Elder Fraud / Financial Abuse

What a sad but very important topic to talk about: elder fraud or elder financial abuse anything like that. You know, something that pains me to even talk about because it’s unfortunate this happens. But it happens far too often, you know, and one time is far too often. But I want to look at maybe some of the signs that are out there if you’re helping a loved one or are concerned about that and just some of the, I guess, give some ideas as a discussion here. You know, when we look at this sort of thing and it’s a growing issue out there, and think of it too, you know, the aging population, the elderly, the retired, they hold a vast majority of wealth. And so they’re targets to this sort of stuff. Unfortunately. So as you’re helping maybe somebody, or maybe helping parents or loved ones look through this, make sure there’s proper documentation. You know, if they’re getting their taxes done as an example, make sure you, you know, you see the completed thing and all those documentations match up. Make sure there’s statements for all of their investments. You know they should be getting monthly, quarterly, annually at a minimum, statements for this sort of thing. So they have that. You know, if there’s ever, that would be a red flag, if they did an investment and they didn’t have a statement as an example. And also, you know, thinking of, if it’s an odd or like an exotic sort of investment, you know, where something that just doesn’t seem right, you know, once again, red flag. Ask more questions. Look into this sort of stuff. You know, there is so many different, I call them scams or things out there that either come through the phone or obviously with internet or email, stuff like that, that are trying to get people to invest in something or give money to a certain place or organization. And so, once again, just concern for all that because we don’t want people to be targets. And unfortunately that’s in a lot of cases the elderly become those targets. So what can you do? You know, if you have identified that maybe boy, maybe I think my parents got taken advantage of or there was something along those lines, you know, call your local authorities and get them involved. Once again, going back to the documentation, you know, if you think there’s something going on, make sure you kind of have that documentation to prove that something isn’t right for that thing. Also, be an advocate, you know. Get ahead of that, you know, and work alongside that. You know, us as financial advisors, we’re working hand in hand with our clients and education throughout different client events and stuff like that and on the stuff that’s going on out there. But at the same time new stuff is happening all the time. So, the more advocates that we can have for folks and helping them try to avoid this, the better it is. Because once something happens, that’s challenging and getting money back unfortunately in a lot of cases can be really really hard if almost impossible in may cases. So if you’re concerned about this or you want to talk about anything else with us, we’d love to have the opportunity to sit down with you for a no-cost, no-obligations visit here at Centennial Wealth Advisory to help you plan to retire well.