{"id":530,"date":"2017-03-28T11:22:26","date_gmt":"2017-03-28T15:22:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.silvercentury.org\/?p=530"},"modified":"2018-07-10T15:03:37","modified_gmt":"2018-07-10T19:03:37","slug":"safeguarding-older-adults-from-financial-abuse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/78.142.243.82\/~silvercentury\/2017\/03\/safeguarding-older-adults-from-financial-abuse\/","title":{"rendered":"Their Lifelong Savings Could Be at Risk"},"content":{"rendered":"

Journalist Pamela Yip explores an all-too-common problem: the financial abuse of older people. She wrote this article while supported by a Journalists in Aging Fellowship sponsored by the Silver Century Foundation, as part of a fellowship program created by New America Media and the Gerontological Society of America.<\/em> The <\/em>article first appeared in the<\/em> Dallas Morning News (TX) on June 18, 2015, and is also posted at the <\/em>New American Media website.<\/em> It\u2019s reprinted here with permission.<\/em><\/p>\n

Barbara Macari\u2019s husband, Frank, always handled the investments in the family. Then one day, Frank, a real estate broker, gave his wife the shock of her life.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was coming down the stairs, and he came to me and said, \u2018I don\u2019t understand money anymore,\u2019\u201d Barbara said. \u201cI was just shocked because this was something that he had always handled, and handled it beautifully. He made a lot of money on investments. He was smart, he was astute, he was careful, and all of a sudden, he didn\u2019t understand anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

A couple of months later, Frank, 74, was diagnosed with Alzheimer\u2019s disease.<\/p>\n

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How to Protect Someone against Financial Abuse<\/strong><\/p>\n

So how can you protect your elderly loved ones from financial abuse?<\/p>\n

For starters, be active in their lives and aware of who\u2019s in their circle. Be especially vigilant of sudden \u201cfriends.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRun background checks on caregivers or financial advisers,\u201d said Julie M. Krawczyk, director of the Elder Financial Safety Center at the Senior Source in Dallas, TX. \u201cAccompany an older adult to important appointments, including a financial adviser, bank or lawyer.\u201d<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s not just outsiders you need to be wary of.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost exploitation of a senior is done by a family member,\u201d said Lynne Egan, chairwoman of the Committee on Senior Issues & Diminished Capacity at the North American Securities Administrators Association.<\/p>\n

You should also watch for warning signs of cognitive decline that could affect your loved one\u2019s ability to handle money.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cHe can no longer write checks,\u201d said Barbara, 72. \u201cHe doesn\u2019t even carry money with him because he doesn\u2019t understand it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Macaris, who live in Dallas, TX, are far from alone.<\/p>\n

An estimated 5.1 million people age 65 and older have Alzheimer\u2019s disease or other dementias that eat away their ability to manage their financial affairs. With 10,000 people turning 65 every day for the next decade and a half, the number of seniors dealing with cognitive decline is expected to keep rising.<\/p>\n

That means that seniors, with a median household net worth of $170,500, will be more vulnerable to financial exploitation, whether it\u2019s a scam by crooks who prey on the elderly or theft by someone they trust.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a huge problem,\u201d said Daniel Marson, professor of neurology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. \u201cIt\u2019s like a 2,000-pound elephant. Where do you start? Poor financial decision making and financial exploitation, financial elder abuse are rampant.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to see why today\u2019s seniors are an easy mark for crooks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe seniors hold the majority of the wealth in this country,\u201d said Lynne Egan, chairwoman of the Committee on Senior Issues & Diminished Capacity at the North American Securities Administrators Association. \u201cThey\u2019ve saved up for retirement, they\u2019ve got the 401(k) that they\u2019ve rolled over into the qualified plan, they\u2019ve sold a home to downsize, they\u2019ve sold a business, they\u2019ve inherited and they\u2019re ripe for the plucking by the con artists.\u201d<\/p>\n

As we grow older, it\u2019s normal to experience some degree of cognitive impairment, Marson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll older adults experience normal cognitive aging as they grow older,\u201d he said. \u201cWhether this normal cognitive decline causes actual problems in their everyday life and functioning will vary across individuals and their living situations.\u201d<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s no doubt that many older adults will experience severe cognitive problems.<\/p>\n

America\u2019s elders lose more than $36 billion a year to financial abuse, and that\u2019s probably a low estimate.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cThirty-five percent of everybody over the age of 71 will have some form of dementia,\u201d said gerontologist Robert Rousch, director of the Texas Consortium Geriatric Education Center at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.<\/p>\n

In the financial realm, cognitive decline means a loss of \u201chigher-order functional abilities\u201d affecting a broad range of skills from counting coins to managing a checkbook, experts say.<\/p>\n

Loss of those skills can have severe consequences for seniors, who lose $36.48 billion a year to financial abuse, according to a study by True Link Financial. Even that may be conservative.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince so much abuse is never uncovered, this is undoubtedly still a low estimate of the true cost,\u201d said Kathleen Quinn, executive director of the National Adult Protective Services Association.<\/p>\n

True Link, which provides financial tools to help protect older adults from being victimized, said seniors annually lose:<\/p>\n