Elder Abuse Awareness Month

Elder Abuse Awareness Month:  

The word ‘elder’ can perhaps be dissociative and bring up mental images of a random older person we have no connection to.  In reality, elders are our moms and dads, our grandfathers and grandmothers. These are people we love, people who have worked their whole lives to retire with dignity. 

Now, just imagine getting a call from them, there is panic and worry in their voice. They have just wired a large sum of money to someone claiming to be from the IRS—someone who knew their name, address, even the names of their family members. 

In short, they were scammed.  This is a heartbreaking reality for far too many older Americans. How many?  Millions every year, with total losses reaching into the billions. Unfortunately, it’s not just strangers who do the dirty work, but caregivers and even family members are often the culprit.

The good news is, there are ways to prevent it. Here are some steps that can be taken to help protect your accounts or the accounts of your loved ones: 

• Designate a Power of Attorney or Trusted Contact on your accounts.  This should be someone you have complete trust in. 

• Stay up to date on common or trending scams. If in doubt, do an online search or run it by a trusted family member or advisor.  

• Monitor accounts and credit reports for any suspicious or unauthorized activity

• Always, always verify before giving any personal information or sending money to anyone.  Verify who they really are and where they are really calling from. Err on the side of caution.  Legitimate organizations want to prevent fraud as much as you do, so any pushiness or urgency can be a red flag that you’re dealing with a scammer.

We all must step up and do what we can to protect ourselves and our family members from these tragedies. Loss of money is not just a financial burden; it is a quality-of-life burden. This is not what our fellow Americans deserve, so let’s bring as much awareness and education to this as we can. 

Ryan Page 

Content in this material is for general information only and not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. All performance referenced is historical and is no guarantee of future results. All indices are unmanaged and may not be invested into directly.

There is no guarantee that a diversified portfolio will enhance overall returns or outperform a non-diversified portfolio. Diversification does not protect against market risk.