Financial Elder Abuse

It’s a sad fact of life that financial elder abuse is a thing. Financial elder abuse is when an elderly person is financially taken advantage of, either by a family member handling their finances, businesses, caregivers, or even strangers.

People committing financial elder abuse find a way to squeeze the money out of the part-deaf, part-blind, poor ol’ Grandpa Earls and Grandma Frannys of the world. While some might sneakily (and illegally) gain access to an elderly person’s bank accounts or financial assets, other abusers might find more legal avenues. For instance, family members can easily gain power of attorney and exploit an elder’s finances by cooking the books.

With the rise of technology, there are more avenues for financial elder abuse than before. Someone might call your grandmother pretending to be you, asking for money. Other times, elderly folk fall for online schemes. You know the story: sketchy emails, or ongoing “relationships” with abusers that suck money out of people without them even realizing the whole thing is a farce.

It’s estimated by the National Center on Elder Abuse that 5 million elders per year in the U.S. deal with financial elder abuse, costing them $3 billion each year.