustee henchmen as ‘infirm” in every aspect.

All it took was a phone call and a rumor and poor Trudy was out on the streets.
I am Trudy’s neighbour and I am outraged by what has happened to a member of our Canadian Society, not to mention my friend. Trudy now has to live in my basement suite; when I called CIBC’s Wood Gundy to find out where the Trustees had invested all of Trudy’s RRSP’s, stocks & Bonds that her husband lovingly saved for her, Wood Gundy said “Oh, we don’t provide that information – you will have to call the Trustee of the Estate”.

The problem is Trudy didn’t assign these smooth white collared thieves as the Trustee of her Estate knowingly; they cornered her at her own kitchen table, all by herself and kept telling her what she needed to do so in order to properly protect herself until she LITERALLY signed her life away They walked all over her power of attorney.

Only they, these “public trustees”, have access to her money in the vaults at CIBC’s Wood Gundy. No matter what energy I put into helping Trudy once again pay her own groceries bills with her own money – I cannot seem to scratch the surface of the very slick, slippery veneer that is now in place preventing her from once again being financially independent and being able to support herself as her husband had planned.
I am doing what I can for Trudy but her real problem in finding her money is in with the Lawyers now…

Tess' Story - My initiation into Big Business

This story is just one of seven (7) events that inspired me to begin "The Family Trust & Tax " company.

January 2003 found me young and successful ~ I had worked hard and my hard work had paid off. Now it was time to travel, have more fun and then maybe start a family.

As I was packing up my surf-board in mid February that year, little did I know it would be the last time for the next too many years that I would have time for any leisure activites: My accountant had called to tell me that a "Behemoth Financing Co/ American Bank " was suing me and 7-8 others in a class action-like lawsuit that pivoted around a client I had referred for a fee to "The Finance Company" in years earlier. It was like I had been conscripted to go to war and in fact, I had: I was now fighting my own personal financial war.

The gods had my attention.

This story is long and complicated, here are the big lessons that I learned:

1) Learn about Who you are accepting business from: This massive American Finance Company who was suing everyone, operated out of Toronto, Canada but their headoffice that had launched this unjustifiable lawsuit on me and others - was from New York, USA. The Americans are terrific capitalists and have even better lawyers and ever changing laws, to suit.

When Americans sue, routinely they sue all the directors of the company, as well as the company in question. And then, even at a stretch, they slip in some form of "Gross" as in "gross negligence" or "gross mismanagment" ...if the opportunity to toss in a "Fraud" presents itself, no matter who it is identified with - all the better: Everyone gets tarred with the same brush. And EVERYONE's corporate veil is pierced (that means that your "Limited Liability Corporation will not protect you or your assets,personally) until they have everyone that was around at the time the deal went through, at the table crying out to make a deal or declare their out and out, compliance.

2) Learn about Insurance and don't cheap out: I had been flying without liability insurance; I knew I was honest and kept thorough records to prove it. But this Lawsuit-attack was not about being honest or hardworking, this wasn't even about me, it was about my client-turned-criminal who hacked into the "Credit Reporting Company" computer system, changed his own credit rating to read "EXCELLENT" & forged his own mothers' signature.

This was about "anything goes" and "all is fair in love and war". The lawsuit was for over $300,000; "The Finance Company" was after anyone who would pay. They were after my house and the next one and anything else from me, and I wasn't the one who was responsible - they were picking on me. This was war.

3) Do not EVER do business with someone who is related to "a world's largest" anything, to do work for/with you unless you too, are in that category.

I was referred by a partner at a well know lawfirm in Vancouver, to a division of the worlds largest lawfirm ( 6000+ lawyers) in Toronto where this suit had been launched. In hindsight, my first indication that this storm had only just begun was when the partner-lawyer here in Vancouver wanted to be paid to 'oversee' the lawyer he referred me to in Toronto. While this had me scratching my puzzled head wondering why I would be willing to pay twice, it wasn't until later that I discovered my own defending Lawyer at "The World's Largest Lawfirm" in Toronto was more interested in currying favour with "The Finance Co. / USA Bank " than he was supposed to be dutifully defending me against.

And why not - who was I? Certainly not the Billion-dollar "Finance Company". There was a lot of FUTURE business with "The USA Finance Company" for my would-be lawyer if only he could get me to just put my head on the chopping block enough for them to notice...yes?

In the end, a friend helped me to acquire a written Legal Opinion based upon subtle email correspondance that my defence lawyer was prostituting my case to win favour with the Prosecution. The letter found its way to the Law Society of Upper Canada and after another lawyer at "the lawfirm" cleared me of any charges by "The Finance Company", my $37,000 legal bill was thrown away - although they didn't admit to any wrong doing - they just stopped sending me bills - of which I never paid one.

4) The End result: 18 months of my life that I will never get back, a stress level endured that I would never wish upon an enemy and the ongoing rollout of my annuity investments that suffered the lack of reinvestment as it supported me through this horrendous chapter in my life. This segment cost: $250,000 in lost opportunity alone; I've been too busy rebuilding since then to take full stock of the damages from this particular unfair assault.

But then, who says life is fair?

If you have a story that you would like to share, to help other readers,, please send it to: info@trustdogs.com- please send it Anonymously; full confidentiality ensured.

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"WHY WOULD I NEED PROTECTION...?"
Types of Creditor Claims

Anticipating the full extent of claims that might be advanced against an individual in Canada during his or her lifetime or upon death is becoming more and more a reality. In a summary way, some of the claims that a person might face could include:
Normal business debts, including those secured by personal guarantees.
Damages for personal injuries and claims arising from motor vehicle accidents which exceed insurance policy limits.
Personal liability imposed on directors of corporations by various federal and provincial statutes in connection with employee source deductions, environmental claims and other matters.
The costs of nursing home care.
Claims by a spouse for a division of matrimonial assets under the Matrimonial Property Act arising on marriage breakdown or death.
Claims by a spouse and/or children under the Testators' Family Maintenance Act for failure to make "adequate provision" for them in a will.

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~ Glynis Evans, Founder, President - Datawitness. A Macdonald Detweiler BC Online partner

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"WHY WOULD I NEED PROTECTION...?" Types of Creditor Claims

"WHY WOULD I NEED PROTECTION...?"
Types of Creditor Claims