State regulators offer training to help spot senior financial abuse

State securities regulators will soon offer training for investment advisers and brokers to help them detect and report financial exploitation of elderly clients. Next month, the North American Securities Administrators Association will make available to its members a training program called Senior$afe, developed in Maine for bank and credit union employees. The initiative will be modified to apply to other financial services professionals. The program, created by the Maine Council for Elder Abuse Prevention, includes a presentation highlighting behavioral and account-management changes that may indicate a senior client's cognitive decline and financial abuse. The other part of the training focuses on reporting incidences within a firm and to outside authorities. “Identifying [exploitation] is only half the battle,” said Judith Shaw, Maine Securities Administrator and NASAA president. “Reporting it to government agencies, like a state securities regulator or Adult Protective Services or even law enforcement, can bring in another set of resources to protect their clients' assets and maybe even their health.” About 300 bank and credit union staff in Maine have completed the Senior$afe training. Ms. Shaw said her office has received about 50 referrals of potential abuse from financial staff who have gone through the program. A pilot version for financial advisers was conducted last year for LPL Financial advisers in Maine. “It was very well received,” Ms. Shaw said. Officials from other agencies, such as Adult Protective Services, participate in the training session to talk to advisers about referring suspected abuse cases. “There's this misconception that APS is overworked and doesn't want false reports,” Ms. Shaw said. “They would rather receive false reports than no report at all.” The NASAA training program is the latest example of the organization's making senior financial abuse a policy priority. The initiative is being rolled out as NASAA's model rule on elder financial exploitation is being taken up by individual states. Indiana has approved a version of the rule and the Alabama legislature is debating one, Ms. Shaw said. Independent broker-dealers and financial advisers raised some concerns about the NASAA rule at a Financial Services Institute conference in January. There was more support there for a similar measure proposed by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. that doesn't require reporting of abuse to government agencies.