Part 2 – Series of Elder Abuse Prevention Trainings

Neighborhood Scam Prevention

May 30th, 10am

Speaker: Sloan Champney, Better Business Bureau (BBB), Roanoke, VA

Description: Learn how to protect yourself against the most common neighborhood scams, including home improvement scams and door to door salesmen.

Bio: Sloan was born in Roanoke Virginia, and she has not strayed far from the Star City. She graduated from Ferrum College and double-majored in Media Communications and Art, and then jumped right into the news industry as a lead producer for WFXR News. This year she decided step into the job of Public Relations and Communications Specialist for the Better Business Bureau serving Western Virginia.  This allows Sloan to  continue her love of reporting important topics as she makes information available to the public about how to avoid scams.

Fraud / ID Theft & Scam Prevention for Seniors

March 28th, 10am

Speaker: Shannon Abell, AARP Community Ambassador, Roanoke, VA

Description: Learn of ways to prevent scams and fraud, ID theft, Medicare-Medicaid abuse of older persons.

Bio: Shannon graduated in 1976 from Virginia Tech with a B.S. in Finance (Insurance major).

He joined the Local Office on Aging in 1984 and was Director of Senior Services and coordinator of the (VICAP) Virginia Insurance Counseling and Assistance Program and the (SMP) Senior Medicare Patrol program. Retired from LOA in December 2020 after 37 years of service.

Prior to joining LOA, he worked for 7 years with Allstate Insurance Company as an Office Operations Supervisor.

He joined as a volunteer AARP Community Ambassador and a Community Educator for Virginia Senior Medicare Patrol in 2021. My zoom presentation on March 28 will be on ways to prevent scams and fraud, ID theft, Medicare- Medicaid abuse of older persons.

Estate & Long-Term Care Planning

April 11th, 10am

Speaker: Malcolm M. Brown, IV, Mountain Empire Legal Services, PLLC, Marion, VA

Description: An overview of estate planning considerations for the average family, covering common concerns, risks, and the strategies to manage them

Bio: Malcolm is the principal of Mountain Empire Legal Services. He began practicing law in 2012 and formed Mountain Empire Legal Services in 2016.

Prior to practicing law, Malcolm worked in his family’s funeral home, Seaver-Brown Funeral Service. Though he had worked in the funeral home for most of his life, he had not worked in that business full-time until his father was diagnosed with cancer in 2015. After his father’s death, Malcolm assumed the role of president of the funeral service in addition to his law practice.  Malcolm sold the funeral home to the Frazier family in 2022.

The funeral services business exposed Malcolm to the consequences of death and led him to the practice of elder law and estate planning.  His education, his experience in the family business, and his father’s death have uniquely qualified him to understand and provide a proactive plan to help protect assets, to help assist people with a workable plan for long term care, and in the administration of a person’s final wishes after death. Malcolm says one of the greatest inaccuracies he has encountered is the idea that you do not need estate planning unless you have a lot of money.   He says it does not matter how much money you have, but how you use what you have to benefit your loved ones.