Senior citizens are increasingly falling prey to financial scams and other abuses, according to a poll released Wednesday.
Nearly 60% of the respondents — all professionals who work with the elderly — to an online survey conducted by
Investor Protection Trust said that they deal with elderly victims of investment fraud “quite often” or “somewhat often.” Nearly every one of the 763 participants in the survey said that the problem of financial exploitation of the elderly is “very serious” or “somewhat serious” and 84% said it was getting “much worse” or “somewhat worse.”
The survey by the nonprofit included 76 state securities regulators and 77 financial planners, in addition to medical professionals, social workers, caregivers, law enforcement officials and legal experts, among others.
“Swindles targeting older Americans are a bigger problem today than ever before,” Don Blandin, president and chief executive of Investor Protection Trust, said during a conference call with reporters.
The organization has held 43 educational events across the country to train nearly 3,000 doctors and other medical professionals to detect when seniors are experiencing declining mental health that impairs their financial judgment.
“We want to head off financial swindles before the damage is done,” Mr. Blandin said.
The poll came out in advance of a White House meeting on elder abuse on Thursday.
Investment advisers and brokers are in a good position to tell whether an older client is declining mentally, according to experts on the conference call. Among the warning signs are strange behavior, neglect of personal appearance and hygiene, failure to pay bills, unusual risk taking and abruptly ceding control of their finances.
Advisers have an obligation to protect senior clients from financial exploitation, according to Robert Lam, chairman of the Investor Protection Institute and chairman of the Pennsylvania Securities Commission.
“They have a duty and responsibility to report [abuse] to the authorities, and they have some personal liability if they don't,” Mr. Lam said.
In Pennsylvania, he sees examples of elder abuse every week.
“The results are often devastating, depriving older Americans of the opportunity to enjoy their golden years,” Mr. Lam said.
About $2.9 billion is lost annually due to elder financial abuse, according to a
June 2011 study by MetLife Inc.
People over 65 are targeted by fraudsters because they've built a retirement nest egg.
“They have a lot more money, relatively speaking,” said Kathleen Quinn, executive director of the National Adult Protective Services Association. “Older people have done better financially than younger people, and that's a big temptation.”
Awareness of elder financial abuse has increased because scientists and other experts better understand the effect of declining mental acuity as people age, according to Robert Roush, director of the Texas Consortium Geriatric Education Center and Huffington Center on Aging. He likened the trend to the increase in attention to cancer and heart disease in the 1970s.
A key difference with aging is that its challenges eventually will affect everyone.
“Everyone realizes we're all in this together,” Mr. Roush said.
