A new article talks about the efforts of a special assistant with the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office to raise awareness of and cut down on instances of financial abuse of the elderly. She became so concerned about the issue that she ditched her previous position as a beauty salon supervisor in order to pursue a law degree and a means to help seniors.
She was one of the proponents of a law now in place in California which requires banks to alert officials when they believe that an elderly account holder may be falling prey to a financial scam. This led her to train financial institutions to spot some of the typical signs of danger.
One big thing she worries about is insurance annuity scams. An insurance salesmen might attempt to promote the benefits of such an annuity to an elderly person, but neglect to tell them that they will not be able to remove the money from the account for two decades. When a person is already in their 70s or 80s, this wouldn’t make financial sense.
The Office for the Financial Protection of Older Americans is getting involved with the issue as well. At the moment, they are putting together a guide to allow persons not accustomed to dealing with the problem to better recognize how to protect their elderly loved ones’ finances from tampering.