Dorothy Luck was enjoying her golden years until an unexpected legal dispute threatened her $1 million investment portfolio.

A distant relative brought guardianship proceedings against the 87-year-old widow and control of her money was eventually wrested. Luck started investing in the 1980s with $10,000, but now receives monthly disbursements from the bank that took control of her portfolio with a court order.

“I had a million dollars cash invested with Edward Jones that vanished after a vice president of trust from Frost Bank was appointed ad litem by a county judge,” Luck said in an interview. "It boils down to greed, selfishness and envy."

Luck is among the 21 percent of older adults who are concerned about protecting themselves from financial scams and the 43 percent of professionals who share this concern, according to the 2015 United States of Aging Survey conducted by the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging (n4a), National Council on Aging (NCOA) and United Healthcare.

“Professionals in the field who see seniors struggling the most are reporting that the golden years are not so golden for far too many individuals,” said Ramsey Alwin, vice president of economic security with the NCOA, based in Washington, D.C. “It’s an economic justice and human rights issue.”

Part of the problem is the denial that exists around what getting older means.

“People want to age on their own terms, but it’s inevitable that they will become more vulnerable,” Alwin told Financial Advisor magazine. “There can be long good-byes that are painful due to chronic conditions rather than terminal issues.”

Nationwide, financial advisors are doing their best to assist clients who may be unaware what awaits them as they retire.

When Larry Rosenthal comes across an aging client who may be deteriorating mentally or physically but is resistant to advanced planning, he tries to enlist the help of their adult children, but not without contacting compliance and requesting the client’s permission.

“It has to do with the client’s situation and not so much with age,” Rosenthal said. “Some clients don’t want their kids to know about their money until after death. In that case, I make sure everything is as tax efficient as possible and that beneficiary documents are lined up in the way they want.”

Once adult children are on board, Rosenthal often recommends linking together the aging client’s bank account through e-money advisor.

“This way both the client’s adult children and I can review the spending of the aging client who may be vulnerable because their physical or mental health is in decline,” said Rosenthal, whose financial advisory practice is in Virginia.

With some 5.3 million people having Alzheimer’s illness in the U.S., according to the Alzheimer’s Association, it’s no wonder that among credit union managers, primary care physicians, aging professionals and pharmacists surveyed, only 10 percent feel older Americans are very prepared to age compared with 42 percent of seniors.

“We have been looking at the retirement crisis and noting that many professionals see first hand that seniors don’t have enough private savings or that their home equity took a hit during the recession and it hasn’t rebounded,” Alwin said.

But finding a job isn’t as simple as it sounds for aging Americans who want to bridge the gap of insufficient income.

 “The reality is that it may take months to find a job, and when and if seniors are rehired, they are employed at half of their previous earnings so they end up exhausting savings anyway,” said Alwin.

About 28 percent of older Americans cited increased cost of living as their top financial concern followed by 24 percent who chose unexpected medical expenses

“No matter what the market does, my clients who are in denial about the onset of dementia will have a steady stream of income of at least 4 percent, even if market forces cause their portfolios to drop to zero,” said Kimberly Foss, a financial advisor in Roseville, California.

To guard against large market losses that can eat into retirement income, Foss employs a product called RetireOne from Aria Retirement Solutions, which ensures a client’s investment portfolio the way that health insurance covers a major illness.

Foss also assists her aging clients with planning for health-care expenses by helping them understand MediGap policies. Some 62 percent of professionals are not confident at all that older adults can afford these costs compared to 43 percent of older Americans who say they are very confident they will be able to afford healthcare costs as they age. In fact, retirees often wait too long to secure or afford long term care insurance.

“I direct these clients to alternate long-term-care protection strategies, such as a long-term-care annuity, which has no medical underwriting,” said Michael Tove, financial advisor, president and founder with AIN Services in Cary, N.C.