From the U.S. Government Accountability Office, www.gao.gov

Transcript for: Federal Efforts to Curb the Financial Exploitation of
Older Americans

Description: The financial exploitation of seniors is a growing problem
in the U.S. and is expected to continue to grow as the population of
older Americans also increases. The Department of Health and Human
Services has created a national database for reporting elder abuse with
the goal of improving preventions, interventions, and services for
exploited seniors. We talk with GAO's Kathy Larin, an expert on programs
for vulnerable populations and a director in our Education, Workforce,
and Income Security Team, to learn more.

Related GAO Work: GAO-21-90, Elder Justice: HHS Could Do More to
Encourage State Reporting on the Costs of Financial Exploitation

Released: January 2021

[Intro Music]

[Kathy Larin:] Elder financial exploitation has far-reaching effects,
not just for the victims but for society as a whole. 

[Holly Hobbs:] Hi and welcome to GAO's Watchdog Report, your source for
news and information from the U.S. Government Accountability Office. I'm
Holly Hobbs. The financial exploitation of seniors is a growing problem
in the U.S., and is expected to continue to grow as the population of
older Americans also increases. In many cases, older adults are
exploited by the people they trust--such as family, friends, or
guardians--and may never recover the money they've lost, which could
undermine their ability to support and care for themselves. The
Department of Health and Human Services has created a national database
for reporting elder abuse with the goal of improving preventions,
interventions, and services for exploited seniors. Today we talk with
Kathy Larin--an expert on programs for vulnerable populations and a
director in our Education, Workforce, and Income Security Team--about a
new report that discusses the prevalence and cost of elder financial
exploitation. Thank you for joining us, Kathy. 

[Kathy Larin:] Thanks for having me. 

[Holly Hobbs:] So Kathy, can you give us some examples of how older
Americans are being exploited financially? 

[Kathy Larin:] Financial exploitation is often described in three broad
categories. The first is theft. So this is where someone takes valuables
or money, uses credit cards without permission, or makes changes to
someone's will. The second category is fraud. An example of fraud is
where someone might convince an older adult to refinance their mortgage
to something they can't afford. The third category is scams. And, I
think everyone's familiar with scams such as people posing as the IRS,
posing as lottery officials, or even as grandchildren, who are seeking
help. And scams can be perpetrated through the mail, through email, or
even through the phone. 

[Holly Hobbs:] Do we know, of those three types of exploitations, which
one is the most common? 

[Kathy Larin:] We don't currently know, but this is something that we
think additional data will help to inform. 

[Holly Hobbs:] Could you highlight some of the reasons why older people
might be more vulnerable to this kind of exploitation than younger
people? 

[Kathy Larin:] Yeah. There are a couple of reasons. First of all, older
adults have had their entire lifetime to accumulate wealth, so they tend
to have more assets than younger people. So they make good targets.
Also, older adults are more likely to suffer from cognitive impairments
like dementia that can impair their ability to make sound financial
decisions. 

[Holly Hobbs:] And how is this exploitation reported and tracked? 

[Kathy Larin:] There are a couple of federal agencies that collect data
on financial exploitation. So some examples are--the Treasury Department
tracks financial crimes that are reported by banks; the FBI collects
data from law enforcement. But there is really only one database that
focuses on abuse and exploitation of older adults. And this is HHS's
National Adult Maltreatment Reporting System. So this data is collected
from state adult protective services agencies about all kinds of elder
abuse. 

[Holly Hobbs:] And what do these federal databases tell us about
financial exploitation? 

[Kathy Larin:] They tell us that financial exploitation of older
Americans is a large and growing problem with losses in the billions of
dollars each year. 

[Holly Hobbs:] And are there any issues with the data? Is there
underreporting or anything like that? 

[Kathy Larin:] Yeah. It's extremely difficult to measure the extent of
financial exploitation. Part of that is because a lot of these crimes go
unreported, particularly if they are perpetrated by family members. But
it's also because no single entity collects comprehensive data on all
types of financial exploitation. So the estimates we have are snapshots
that probably vastly underestimate the magnitude of the problem. But the
HHS database is really the first step in improving the data available
about exploitation of older adults.  But it doesn't yet have enough
data, first of all, for us to make national estimates of the extent to
which people are victimized, but it also doesn't currently include data
on the cost of financial exploitation.

[ Music ]

[Holly Hobbs:] So it sounds like the federal government, including the
Department of Health and Human Services, is collecting data to better
understand the scale and type of financial exploitation of older
Americans in order to improve preventions, interventions, and services
for exploited seniors; but that this information gathered might not
provide a complete picture of this abuse. Kathy, do we make any
recommendations to improve reporting on this information? 

[Kathy Larin:] We did. We made two recommendations to HHS. First, we
recommended that HHS work with state agencies on ways to include the
cost of financial exploitation in the data that they report. And second,
we recommended that HHS share information with states on how to improve
the data they collect on costs of financial exploitation. 

[Holly Hobbs:] And last question Kathy, what's the bottom line of this
report? 

[Kathy Larin:] Elder financial exploitation has far-reaching effects,
not just for the victims but for society as a whole. So understanding
the scope of the problem is critical for finding solutions to combat it.
HHS has begun collecting data that will help us better understand how
many older adults are victimized, but we believe more could be done to
facilitate the collection and reporting of data on its cost. 

[Holly Hobbs:] That was Kathy Larin talking about GAO's recent review of
elder financial exploitation. Thank you for your time, Kathy. 

[Kathy Larin:] Thanks for having me. 

[Holly Hobbs:] And thank you for listening to the Watchdog Report. To
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For more from the congressional watchdog, the U.S. Government
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