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Beverley Schottenstein in Bal Harbour, Florida, on Dec. 30. She said she is speaking out about her family’s intergenerational struggle to help warn others of the potential for elder abuse.

Beverley Schottenstein in Bal Harbour, Florida, on Dec. 30. She said she is speaking out about her family’s intergenerational struggle to help warn others of the potential for elder abuse.

Photographer: Scott McIntyre/Bloomberg

Wealth

At 93, She Waged War on JPMorgan—and Her Own Grandsons

Beverley Schottenstein said two grandsons who managed her money at JPMorgan forged documents, ran up commissions with inappropriate trading and made her miss tens of millions of dollars in gains. So she decided to teach them all a lesson.

Beverley Schottenstein was 93 years old when she decided to go to war with the biggest bank in the U.S.

It was a June day, and the Atlantic shimmered beyond the balcony of her Florida condominium. Beverley studied an independent review of her accounts as family and lawyers gathered around a table and listened in by phone. The document confirmed her worst fears: Her two financial advisers at JPMorgan Chase & Co., who oversaw more than $80 million for her, had run up big commissions putting her money in risky investments they weren’t telling her about. It was the latest red flag about the bankers. There had been missing account statements. Document shredding. Unexplained credit-card charges.