6 The Hampton Roads Messenger


Volume 9 Number 11


Dementia Puts Elders at Risk of Financial Abuse


they have arranged for her bills to be paid through automatic deduction from her bank account.


experience


Cliff Brunette’s with his


mother was similar. “She went


through the confused normal


aging cycle where she was starting to get


with


Kent (left) and Mark Olds with their mother, Gail, 79, who has dementia. They handle paying her bills and help with daily tasks. (David Woo/Dallas Morning News)


BY PAMELA YIP DALLAS--Barbara Macari’s


husband, Frank, always handled the investments in the family. Then one day, Frank, a real estate broker, gave his wife the shock of her life.


“I was coming down the stairs,


and he came to me and said, ‘I don’t understand money anymore,’” Barbara said. “I was just shocked because this was something that he had always handled, and handled it beautifully. He made a lot of money on investments. He was smart, he was astute, he was careful, and all of a sudden, he didn’t understand anything.”


A couple of months later, Frank,


74, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.


'Huge Problem’ as Elders Increase “He can no longer write checks,”


said Barbara, 72. “He doesn’t even carry money with him because he doesn’t understand it.”


The Macaris, who live in Dallas, are far from alone.


An estimated 5.1 million people age 65 and older have Alzheimer’s disease or other dementias that


eat


away their ability to manage their financial affairs. With the United States rapidly aging, those dealing with cognitive decline is projected to rise.


a median


That means that seniors, with household


net worth of


$170,500, will be more vulnerable to financial exploitation, whether it’s a scam by crooks preying on them or theft by someone they trust.


“It’s a huge problem,” said Daniel Marson, a neurologist at the University of Alabama, Birmingham.


“It’s like a 2,000-pound elephant.


Where do you start? Poor financial decision-making and financial exploitation, financial elder abuse are rampant.”


experience


Marson added, “All older adults normal


as they grow older. normal


cognitive


cognitive aging Whether


this decline causes


actual problems in their everyday life and functioning will vary across individuals and their living situations.”


Dementia for 35% Age 70+


“Thirty-five percent of everybody over the age of 71 will have some form of dementia,” said gerontologist Robert Rousch, director of the Texas Consortium Geriatric


range of skills from counting coins to managing a checkbook, experts say.


Loss of those skills can have


severe consequences for seniors, who lose $36.48 billion a year to financial abuse, according to a recent study by True Link Financial. The study estimates that almost half of that amount is lost to financial exploitation, such as high-pressure sales using


misleading


language. A third


identity or confusing stems from scams or theft, and the remainder


results from “deceit or theft enabled by a trusting relationship” typically exploited by a family member, friend, or legal/financial advisor.


“Since so much abuse is never


uncovered, this is undoubtedly still a low estimate of the true cost,” said Kathleen Quinn, executive director of the National Adult Protective Services Association.


Mark and Kent Olds of Dallas said their mother Gail, 79, has dementia and was exploited by a caregiver who took about $7,500.


“This lady took Mom to the credit union on two different occasions,” Mark said. “Mom gave $6,000, $7,000 one time, a


this


Too Trusting The financial losses of seniors


aren’t limited to what others do to them. They often hurt themselves by being too trusting and generous with their finances.


“When my mother was about 65 years old, she began giving money to anyone who asked, including those who just knocked on the door,” said Tom Murphy, a Dallas certified financial planner.


eventually


His father, also named Tom, took


the family and


business checkbooks away from his wife, who was later diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.


Cognitive decline also can cost seniors the ability to handle simple financial tasks.


In the Olds family, Gail once had


her power cut off because her bill was overdue. Kent was able to pay the bill and have the power restored.


“Mom had fires everywhere, not Education


Center at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.


In the financial realm, cognitive decline means a loss of “higher-order functional abilities” affecting a broad


paying bills,” Kent said. “She said, ‘I can handle it, there’s no problem, there’s nothing wrong.’ We let that go for a while, but this is getting ridiculous.”


Her sons, who are seeking legal guardianship over their mother, said


lady grand


another. We noticed a few other things missing before we could put the stops on it.”


the mail coming and what needed to be paid and what was an advertisement or what was a pre-notice to a bill, especially when it came to medical,” said Brunette,


a program. multiple tactics


“She would get statements


from insurance companies


and


doctor’s offices and Medicare,”


Brunette


said. “She would start to panic a little bit, and she would start to write checks out. I’d go over and I’d say, ‘Wait, you don’t owe this yet.’”


died


His mother, who about 10 years


ago, eventually needed his help.


“It got to the


point where I told her, ‘Just put a shoebox next


to your kitchen


table. When this stuff comes in, just throw it in there. When I come over to visit, we’ll go through


it Time


in financial skills couldn’t


The deterioration come


at


a worse time for seniors, said


Lynne


Egan, who chairs the Committee on Senior Issues & Diminished Capacity at the North American


Securities


Administrators Association.


“Our ability


to make financial decisions starts to decline at about the time it becomes more important


that we together,’”


Brunette said. Worst Possible


volunteer


at the Senior Source’s Guardianship and Money


Management


July 2015


Ways to Shield Seniors from Financial Abuse


So how can you protect an elder from financial abuse?


For starters, be active in their lives and aware of who’s in their circle. Be especially vigilant of sudden “friends.”


“Run background checks on caregivers or financial advisers,” said Julie M. Krawczyk, director of the Elder Financial Safety Center at the Senior Source in Dallas.


“Accompany an older adult to important appoint- ments, including a financial adviser, bank or lawyer.”


It’s not just outsiders to be wary of. “Most exploita- tion of a senior is done by a family member,” said Lynne Egan, who chairs the Committee on Senior Issues & Diminished Capacity at the North American Securities Administrators Association.


Daniel Marson, professor of neurology at the Univer- sity of Alabama at Birmingham, said warning signs of cognitive decline include:


Memory lapses regarding finances, such as failing to pay bills or paying the same bill two or three times;


Problems with everyday math, for example, unchar- acteristic addition and subtraction errors in a check- book;


Alterations in financial judgment, for instance, some- one usually very careful with money now taking on risky ventures.


However, it’s important to remember that not every slip-up has its roots in cognitive decline. “To be a warning sign, there needs to be a change from some prior level of function,” Marson said. “If someone has always made a mess of their finances, the fact that they screwed up yesterday is not a warning sign.” Way to spot the signs of financial abuse in a person with dementia include:


• Monitor bills and check bank statements. Unpaid bills or large sums withdrawn from an elder’s account could indicate the person is not managing well finan- cially or has been scammed.


• Be aware of unusual or seemingly unneeded pur- chases in the home, perhaps items miss-sold by unscrupulous cold callers, salespeople at the door or by phone or telesales companies.


• Look out for unexpected changes to the person’s house, such as incomplete renovations, missing valu- ables or work crews carrying out unnecessary work.


• Be aware of sudden new friends or acquaintances. In particular, be aware of someone the person says is inquiring about moving in, is taking trips with the senior or is making joint financial commitments.


• Large amounts of cash kept in the home could be a sign that the person with dementia is withdrawing unusual sums from accounts and creating a high risk of theft, which will put them at unnecessary risk.


For more information on elder financial abuse check with the Alzheimer’s Association and the Consumer Protection Bureau.


----Pamela Yip


protect our nest egg because we don’t have time on our hands to earn back losses that may have occurred,” she said.


Because of the potential for


financial exploitation of seniors, outside institutions including banks, health care providers, lawyers and financial advisers have developed policies and training to detect telltale signs.


Egan said bank employees can be


the first line of defense against financial exploitation because they often get to know their older customers.


Glenda Coffman, a banker at


Chase’s Park Cities branch, proved Egan’s point when she saved an elderly customer from sending $30,000 to a would-be scammer. A teller referred him to Coffman when he asked about withdrawing an unusually large sum.


“He said he needed to get some money to help out his grandson,” she said. “He wouldn’t give me too much information about the transaction, just that he wanted to help his grandson. I got him his money and he went on his way.”


Red flags really started waving by the third day the man tried


DEMENTIA PAGE 11


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16