Elder Financial Exploitation – How It Can Be Prevented

elder financial exploitation

Elder financial exploitation is defined as the mishandling or illegal use of a senior’s funds and/or resources by another person or group of persons.elder financial exploitation abuse

Though not recorded often, financial exploitation in seniors is becoming a widespread form of abuse in the United States. And the worse part of this is that the ones who are victimized by this are those seniors who are already suffering from dementia, cognitive impairment, Alzheimer’s disease, and other types of diseases affecting a person’s memory and brain function.

Learn more as we are going to talk about financial abuse in seniors and how it can be prevented with proper money management.

How A Senior’s Money Is Exploited?

According to research, 1 out of 9 seniors are experiencing abuse (physical or emotional) or neglect. And the same study indicates that 1 in 20 elders has perceived or is already experiencing financial mistreatment in certain forms. The way the funds are being exploited can be done by:

  1. Scams – Telemarketing scams, fake solicitations, and identity theft.
  2. Abusive friends or members of the family – Sadly most of the financial abusers are family, friends, and even close acquaintances of the elderly. They take advantage of the senior’s cognitive decline and the diminished capacity to function normally.
  3. Predatory products that are marketed towards the helpless elderly – It can also be considered as a scam in some ways since these products or services are sold to the elderly even if they don’t really need it. The people who are selling these things are just looking to make some money without even considering if the products or services they are offering will be practical to the current situation of the elder.

Of course, there are ways to detect if a senior’s funds are already mishandled. But even before you notice these warning signs, the best safeguard against elder financial exploitation is proper money management by professionals.

elder financial exploitation money management help

How Can Money Management Help?

It’s very important that the whole family would have a conversation (or series of conversations) to address the matter and manage the funds correctly. But most of the time, the kids of the elderly don’t want to take the responsibility of handling their parent’s money. So the best and most effective way of preventing financial exploitation is by letting a money management company handle the finances of your senior family member.

Hiring a senior management firm will ensure proper money management since they have the skills and experience to appropriate the elder’s funds accordingly. Likewise, they are capable of detecting fraud even before it happens so that your parent’s money will be used wisely and will not end up in the wrong hands of those people who only want to exploit.

You can check out SilverBills’ senior bills payment service if you need some help handling your elderly family members’ finances.

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