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Understanding issues to
help prevent elder abuse
By: Tom Rafferty
(Reprinted by SeniorARK with permission of the
author.)
Imagine the next time you
have a sore throat your doctor only examines
your throat, and nothing else. You'd get a new
doctor right away, wouldn't you?
But people selling seniors do that all the
time. They may be vaguely aware of the forces
affecting seniors - health, financial, social
and psychological - but in working with
seniors, they think they can deal with just
one of those areas to the exclusion of the
others. After all, why would someone selling a
financial product care about a senior's social
situation? Or why would someone selling real
estate care about a senior's health? What's
wrong with taking a narrow approach to
seniors?
The problem is a narrow
approach leaves seniors wide open to abuse.
Things that seem completely disconnected turn
out to be thoroughly intertwined. A good
example of that is the growing problem of
unscrupulous persons preying on seniors to
exploit them financially. Financial
exploitation of seniors is a national
disgrace. Seniors from age 62 to 75 old years
fear financial exploitation more than health
crises or terrorism. The National Center on
Elder Abuse estimates nearly one out of every
three elder abuse cases involves financial
exploitation. And AARP says seniors are the
targets of 40 percent of all financial scams.
But here's the really important point:
Financial exploitation is far more than a
matter of money.
It's a social issue. The more isolated a
senior, the more vulnerable we are to being
scammed or misled. One technique scammers use
is to separate a senior from the senior's
friends and family. If a senior hesitates to
agree to something without talking to others,
the scammer will try to bully the senior by
saying something like, "Aren't you allowed to
make your own decisions?"
It's a psychological issue. The primary goal
of a senior is to remain independent. The
unscrupulous operator will use that desire to
remain independent to talk a senior into
investing something that promises high returns
and guaranteed income - when neither is
assured.
It's a planning issue. The best deterrent to
financial exploitation is financial planning.
If a senior has taken advantage of good advice
to plan for retirement, that senior is less
vulnerable to the appeals of the scammer. Get
a second opinion!
It's a self-consciousness issue. Seniors will
sometimes say they understand what they're
signing, or they won't take the time to ask
the right questions because they think that
might suggest they're not mentally sharp. They
allow their pride to prevail over their
prudence. Question everything!
The threat of being taken advantage of
financially is just one of the challenges
seniors face. Others, while not perhaps as
dramatic or potentially devastating are
equally complex - and require the same
understanding of the inseparable nature of
seniors' health, financial and social issues.
Only by understanding all of those forces and
how they work together can professionals
successfully match the products and services
they offer to the needs of their senior
clients.
- Tom Rafferty can be contacted at (916)
781-3360 or e-mailed at
t_raf@msn.com.
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