Elder Financial Abuse: Signs, Symptoms and Preventive Measures
It’s a form of abuse that often unfolds in silence. Its victims are often reluctant to report it. And it is likely to become even more commonplace as our society ages.
What is financial elder abuse?
Financial exploitation of elders occurs whenever someone dishonestly hijacks the resources of an older adult for personal gain, such as:
- Belongings
- Assets
- Benefits
- Other resources
Exploiters target seniors because the elderly are more likely to have a lot of money. (In fact, more than 70 percent of the nation’s wealth is in the hands of people 50 and older, according to the American Banking Association.)
Abusers prey on seniors for many reasons, according to Naomi Karp, senior policy analyst with the federal government’s Office for Older Americans, a division of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
“Older adults may be lonely and socially isolated,” she says. She adds that seniors may become vulnerable due to loss of a spouse, family member or loved one, especially during the first year after the loss.
How big is the problem of senior financial exploitation?
Unfortunately, nobody really knows how often elder financial abuse occurs, and estimates vary widely about how many people are affected. The CFPB says 17 percent of people ages 65 and older have reported being the victims of financial exploitation, with total losses soaring into the billions of dollars.
A 2010 Investor Protection Trust survey found that 20 percent of people ages 65 and older have “been taken advantage of financially.” Other sources disagree about whether the overall number is higher or lower because it so often goes unreported. (The CFPB indicates that just one in 44 cases of elder financial exploitation is ever reported to protective services.)
Sometimes, seniors stay silent about the abuse because they want to protect the perpetrator. For example, Karp says seniors often are reluctant to report exploitation by a family member, caregiver or someone on whom they depend. In other cases, seniors may not report the abuse because they are embarrassed or fear retaliation.
Another factor is that many seniors also have cognitive impairments associated with diseases such as dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. Thus, they may not be fully aware that abuse is taking place.
Whatever the actual numbers, authorities and experts are concerned — so worried that last year’s White House Conference on Aging highlighted the danger of financial exploitation of elders. As part of this effort, the CFPB is offering advice to help financial institutions “prevent, recognize and report elder financial exploitation.”
The U.S. Department of Justice has also pledged to enroll and train prosecutors from all 50 states to prosecute elder abuse and financial exploitation.
How financial elder abuse starts
In some cases, it’s a stranger that exploits a senior. One example is an unknown caller that asks a senior to send money or provide personal information. Another example is a dishonest salesperson offering a too-good-to-be-true deal and pressuring a senior to act fast.
“Consumer scams happen on the phone, through the mail, or over the internet,” Karp says. “They can occur in person, at home, or at a business.”
However, it is much more common for the elderly to suffer financial abuse at the hands of someone they know and trust, such as a caregiver, a fiduciary, or even a family member. A Consumer Reports examination of the problem found that 90 percent of people who financially exploit seniors are family members or other trusted people.
Typically, abusers try to gain a senior’s trust before the exploitation begins. For example, the abuser may suddenly become especially friendly with a senior and start accompanying him or her to the bank. Over time, the abuser may begin conducting all financial transactions on behalf of the senior. Doing so opens the door for the abuser to steal money or other resources.
How to identify financial exploitation of elders
A senior’s friends and loved ones are the people best able to spot the abuse — and to help stop it. A sudden change in an elderly person’s established financial patterns is the No. 1 indicator that the senior might be a victim of financial exploitation, according to the American Bankers Association. Other red flags that a senior may be the victim of financial exploitation include:
- Large, frequent, or unexplained withdrawals from a bank account
- ATM withdrawals among seniors who never previously used an ATM machine
- Sudden unpaid bills or nonsufficient fund activity
- Uncharacteristic wiring of large sums of cash
- Suspicious check signatures
- Bank statements that no longer go to the senior’s home
- Altered wills and trusts
Be aware if a senior begins associating with new friends or strangers, or if a previously uninvolved relative, caregiver or friend takes control of a senior’s financial transactions.
Reporting elder financial abuse
If you believe a loved one is being financially exploited, talk to the senior and try to identify what is happening. In addition, the American Banking Association recommends reporting any suspected abuse to the senior’s bank, and working with the financial institution to try to stop the activity.
Karp suggests contacting the adult protective services division in your town, county, or state to ask for help, and reporting any suspected fraud or other criminal activity to the police. Depending on the nature of the abuse, you may also need to contact federal authorities, state authorities or both.
Federal sources of help are most often necessary in crimes and abuse that involve other states or countries. Federal agencies that address such issues include the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the FBI, the Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
“Each of these agencies and professionals has a different role so you may need to call more than one,” Karp says. “Sources of state help may include the office of the attorney general or another agency that deals with consumer protection,” she says. “You may also need to talk to a lawyer who may be able to help get back money or property and may be able to protect you from future exploitation,” Karp adds.
Where to go for help
Worried that you or a loved one might become a victim of elder financial abuse? Make sure to seek help from one of the organizations that fight to protect seniors. These groups offer advice for preventing abuse, and can help if you are already a victim. They include:
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. This federal agency includes Office of Financial Protection for Older Americans, which has a webpage devoted to the helping older Americans and their caregivers avoid financial exploitation. Here, you can download the curriculum “Money Smart for Older Adults — Prevent Financial Exploitation.” Caregivers also can download the guide “Managing Someone Else’s Money.”National Center on Elder Abuse. A branch of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the NCEA website offers links to help lines and elder-abuse prevention groups in the 50 states and the District of Columbia.
Eldercare Locator. This service of the U.S. Administration on Aging allows you to find local services for older adults and their families. The search tool includes many options to find various types of services, including financial assistance, elder abuse prevention and legal assistance.
American Association of Daily Money Managers. A national membership organization of individuals and businesses that provide money management help to people, including seniors. Use the organization’s search tool to find a money manager in your area.
Preventing elder financial abuse
Banks and other financial institutions are taking various steps to help keep seniors and their caretakers from falling victim to elder financial exploitation. Karp says these financial institutions:
- Train staff to recognize warning signs
- Have procedures in place for reporting to adult protective services and law enforcement
- Provide educational materials and do educational programs in their communities
Still, Karp adds, “The CFPB believes that banks and credit unions can do more.” In March, the CFPB issued an advisory and a set of detailed recommendations about how financial institutions can better “prevent, recognize, report, and respond to financial exploitation of older Americans.” Suggestions include making better use of fraud-detection technology and offering more age-friendly services.
Seniors, their loved ones, and their caretakers can also take some commonsense measures to lower the risk of this abuse. The key for seniors is to find someone they truly can trust to become a partner in managing the senior’s finances, according to the CFPB. After finding this trusted person, the senior should allow him or her to:
- Monitor account transactions and look for signs that suspicious activity is occurring
- Write checks and pay bills from a convenience or agency account set up for this purpose
- Make financial decisions on behalf of the senior if he or she cannot. To do this, a power of attorney or other advance plan needs to be created. The senior’s bank or credit union should have a record of who is allowed to make these decisions on the senior’s behalf.
If you are thinking of helping a senior manage his or her finances, be sure to check out the CFPB’s “Managing Someone Else’s Money” guides.
Have you been able to protect your loved ones from elder financial abuse? Please share your tips in the comments below!
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There are 12 comments to "Elder Financial Abuse: Signs, Symptoms and Preventive Measures".
Hi Chris, this is a big help for elders. Especially for those people who are in near in retirement years.
The most useful agency is the consumer finance.
I’m glad you publish this post. Great job.
Glad you enjoyed the story, Grace. As our society ages, this will become a more important issue than ever before. The CPFB offers some great resources for seniors and their loved ones. You’ll find the link to those materials above, in the section “Where to go for help.”
A very new financial subject but a good one. I think the problem mostly occurs when grown kids think their parents money is eventually going to come to them and start taking it over before the parents die. Elderly parents want and need that feeling of security from money in the bank too!
I noticed an elderly aunt of mine was getting lots of books in the mail from a well known company. She said she did not order them but now that they had arrived in the mail she felt like she had to pay for them. I told her to just write “return to sender” on them and refuse to pay….they will get the message. Somehow she must have got hooked up with them without understanding.
I never really thought about this, but I’m glad it’s being brought to my attention. My mother in law is retired and these tips will be helpful as she ages.
Excellent post.
I’ve seen many elderly people lose a lot of money because they simply don’t know where to turn to. I hope more finance blogs raise awareness on this. The last thing I want is for some fraudster to take all my money when I get a few grey hairs.
My mum is approaching retirement this year. I’ll be sure to pass on these tips!
Abuse can take many forms. A good friend knew his mother was having trouble remembering things, but didn’t know how bad it was until he was visiting and noticed a letter about an overdraft from the bank. He checked her account and she’d been giving money to her normal charities (about a dozen), something she did periodically, but they were now calling her weekly and she was forgetting she’d already given money to them, plus there were new ones calling that she was sending money to as well. This had been going on for months and they never tell you that you just donated last week when they call again, they just keep coming back to the trough for more like they’ve got a sucker on the hook. This isn’t illegal, but it is manipulative and it is immoral IMHO. So if possible keep an eye out for something like that even if they reduce the list of charities they give to, seems the more you give the more they call.
Similarly my own mother fell prey to one of those “you won several million in this lottery in this other country and you just need to send us a small “fee” to cover the costs” scams. She sent the first check (despite my telling her it was a scam), then the abuse began. They started with the “oh we need just a bit more” polite calls (which based on our discussion she at least didn’t do that), then they began calling at all hours demanding the money, then they threatened to sue her, then threatened to come to the house to hurt her, threatened to hurt her kids and grandkids, etc. they don’t care what they say, they’re often from another country. My mother refused to change her phone number and working with the police and elder abuse folks in the county and putting in some measures (technical and practical) the calls finally ceased. However I can see how intimidating it could be for someone to fear for both themselves and their family from these scum and how confusing it could be getting a call at 3 am when you are on various medications and could be conned into a making a mistake.
Finally, a word of caution about sibling/family abuse. When we were first dating my wife lived with her same age first cousin and grandmother, and the grandmother had cancer and needed some help in the home. The cousin seemed to be the sweetest girl, always fawning over the grandmother when I and others were around. Without going into all the details one day I overheard the cousin not knowing someone else was around say things to the grandmother that had me moving towards them and ready to put her through a wall. But when confronted, the grandmother played it down, refused my offers to call her son or daughter or get her help in any way and the cousin pretended she hadn’t said anything. In speaking with my wife she stated the cousin had all the relatives, all the great aunts, all the aunts and uncles not only fooled, but convinced that my wife was the “hot” headed one who didn’t help out around the home and was causing the grandmother grief. The grandmother, for reasons only she knows, never supported my wife and left her hanging in the wind a few times when she tried to bring the abuse to others attention, such that no one believed my wife (it’s caused a schism in the family to this day). She only stayed with her grandmother because she was worried that the abuse would be even worse if she wasn’t there to help defend her. Point is if you can’t get the abused, especially if it’s mental or financial abuse with no obvious signs or proof of abuse, to agree there is abuse going on, you are in for a rough ride.
When my mother finally got control of my grandmother’s checkbook we discovered that my grandmother had donated $2000 to John Kerry’s presidential campaign. It was exactly what happened with your friend’s mother – they kept sending her requests for donations and she kept donating, forgetting that she’d already done so. And my grandmother was very strong-willed so it was difficult for us to hire someone we trusted to look after her. Instead she had all sorts of people in and out of her house to help her, and these were people we didn’t know. Someone stole her engagement ring and wedding ring 🙁 To cover that Mom bought new rings to replace them so my grandmother wouldn’t go into a major tizzy.
Ironically, one of the reasons my grandmother was difficult to deal with was that she always thought Mom would steal money from her. *sigh*
That’s horrible about your wife’s grandmother. I hate two-faced people like your wife’s cousin. It’s sickening. I think now that we’ve got smartphones it might be easier to catch someone in the act by taking a video, but it is still a tricky situation.
This is a really good topic to get out in the open. Unfortunately, I think it’s easier to identify and stop elder abuse that comes from scammers rather than people who are friends, family and caregivers.
One tip this article doesn’t include but worked well for my family is to have a good lawyer! There was a case of financial abuse in my step family, but a someone found the couple a good lawyer who put an end to it. I don’t know if the police were involved, but things certainly changed after that. A solid will, power of attorney and someone willing to go to bat for you, even against your own family, can make a difference.
Watching all of that, my family learned how to be open and transparent about handling money for my grandparents. Everything was documented, initialled by multiple people and receipts were carefully filed and annotated. There was good communication and even better documentation.
This is a reminder for us to get our ducks in a row before we go funny in the head too! Us boomers are of course in denial about this but we will be doing the same crazy things too when our brains are not working so clear.
good points to be known to everyone who is approaching retirement
My father, who had dementia, saved every piece of junk mail he had for years. Psychics, extreme right wing organizations, and more sent him massive amounts of mail because he gave to them.
He firmly believed these people were doing good things for him. When we moved him out of his room in the assisted living facility to a dementia unit, we literally hauled away big black trash bags full of mail.
We joke about it now but it affected us all very deeply.