9 Ways to Protect Yourself From Elder Financial Abuse

Identity theft. Financial fraud. Catchphrases that evoke fear of economic ruin at the hands of scheming pitchmen, cunning hackers, organized crime, grandchildren …

Say what?

The financial exploitation of seniors by those closest to them is on the rise. According to the National Center on Elder Abuse, 90% of the perpetrators are family members or those who are well-known to the victims (e.g., neighbors, friends and caregivers).

Malefactions include unauthorized access to checking, savings and credit card accounts, impersonations for the purpose of establishing new credit lines, and other schemes that are intended to defraud this particularly fragile segment of the U.S. population.

Unsurprisingly, only one in 44 financial elder abuse cases are ever reported, according to the National Adult Protective Services Association, perhaps because so many of these involve family members, and one in 10 of the victims end up impoverished to the point of becoming Medicaid recipients.

I had an opportunity to hear some of these stories firsthand over the past year and a half when I participated in a grant-funded family financial literacy program that was sponsored by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and run by the Hartford Public Library in Connecticut.

I worked with scores of small groups of inner-city residents who gathered in library branches, public housing lunchrooms, high school auditoriums and senior citizen centers to listen to my informal talks on such topics as budgeting, banking and safeguarding credit. But it was the seniors who were far and away the most animated of them all.

Some talked about the often ingenious systems they devised to manage their fixed-income benefits (from Social Security, pension, 401(k) and other savings); many more felt compelled to share stories of the financial frauds that left them feeling angry and ashamed.

They talked about the cash and jewelry they lost to the drug-addicted children and grandchildren who saw them as easy marks (a problem that isn’t limited to inner-city residents), spouses who forged their names on credit card and mortgage applications to pay off undisclosed gambling debts, and siblings and best friends who seemed to always be in a bind.

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Mitchell D. Weiss

Mitchell D. Weiss is a financial services industry executive and entrepreneur. He is also an Executive-in-Residence at the University of Hartford, co-founder of the university’s Center for Personal Financial Responsibility and adjunct faculty at Rutgers University. His most recent text, Practical Finance - A Straightforward Guide to Personal and Entrepreneurial Finance, is the basis for the course he teaches at both institutions.

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