Financial Abuse: Scamming the Grandchildren

Dr. "Doc" Michael Saltzburg Raided the Four Adopted Grandchildren's 529 College Funds - Just as They Became College Ready 

My and my brother's children had college funds set up by our parents, in each of the children's names at they were born. It was education money promised to them their entire lives. At the last minute, as they turned teenagers, our adoptive father took all their college funds away. That's financial abuse, in my opinion. A total scam perpetrated on his own grandchildren. My mother would have turned over in her grave.

What is the definition of scam anyway? According to the Oxford language dictionary, a scam is a "dishonest scheme, a fraud". Well I'd argue that's exactly what my adoptive father, Dr. Michael Saltzburg, did by promising to give each grandchild the college fund that had been set up in their names, and then changing the beneficiary after our mother died - all to benefit himself.

Before our mother tragically passed away, with the birth of each grandchild, starting with my daughter Radhika, she, along with my adopted father, created a 529 college fund - in each grandchild's name - that would pay for at least four years of a state school tuition, along with room and board.  This was set in stone from each grandchild's birth.

As a lifelong, passionate educator, who was loved by teachers, students, school administrators and so many other people, our mother was so proud and happy to be able to provide this type of educational opportunity for her grandchildren.

There were two grandchildren from my older brother Chris and two from me, all fairly close in age. Our younger brother Mark had one child, Trey, who is fully our father Michael's blood grandchild. Supposedly we were all his children and grandchildren, but after my mom died, that all changed.

While under our mother's savvy, frugal financial management and investment decisions, our parents had acquired more than ten million in assets by that point. Yet my mother rarely ever spent money on herself. She was content with little pleasures in life - time with her children or grandchildren, a cup of good coffee, going for walks, or needlepointing in her favorite chair.

We had never guessed "Aunt Lauren" would turn against her own niece and nephews. Yet just as my daughter was turning college aged, all this craziness had been on around money and my father Michael pushing all of our mom's money to my younger half siblings. happened righta as my daughter graduated high school. She had started taking college classes early, her Junior year, during COVID.

Lauren and my adoptive father Michael clearly had a scheme cooked up to target my daughter Radhika before we came to visit for that Christmas. In the one trip, my dad told Radhika he might not give her the money and my sister Lauren told her she couldn't end up a "nothing" like me. It was the type of planned, coordinated attack I had seen them do before.

After my children and I were suddenly disowned from the family without  a single conversation or explanation, a family friend asked my father Michael about my children's 529 college funds. Michael said, "They don't do anything for me." He angrily made it clear they'd never get their education money our mom had set aside. It seems particularly narcissistic and cruel to claim that the grandchildren he had blackballed from the family "did nothing for him."

Prior to that, everyone praised my children for their caring, responsible behavior and there hadn't been a single complaint. They got good grades, were gifted athletes, were respectful and always helped out. They genuinely loved their Pop-Pop; while my mom was alive, he had kept up the pretenses of loving all of us equally, adopted and biological children and grandchildren alike.

We really had no idea he harbored this secret contempt for us and planned to cut out all the adopted children and grandchildren after my mom did. It didn't become clear all at once - it was gradual. Yet he started changing their joint will just weeks after my mom died and, around the same time, tried to bring around his sugar baby, Kelly. He pretended to us like he'd just met her. 

My mother was just kept completely in the dark as to his intentions, just like he had managed to keep his countless infidelities secret from her. The truth quickly unraveled my mom's death. Michael and my two half siblings apparently cared only for gaining full control of the millions in property and investments my mother left behind. That meant completely blackballing me, my older brother Chris and our four children - without explanation or even a single conversation. 

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