Federal Guidance Issued: Protecting Residents from Financial Exploitation

The federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released a new manual on June 26, 2014 that is designed to help assisted living and nursing facilities identify and report fraud committed against their residents. Titled, “Protecting Residents From Financial Exploitation:  A Manual for Assisted Living and Nursing Facilities,” the manual focuses heavily on financial abuse committed by residents’ friends and family members.   The manual also discusses common senior scams and is designed to be used by providers.  Click here for to access the manual.  The CFPB provided the following summary statement about the manual, including instruction on how to order free copies of the manual:

To equip assisted living and nursing facility staff with the know-how to prevent and spot the warning signs of elder financial abuse, today the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released a guide to protecting residents from financial exploitation.

Too often, vulnerable adults fall prey to con artists, family members, fiduciaries, professional advisers and others who steal their nest eggs and threaten their financial security.  Here are just a couple of examples: 

A son steals $315,000 from his elderly mother’s retirement accounts and frequents casinos. When he doesn’t pay his mother’s rent, she’s evicted from her assisted living facility. 

The pastor of a 77-year-old man with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases makes 130 withdrawals from the man’s bank account but fails to make nursing home payments on his behalf for nine months. The man was nearly discharged from his nursing home.

CFPB’s action-oriented guide gives facility staff the tools to:
• Prevent financial exploitation and scams by educating staff, residents, and family members about warning signs and precautions
• Recognize, record, and report financial abuse as early as possible using a model protocol and a team approach
• Get help from first responders in the community.
While the guide is geared for assisted living and nursing facilities, it will also be helpful to operators of other senior living facilities.  Family members of residents can read the guide to learn the red flags of financial exploitation, and can share the guide with staff of their loved ones’ facilities.  Long-term care ombudsman can benefit from tips in the guide.

You can read our blog and download the manual from the CFPB’s website. Also, you can order free hard copies—single or bulk orders (if the listing is not up yet, it will be later today).  See our Director talk about elder financial exploitation on video. Today’s press release about the guide is here.

To report cases of financial abuse in Indiana, a facility must follow the ISDH incident reporting procedures and if a crime is suspected report to local law enforcement.  In addition, financial exploitation should be reported to the Indiana Attorney General at 317- 232-6330, Adult Protective Services at 800-246-8909, and your local ombudsman.  The Indiana Attorney General’s office also has an Identity Theft unit that can be reached at 800-382-5516 or by email at  IDTheft@atg.in.gov.