Tuesday, October 3, 2017

Liliane Bettencourt and alzheimer

https://www.forbes.com/sites/zinamoukheiber/2011/10/18/loreal-heiress-liliane-bettencourt-is-a-tragic-example-of-how-alzheimers-impairs-financial-judgment/

OCT 18, 2011 @ 04:44 PM 2,541 Free Webcast: Generate Income in Retirement


L'Oreal Heiress Liliane Bettencourt Is A Tragic Example Of How Alzheimer's Impairs Financial Judgment


On October 17, a French judge placed the nearly 90-year-old Liliane Bettencourt, a billionaire, under the guardianship of her grandson. The ruling was the culmination of a long battle with her only child Françoise Bettencourt-Meyers who first sought to put the brakes on her mother’s over-the-top largesse toward celebrity photographer François-Marie Banier four years ago. Bettencourt was enthralled with Banier, bestowing upon him a total $1.3 billion in cash and gifts. A subsequent reconciliation between mother and daughter was short-lived, when Bettencourt-Meyers discovered that her mother’s lawyer and guardian got her to invest some $200 million in an online gambling company that belonged to one of his clients.

Weighing heavily in the judge’s ruling was the fact that a neurologist and a psychologist who had tested Bettencourt, had declared that she flunked cognitive tests. Those tests, however flawed, are given to patients suspected of dementia. Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia, and short of an autopsy, there’s still no other way of diagnosing it. According to the French daily Le Monde, the specialists concurred that Bettencourt is at a moderately severe stage of Alzheimer’s. What’s interesting is the medical term “anosognosie” they also used to describe Bettencourt's condition. It’s when a patient is completely unaware of his sickness, and in fact denies it.

For every Pat Summitt, the University of Tennessee Lady Vols coach who recently announced she had early onset Alzheimer's, there's probably a patient who rejects the prognosis, and insists on carrying on as usual. That includes a refusal to relinquish control over finances—a potential blow to their self-esteem and sense of power. But poor judgment over money matters--such as investing $200 million in a company at the alleged behest of a guardian with potential conflicts, is one of the symptoms of Alzheimer’s. It might take a painful financial loss for family members to realize that.


Bettencourt’s offspring will remain very wealthy; their fortune is tied to the success of L’Oreal. Bettencourt, who’s worth more than $20 billion, inherited her money from her father Eugene Schueller, the founder of the cosmetics giant. She had already agreed to turn over her 30% stake to her daughter.


No comments:

Post a Comment