Second of two parts. Alaska has the fastest growing senior population in the country. By 2017, estimates show the 49th state will be home to more than 135,000 individuals age 60 and over. One in 10 senior citizens report abuse, but studies indicate the actual amount of abuse is much higher, according to a 2015 report by True Link Financial. The report also estimates elder financial abuse results in upwards of $36 billion in losses each year.
"Elder abuse often 'tips over' the lives of its older victims, sending them cascading into a vortex of illness, suffering and expense borne by themselves, their families and taxpayers," Marie-Therese Connolly told the U.S. Senate's Special Committee on Aging in 2011.
The hearing, "Justice for All: Ending Elder Abuse Neglect and Financial Exploitation," brought experts before the nation's lawmakers to bear witness to the problem's urgency, as well as its delicate nature.
"One of the most fundamental complexities in the field is finding the right balance in our response to elder abuse between self-determination on the one hand, and safety on the other," explained Connolly, director of the elder justice initiative Life Long Justice, who is also a senior scholar with the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
Just one year after that hearing, Alaska passed Senate Bill 86, a piece of legislation on the forefront of efforts across the nation to protect our state's aging population from financial exploitation. The law provides for something called a financial abuse protection order, similar to domestic violence orders, but in this case, it allows the court to freeze a person's assets if "... there has been or is an immediate threat of a waste or dissipation of the proposed protected person's funds or other property."
"We use these to essentially cut the elder off from their own funds, so they will stop destituting themselves," explained Beth Goldstein, supervising attorney with Alaska's Office of Elder Fraud. "They have been the number one tool for us to deal with these scammers. We can't get the money back. But we can stop the money from going to them."
The ability to interrupt the flow of money out of an elder's account is crucial.
"We are definitely seeing a percentage of elders who can't put food on the table because they are being swindled, or they can't buy prescriptions, or they can't pay their mortgage. They are going to end up on state benefits because they are sending so much of their money to the scammers," Goldstein said, reinforcing a national trend of otherwise self-sufficient financially stable seniors who end up on state assistance because they fall victim to financial exploitation or fraud.
To put the risk in perspective, consider this statistic from the National Committee on the Prevention of Elder Abuse: "Persons over the age of 50 control over 70 percent of the nation's wealth."
Scammers are motivated and persistent. They will call dozens of times a day. Switch pitches. Talk to the lonely and schmooze with the friendly. If you cut the scammers off, they may find you by calling a neighbor. When high pressure "take action now!" schemes don't work, scammers may threaten violence to yourself or loved ones, or to take your home away. There is even some evidence, Goldstein said, that scammers may have agents on the ground in Alaska -- people who likely act as money mules, making the first contact, getting the cash and sending the money off to another individual.
According to Goldstein, reports have come in about people stopping by with delivery orders when no such order was placed, only to leave and come back dressed in a suit (but driving the same car) and asking for the home's occupants by name.
In rare cases, Goldstein's team has managed to stop money that's en route, but an elder who refuses to believe they're being scammed can be difficult to stop.
In one case, because a bank reported suspicious activity, the Office of Elder Fraud was able to notify postal inspectors who were able to intercept the package, which was full of cash a scam victim had willingly put in the mail. Unlike with illegal drugs, packages sent through the mail aren't screened for cash, so they slip by unnoticed, evaporating, untraceable, into the hands of a far away crook. But this rare interception relied on a swift-acting bank and the ability of every other needed piece to fall quickly into place.
In yet another case, a worried investment company contacted Goldstein's office, because of unusual behavior from the investment company's client. The client sought instant access to cash, refused to say what it was for, and wrote checks to herself from her investment account as a way to pry her money free. In the end, the victim had depleted her nest egg by about $115,000, $65,000 of which had been sent in cash through the mail.
The financial abuse protective order, which lasts 20 days, allowed Goldstein's office to intervene, and gave the family time to figure out what was going on and come up with a way to move forward. In the end, the woman's daughter stepped in as her mother's conservator, but after several months the victim was back on track, required little oversight and was making good decisions on her own. Other cases may end with a long-term conservator or guardianship. Every case -- just as every individual -- is different.
As for recouping lost funds, there is some hope of accountability when the fraud occurs within Alaska and when a perpetrator can be identified, like a person who abuses a power of attorney or who steals funds directly. In the last 10 months alone, Goldstein's office has brought in $600,000 in judgments against people who've committed these types of elder fraud. Eighty percent of the money won is returned to victims, while 20 percent is kept for attorney's fees.
Who are the people who get conned? Smart people. People with jobs and loved ones and good hearts. It might be the constitutionalist who wants to keep his money away from the government. Or a grandparent who wants to leave an inheritance for his or her heirs. Or a struggling family in search of relief. Or a generous-hearted good Samaritan who can't say 'no' in the face of any variety of the world's and humanity's problems.
"They can have full capacity but they don't have the ability to manage their finances for some reason," Goldstein said.
"Rich or poor, male or female, widowed or married, we are all vulnerable," states True Link Financial's 2015 report on Elder Financial Abuse. "Risk equals vulnerability plus exposure. Older adults with independent, active lifestyles have more to be concerned about because they inadvertently provide perpetrators with more ways to target them."
With legal options lagging behind the technological savvy of financial scammers, it's more important than ever that communities take what steps they can to thwart this type of abuse. Also making things more difficult is a lack of comprehensive research on elder abuse, which is decades behind data amassed on child abuse and domestic violence, according to Connolly.
Dr. Mark Lachs, another witness at the U.S. Senate's Dlder Justice hearing in 2011, noted that in his home state, New York, a 2010 study, "Under the Radar," showed that for every one case of financial abuse authorities had become aware of, there were likely another 44 individuals out there who hadn't come forward, either due to isolation, shame or other prohibitive factors.
It's not just quality of life at risk, but life itself.
"Elder abuse victims are at more than twice the risk to die prematurely than older adults who are not victims of abuse," according to Congressional testimony from the National Clearinghouse on Abuse in Late Life. Connolly's testimony suggested an even greater risk of early death. She placed it at nearly three times as high for victims, and noted it occurs within the three years following the abuse.
The Better Business Bureau and banks do what they can to help. They may voluntarily help a person sort through mail and tellers are trained to question unusual transactions. These frontline watchdogs play an important role. But they can't do it alone.
It appears Alaska has made good strides. But ask yourself, is it enough as the nation's baby boomers increasingly age into the senior bracket, and the stability of the state's budget remains volatile?
I'll leave you with Connolly's words to the Senate committee back in March 2011: "Elder abuse is not just an aging issue. It's a baby boomer issue too, for the millions of people struggling to promote the safety and well-being of both their parents and their children. By not meaningfully acknowledging, let alone addressing elder abuse, we are sending an insidious message that suffering in old age is somehow less worthy of our best effort."
Jill Burke is a longtime Alaska journalist writing from the center of a busy family life. Her father swore by "Burke's Law No. 1 -- never take no for an answer." Meaning, don't give up in the face of adversity. The lesson stuck. Share your ideas with her at jill@alaskadispatch.com, on Facebook or on Twitter.
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