• Home
  • Education
  • News and Resources
  • Advocacy
  • Associate Members
  • Contact
  • Search
  • Menu Menu
News
Advocacy, Community

WBA Takes Steps to Help Protect Wisconsin Seniors From Costly Financial Fraud

By Lorenzo Cruz

Financial exploitation of the elderly population is a growing and widespread problem domestically and globally. It is difficult to comprehend that an individual would deliberately prey upon senior citizens for significant monetary gain, but financial exploitation has become a pervasive problem frequently costing seniors billions of dollars worldwide. On June 15, World Elder Abuse Awareness Day, bankers are encouraged to join WBA in raising awareness to help prevent the financial exploitation of elders across the country.

What to Look For

Often, criminals devise deceptive schemes to disguise the criminal activity that seniors often fall victim to. Some of the common frauds affecting seniors include romance scams, government impostor scams, friend impostor scams, and online shopping scams. Fraud reports filed with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reported that seniors’ losses totaled $600 million in 2020. The costliest schemes were romance scams with reported losses of $139 million in 2020. However, the vast majority of elder financial exploitation goes unreported.

What is more disconcerting is that sometimes the criminal masterminds could be the durable power of attorney (POA) like a family member or close friend. A family member is the perpetrator in over 60% of these financial abuse cases, according to a University of Southern California study. The National Council on Aging (NCOA) estimates that approximately 10% of Americans above the age of 60 have succumbed to some form of elder abuse. Several of the warning signs to be on the watch out for related to financial abuse are sudden changes in seniors’ personal finances, uncharacteristic bank withdrawals, checks written out as loans or gifts, lost property, and unpaid bills.

Seniors can protect their finances by maintaining accurate financial records, never providing personal information over the phone, getting a second opinion on financial matters from an attorney or financial advisor, and selecting a trustworthy person to assist in managing personal finances. If family or friends suspect financial elder exploitation, talk to the victim about the possibility of fraud and report suspected abuse to adult protective services, law enforcement, and banks. While banks are restricted from sharing specific account information, they can review potential abuse and report suspicious criminal behavior.

Actions WBA is Taking

Last July, South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster signed a law to protect vulnerable adults from fraudulent financial transactions. The new law allows financial institutions and financial service companies to decline, delay, or report transactions that are suspected of elder financial abuse for vulnerable adults 55 years or older. At that time, South Carolina joined 31 other states that passed similar legislation.

In the Badger State, the Wisconsin Bankers Association (WBA) pursued a similar path to protect seniors from this insidious crime wave and reintroduced an elder financial exploitation bill in 2021. SB 19/AB 46 and SB 20/AB 45 co-authored by State Senator Pat Testin and State Representative John Macco provided financial institutions and securities companies with  the tools to better protect their vulnerable adults and senior customers from fraud and abuse. The bills would allow financial institutions and securities companies to pause transactions suspected of financial elder fraud and would allow them to collaborate with the customer, a trustworthy list of individuals, and law enforcement to determine if the transactions should be approved. While the potential elder abuse transaction is on hold, the remaining funds in the account would still be available for other transactions. The bills also would permit reporting requirements, provide liability protections, and allow refusal of POA in suspected elder fraud cases.

As the elder fraud legislation moved through the legislative process, WBA’s advocacy efforts saw mixed success on the bills before the state legislature. WBA actively lobbied the issue and passed the elder fraud legislation in the assembly on a bipartisan vote with an overwhelming majority. Unfortunately, the bill stalled in the Senate Committee on Financial Institutions and Revenue. Despite falling short on passing an elder financial exploitation law in Wisconsin, WBA made tremendous progress on the issue. WBA’s government relations team remains committed to enacting legislation that would provide banks with the tools needed to protect seniors from costly fraud. Passage of the elder financial exploitation legislation remains a high priority for WBA during the next legislative session, which begins in January of 2023.

Print 🖨
June 15, 2022/by Hannah Flanders
Tags: Advocacy, Elder Fraud
Share this entry
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on WhatsApp
  • Share on Pinterest
  • Share on LinkedIn
  • Share on Tumblr
  • Share on Vk
  • Share on Reddit
  • Share by Mail
https://www.wisbank.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/bigstock-elder-hands.jpg 1067 1600 Hannah Flanders https://www.wisbank.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Wisconsin-Bankers-Association-logo.svg Hannah Flanders2022-06-15 07:24:002022-06-15 07:24:00WBA Takes Steps to Help Protect Wisconsin Seniors From Costly Financial Fraud
You might also like
Triangle BackgroundExecutive Letter: Thank You for Your Advocacy Efforts!
Finger pressing donate button on keyboardExecutive Letter: WBA Staff Raise Over $6,000 for United Way
Association Update: Engaging with Your Association
U.S. Supreme Court Overturns State Supreme Court’s Redistricting Decision
Bankers’ Roles in Recognizing Elder Financial Abuse
Triangle BackgroundReflecting on Another Incredible Year
Advocacy on Regulatory Modernization
Grow and Thrive… Expanding Your Opportunities

Categories

  • Advocacy
  • Community
  • Compliance
  • Credit Unions
  • Education
  • Member News
  • News
  • Products
  • Resources
  • Uncategorized

Recent Posts

  • Nelson Celebrates 30 Years at National Exchange Bank & Trust
  • Bakalars to Retire
  • PWSB Mortgage Lenders Receive the Five Star Mortgage Professional Award
  • Executive Letter: Wisconsin Supreme Court Upholds Priority of Secured Creditor Under Receivership Rules
  • Peshtigo National Bank Announces Promotions

Archives

  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • November 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • June 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • January 2018
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • August 2016
WBA logo
  • About
  • Community
  • Subsidiaries
  • Staff

questions@wisbank.com

608-441-1200

4721 S Biltmore Ln.
Madison, WI 53718

Get our Newsletter!
Subscribe

© 2023 Wisconsin Bankers Association. All rights reserved. | Website Design by Bizzy Bizzy
You’re Stronger Than You Might RealizeTriangle BackgroundExecutive Letter: Highlight Your Financial Education Efforts
Scroll to top

This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies.

OKLearn more×

Cookie and Privacy Settings



How we use cookies

We may request cookies to be set on your device. We use cookies to let us know when you visit our websites, how you interact with us, to enrich your user experience, and to customize your relationship with our website.

Click on the different category headings to find out more. You can also change some of your preferences. Note that blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on our websites and the services we are able to offer.

Essential Website Cookies

These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our website and to use some of its features.

Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the website, refusing them will have impact how our site functions. You always can block or delete cookies by changing your browser settings and force blocking all cookies on this website. But this will always prompt you to accept/refuse cookies when revisiting our site.

We fully respect if you want to refuse cookies but to avoid asking you again and again kindly allow us to store a cookie for that. You are free to opt out any time or opt in for other cookies to get a better experience. If you refuse cookies we will remove all set cookies in our domain.

We provide you with a list of stored cookies on your computer in our domain so you can check what we stored. Due to security reasons we are not able to show or modify cookies from other domains. You can check these in your browser security settings.

Other external services

We also use different external services like Google Webfonts, Google Maps, and external Video providers. Since these providers may collect personal data like your IP address we allow you to block them here. Please be aware that this might heavily reduce the functionality and appearance of our site. Changes will take effect once you reload the page.

Google Webfont Settings:

Google Map Settings:

Google reCaptcha Settings:

Vimeo and Youtube video embeds:

Privacy Policy

You can read about our cookies and privacy settings in detail on our Privacy Policy Page.

Terms of Use
Accept settingsHide notification only

Subscribe

* indicates required








Membership