They think they're planning for their family's future. Instead, they pay big fees and commissions and could put their children's inheritance at risk.

Peggy Bain is a spry 94-years-old, and eager to get her financial affairs in order. That's when a man from a company called Family First came calling.

"Well, a super salesman, I would call him," she said.

The salesman sold Peggy an estate planning notebook with lots of forms -- the kind where you fill in the blanks. And she wrote check after check made out to group legal services.

"It was getting to be more and more," she said. "And I really started to wonder what they were doing."

The company claimed it was setting up a trust, selling hundreds of thousands of dollars of Peggy's stocks and investing the money in an insurance annuity. But, it wouldn't pay her a dime until 2018 -- when Peggy would be 109!

"I think they had intent to deceive by not disclosing what was really happening," said attorney Bill Cruzan.

Cuzan fought to get Peggy's money back, including all the fees and commissions she paid.

"In the long run, the company was making quite a bit of money -- thousands of dollars," Cuzan said.

The California-based company that took Peggy Bain's money worked out of an office in Federal Way, but now the company's left the state with three different state agencies investigating complaints about it.

Lawyer Sandra Henshaw asked the state to investigate two cases.

"Two of my clients say they sold more than a million dollars worth of stocks and they had huge capital gains because they had been holding on to them forever," Henshaw said.

Family First and its affiliated company got the commission on the stocks, and an even bigger commission when they put the money in an insurance annuity.

"You could wipe out a person's income for the rest of their life if the deferred pay-out started at too late a point," said attorney Pamela McClaren.

The state insurance commissioner is investigating the agents who sold the annuities. The attorney general is looking at whether non-lawyers gave legal advice, and the State Securities Division wants to know how the investment products were sold.

"The individuals are targeted. The elderly people are targeted by the salesmen," Henshaw said.

That's how it started for Peggy Bain, until friends realized she needed help.

"I was getting so heavily involved financially that I realized I was going broke if I didn't stop," Bain said.

Family First's attorney says it's working with the state to comply with any state regulations, and they say they have paid back customers who have complained.

Lawyers and state officials are warning about trust mills, where salesmen try to scare seniors about estate taxes or probate costs -- things that often don't apply in Washington.