Financial abuse of the elderly is common. It can happen in many ways. We tend to think of a wily scammer coming to the front door or great-granny’s inability to comprehend new technology, but sadly most elder financial abuse is from a family member. More details are available at this link.
Financial Advisers can play an important role in helping to prevent this problem. You can write about it in your newsletters and blogs. You can tell younger clients that are money-savvy and wish to help out their elderly parents and grand-parents how to protect them. A couple of really good habits older folk can get into are these, whenever faced with any financial proposition, demand, salesperson, say:
“Thank you for telling me that. I always check these things out with [name of trusted friend] or my financial adviser – that always takes a few days – and they usually tell me I not to do it. Sorry.”