Fight against the financial exploitation of the elderly: independent banker

Financial abuse of the elderly costs them billions of dollars a year. But there are tools to combat it. Photo courtesy of CRA Partners/SHCPF

Billions of dollars are lost each year due to the financial exploitation of seniors. Equip your team with the skills to protect your clients.

Between 2019 and 2020 alone, the amount of money involved in financial elder abuse rose by nearly $1 billion, the biggest year-over-year increase since 2013. But that likely doesn’t account for all the money lost in that time.

“Most of the time, financial elder abuse goes unreported or unreported, either because seniors are overwhelmed or somewhat ashamed,” says David Lenoir, president and CEO of the Crime Prevention Foundation. at CRA Partners Senior Housing (SHCPF), a subsidiary of ICBA. “So while the numbers are staggering, at the same time, we think it’s only a small fragment of what’s really going on in relation to financial elder abuse.”

Community banks can help prevent, identify, and report financial elder abuse.

Several ICBA solutions provide community bankers with the tools they need to help clients who may be experiencing financial exploitation.

ICBA Community Banker University Courses

The Elderly Financial Abuse online training course is available through all Community Banker University training plans, but can also be purchased separately. By the end of the course, participants should have a better understanding of:

• How to Define, Recognize, and Identify Financial Elder Abuse
• Potential perpetrators and causes behind financial elder abuse
• How to Respond to Financial Elder Abuse
• What can be done to prevent it in the future?

ARC Partners

Powered by the Foundation for the Prevention of Senior Housing Crime, CRA Partners’ multifaceted compliance program provides resources for community bankers that benefit them and their communities.

The first strand provides education not only to bankers but also to seniors and their families.

“We have other components around that, just in terms of protecting older people who are living in nursing homes and assisted living facilities,” Lenoir says. “We recently launched a print collateral, we call it Cyber-Savvy Seniors, where a bank can share our literature with their logo, and also a senior facility can share their brand with their logo.”

While some of the advice may seem like common sense to the younger generation, Lenoir says, it’s important to help seniors recognize the need for education on tactics like complex passwords and multi-factor authentication.

To assist in this, some of the resources provided by the program include educational materials for bankers and community members on financial elder abuse; a press kit, bank attendee brochures and training brochures; and an online community seminar.

In addition, community bankers using the program can choose a senior center, such as a nursing home or HUD housing center, to host the online community seminar. By participating in the program, bankers are eligible for CRA credit.

AARP BankSafe Training Platform

This online training platform was created in collaboration with over 2,000 industry professionals in an effort to combat the financial exploitation of seniors. Through videos, learning modules, games, quizzes and more, participants can learn about financial exploitation at their own pace.

The program aims to help bankers improve their knowledge of:

• The impact of financial exploitation on your clients and community bank
• What actions to take to identify and prevent financial exploitation
• State Specific Reporting Requirements

According to the National Association for Adult Protective Services, only one in 44 cases of financial elder abuse is reported, making it all the more important that community bankers learn to recognize the red flags and address them appropriately in benefit of the bank itself and its customers.

—Tiffany Close