THE SILENT SIEGE ON SENIORS’ SAVINGS
Securities Section
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“The only thing that
will redeem
mankind is
cooperation.”
— Bertrand Russell
A
s the baby boomers
transition into
retirement, we find
ourselves in the midst
of one of the largest transfers of
wealth in history. With more and
more retirees in charge of trillions
of dollars in personal assets, they
are becoming a natural focus for
the unscrupulous. One reason the
elderly are targeted is because they
have those trillions of dollars in
personal assets. Another reason is
that as they grow older, the elderly’s
ability to manage those assets
diminishes. The Alzheimer’s
Association projects that by 2050,
14 million Americans will be living
with Alzheimer’s disease. Other
forms of dementia are prevalent
!9
as well. By preying on fear and
capitalizing on those who are
diminishing or diminished,
scamming the elderly out of
their savings has become a very
lucrative business for the greedy
and immoral among us.
The most often quoted figure
for the cost of elder financial
exploitation is $2.9 billion per
year. But that number comes
from a MetLife Study that was
extrapolated from newsfeed
articles over only a three-month
period in 2010. A 2015 study put
the number at $36.5 billion each
year, and even that is now being
questioned. 1 But, the real cost of
exploitation goes far beyond just
the monetary. Elder financial
exploitation has been declared a
public health crisis 2 . Many of its
victims become depressed and
isolated, which exacerbates existing
health conditions. Some experts
predict that we will see a rise in
elderly homelessness, and there are
reports of elderly victims, faced
with having lost every penny they
saved, committing suicide. 3
As fraudsters grow more
sophisticated and turn their focus
to the elderly with ever increasing
intensity, the problem will only
grow worse. A recent article in
The Wall Street Journal 4 revealed
that banks are reporting a 12
percent increase in suspected cases
Continued on page 61
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