Dear GAA Friend, Today we are posting Eileen Beal's revealing New American Media News feature published on Mar 10, 2013. The writer makes clear that older persons between 70 and 90 years of age are "prime targets for financial exploitation and abuse." Read this important article printed below.
CLEVELAND, Ohio--Despite the hit their
savings and investments took during the Great Recession, Americans between 70
and 90 are still the wealthiest age group in the United States. Not
surprisingly, they are also prime targets for financial exploitation and abuse.
“It’s all their assets – a mortgage-free home, steady income from Social
Security or a pension, investments – that make them a target,” said attorney
Page Ulrey, a senior deputy prosecuting attorney for the King County
Prosecutor’s Office in Washington.
Prime TargetsAccording
to
experts, prime targets are:
•
Women, most often between ages 80 and 89;
• Men who have
recently lost a spouse or partner;
• Living alone and may require some help
with either health care or home maintenance;
• Lonely and vulnerable;
•
Especially at risk during the holidays. In addition, financial
exploiters target those with diminished mental capacity and decision-making
ability, stressed
Lori Stevic-Rust, director
of Senior Services at Lake Health System, in northeast Ohio.
Stevic-Rust, author of four books and a nationally recognized
psychologist, is often called in to evaluate the mental capacity and competency
of at-risk seniors.
“They target them,” Stevic-Rust added, “because their
ability to pay attention, process information, analyze situations or figure out
what the long-term consequences will be for a given action is significantly
impaired.”
She went on, “Even when they know the day and year and can
perform simple activities in the home – prepare a meal for instance – they
aren’t able to make important decisions or judgments or carry out complicated
activities that involve many steps.”
Spotting the
SignsThe majority of exploiters and abusers are strangers:
telemarketing scammers going after credit card or Social Security numbers, paid
caregivers or “sweethearts” -- con artists, who prey on lonely elders.
Signs of Financial AbuseAccording to a recent report from the
MetLife Mature Market Institute,
The
Essentials: Preventing Elder Abuse, the following are flags that mean it
could occur, or is occurring:
• Lack of care when the person has
sufficient funds available
• Changes in banking or spending habits
•
Excessive use of the ATM or credit cards, especially for non-care-related items
• Abrupt changes in a will, power of attorney, or financial documents
•
Unpaid bills and utilities
• Lack of knowledge of financial status
• New
“best friends”
• Unexplained disappearance of valuables or money – or
both
• Unexplained transfer of money or assets to a family member or someone
outside of the family – such as a new “best friend”
• Discovery of the
person’s signature forged on checks, financial transaction documents, or
documents or titles related to his or her possessions
• Unusual degree of
fear of or submissiveness to a caregiver
• Bruises, trips to the ER, broken
bones – where there is financial abuse there is often physical abuse
•
Isolation – by aide or new “best friends” – from family, friends, community, or
other stable relationships
• Signs of intimidation and/or anxiety when
questioned about new “best friend”
• Missed appointments or uncharacteristic
nonpayment of bills
• Anxiety about personal financesAmong other
blazing red flags are: changes in long-standing living arrangements (especially
those involving the new “friend”); changes in long-standing inheritance plans;
and creation of a durable power of attorney – a powerful legal document giving a
suspected abuser the means to control both the elder’s person and
assets.
--Eileen Beal
After that, it’s friends,
neighbors or family members – most often a son or son-in-law. Then it’s
unscrupulous professionals – accountants, financial planners, bankers, lawyers,
physicians, contractors, etc. Many have histories of drug or alcohol abuse
and/or have gambling or other financial problems. Studies have also shown
that ethnic elders are especially
vulnerable to
financial abuse.
Those
fighting financial exploitation and abuse say it’s all about
MOM:
Motive (money, jewelry, property--sometimes even sibling rivalry);
Opportunity (unrestricted – and unobserved – access to a victim); and
Means (the ability to use their trusting or family relationship to charm,
cajole, coerce or outright steal from their victim).
Financial abuse of
older adults has become so rampant that when the U.S. government created the
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), it designated a special
Office of Older Americans
to deal with the issue.
The CFPB office’s goals: Track down and
expose scams; ensure laws currently on the books are enforced; and educate
seniors, and those who care about them, to identify, avoid and report financial
scams. (See the sidebar to this article, “Spotting the Signs of Financial
Abuse.”)
Prevention: Always the Best RemedyFinancial abuse
is a crime, so it’s surprising that while more cases are being reported few
abusers stand trial and go to jail.
According to Page Ulrey, of
Seattle’s King County Prosecutor’s Office, “Those who are being abused are often
dependent on their abuser for their care and don’t want to [take them to court]
because of the repercussions it would cause. Or they fear they will be sent to a
nursing home. Or they fear – or love – the offender.”
Frequently, too,
she said, “Or they are ashamed to admit that they have been taken advantage
of.”
Ulrey stressed that it is often difficult to prosecute exploiters.
That’s not only because of the reasons mentioned above, but also because the
victim has died or is so cognitively impaired he or she cannot testify. To keep
a vulnerable relative or loved one out of harms way concerned friends or family
members must be proactive. The earlier deterrents and roadblocks are set in
place, the better, she said.
One time-tested strategy for keeping
financial abusers at bay, Ulrey said, is for an elder’s friends and family
members to stay connected. “Financial abuse and exploitation occurs in the
shadows, where people are isolated from those who could spot the signs that
something isn’t right,” she said.
Psychologist Lori Stevic-Rust
emphasized that it’s important to become hyper-vigilant in observing a
vulnerable senior’s physical health and cognitive state. “Declines in both can
make them vulnerable to manipulation and exploitation,” she
explained.
Those assisting the at-risk person should help him or her get
information about exploitative situations,
schemes
or scams they may encounter and to become better educated about their
finances.
It would also be valuable to help the senior consult with
legal or financial professionals who can draw up such documents as trusts,
limited powers of attorney, or conservatorships. “These can – and for the most
part do, deter financial exploiters,” Ulrey said.
If you suspect someone
is being financially abused, it is important to report your concerns to local
authorities. The National Adult Protective Services Association’s website
(www.napsa-now.org) lists adult protective services departments in every state.
“This site doesn’t just have the telephone numbers for reporting financial
abuse, they take anonymous tips too,” said the Association’s executive director,
Kathleen Quinn.
If all else fails, you may be able to file for a
protection order. “This will limit the contact the abuser has with their
victim--and perhaps protect assets, too,” Ulrey said.
Sources and
ResourcesConsumer Financial
Protection BureauElder Financial
Protection Network (Note: While this is a California-based site, the
information applies to everyone.)
Family
Caregiver AllianceNational Adult
Protective Services AssociationNational
Committee for the Prevention of Elder Abuse“Preventing
Elder Financial Abuse for Older Adults”“The
Essentials: Preventing Elder Abuse”E
ileen Beal, a Cleveland-based
writer on issues in aging, wrote this article for Today’s Caregiver Magazine
with the support of a MetLife Foundation Journalists in Aging Fellows
program, a program of New America Media
and the Gerontological Society of
America.
Please send your comments, Did you learn helpful information to protect yourself or loved ones in this article? Global Action on Aging welcomes your comments.
Thanks, Susanne Paul for Global Action on Aging
