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II.5 Elder Financial Abuse--Ronald Long
Pages 80-87

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From page 80...
... This paper outlines the efforts of one firm, Wells Fargo Advisors (WFA) ,8 which has created infrastructure, initiatives, and systems designed to detect, deter, and report third-party elder financial abuse.9 The Wells Fargo Advisors Inventory A major part of the WFA effort in addressing elder financial abuse flows from the stark realization that what are generally described as reasons the elderly are targets precisely overlays the WFA client base.
From page 81...
... With an estimated 10,000 persons turning 65 every day for the next 20 years, the potential for a WFA client to become a victim of elder financial abuse is increasing dramatically. Training An initial decision for a financial services company that desires to handle elder financial abuse is simply to raise internal awareness of this issue.
From page 82...
... Finally, the response unit has aided WFA in its effort to gather more data about the number and characteristics of cases of elder financial abuse arising in its nationwide brokerage network (see Figure II-1 for the number of cases coming into the centralized unit in the past year)
From page 83...
... In late spring 2013, Wells Fargo piloted an elder financial abuse awareness program targeting its client base and the public. The seminar provided an interactive forum where the public viewed a summary of a documentary on the challenges of elder financial abuse and then engaged in a discussion with others in the audience as well as experts in the field.
From page 84...
... Using short vignettes to reenact some of the scenarios that financial services firms face, attendees learned, in some instances for the first time, about the structural or attitudinal impediments that actually worked against the seamless and coordinated approach needed to investigate and remediate a case of elder financial abuse. For example, in one symposium, WFA learned that occasionally law enforcement could label a case of potential abuse a "civil matter," and accordingly decline to act.
From page 85...
... While the ink is not dry, Wells Fargo likely will help fund initiatives with some national nonprofits designed to increase training for APS workers on financial and other social service issues as well as training workers and volunteers to carry the prevention of elder abuse message to more seniors and others in communities throughout the country. Though clearly some partnerships are accompanied by an outflow of funds and resources from Wells Fargo, much more is returned to the firm as WFA gains a better and more detailed knowledge of the difficulties inherent in our nation's existing infrastructure designed to handle the rapidly growing elder financial abuse case load.
From page 86...
... Due to recent state laws that were intended to encourage financial institutions to more readily accept POAs (by setting strict time periods, and limiting the reasons to reject a POA, with damages for violations of the law) , financial institutions may accept POAs or allow transactions by agents that they would have once rejected as suspicious.
From page 87...
... Conclusion Financial services firms increasingly are playing a greater role in the universal and ongoing struggle to end elder financial abuse. Recounting the efforts of Wells Fargo provides some insight for traditional elder abuse professionals into the various tools and activities that the financial services industry has used.


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