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Stealing from the old
Actor and elder abuse victim/advocate Mickey Rooney gives a testimony before a Senate Special Committee on Aging titled "Ending Neglect Financial Elder Abuse" in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.
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Kai Ryssdal: Here's kind of an amazing number from a study they did in New York not too long ago: More than 140,000 elderly have had serious money or other real assets taken from them without their permission. And that's in New York state alone. In all too many cases, it's not a con man but a family member who's to blame for a kind of elder abuse that goes seriously under-reported.
Here's Marketplace's David Brancaccio.
David Brancaccio: Liz Loewy is ruthless when it comes to rooting out elder abuse, be it physical or financial. She has, for starters, no tolerance for jerks who can’t wait for the inheritance.
Liz Loewy: Is it really a crime? And the answer is: Is that parent dead yet? If the answer is no, then it's still a crime.
Loewy’s a prosecutor in Manhattan. This afternoon, she’s at a podium. She’s addressing the Meals On Wheels folks who deliver food to the elderly in New York. She wants them to be on the lookout for fishy stuff -- like lots of ATM withdrawals slips when the cardholder doesn’t get out much. Loewy lists a single day’s worth of suspicious withdrawals -- $460, $360, then $200.
Loewy: All on the 15th.
Then the next day...
Loewy: $200, $200, $400... red flag.
She has stories about some other crazy red flags she’s seen. Victoria’s Secret lingerie bills for size 16 when the elderly person weighs 80lbs.
Loewy: Call it in, we can look into it. Thank you very much for listening.
But it gets more confounding.
Loewy: I'm here to tell you that many of our cases involve kids or grandkids or other relatives.
We all run into them. The relative who makes a fuss about their sacrifices for old mom who then uses mom’s checkbook without asking. Experts also say keep an eye on the ones who go around with 50,000 watt senses of entitlement. Or listen to this real gem of a sister.
Loewy: One elderly victim who went into the hospital with kidney failure and asked her younger sister to just pay her rent when she was in the hospital.
She signed a Power of Attorney, a document turning control of her finances over to the sister.
Loewy: P.S. The elderly victim got out of the hospital and her personal belongings were out of her apartment and basically all of her funds had been depleted by her younger sister who gambled the money away at a casino in Atlantic City.
For each case of major financial abuse that comes in, 43 go unreported according to a big survey in New York state. Who wants to call the cops on their own kids, plus many victims feel trapped as in so many spousal abuse cases.
Dr. Mark Lachs, head of Geriatrics at New York Presbyterian is author of “Treat Me, Not My Age,” and worked on that elder abuse study.
Mark Lachs: The stereotype of the older person being dependent on the child for financial resources, it's exactly the opposite. The data shows us that in fact it’s the kind of failure-to-launch adult child who is the most common perpetrator.
In the spring, Lachs shared his research results with lawmakers in Washington. Also testifying, a legendary actor.
Lachs: I had the honor of being upstaged by Mickey Rooney at a Senate hearing before the Aging Committee. Mickey Rooney, the recent victim of financial exploitation by step children, got up there and the place was riveted.
Mickey Rooney: My money was taken, misused. What finances I had. When I asked for information I was told it was none of my business!
Mickey Rooney, now 91, is suing a stepson whose lawyers have repeatedly denied their client ever acted improperly. Lachs says in his practice he sees elder financial abuse down through the income levels.
Lachs: For the middle class, someone with a $200,000 nest egg, once that is in fact absconded with, you're done. And we all pay for that, David. When one becomes impoverished, one becomes a Medicaid recipient, a ward of the state.
Given these costs for all of us, what’s being done? While, some states make it a crime not to report signs of elder abuse, few get punished and Lachs says those laws need teeth. Liz Loewy, the prosecutor, is big on telephone hotlines to gather elder abuse tips. In Washington, a federal effort to crack down on elder abuse was made law back in 2010, but is stuck in limbo. For two years now, Congress has denied the funding to put this Elder Justice Act into action.
In New York, I’m David Brancaccio for Marketplace.
My sister's two adult children stole from my mother. Her daughter did it while she was living with her grandma. Her son probably continues to do it now in small ways. Because they have both been caught at it my mother made her granddaughter move out and, though her grandson still continues to see her, I do not believe he still takes advantage of my mother like he was doing. The problem is my sister is the one my mother gave power of attorney to since she is the one who lives down the road from mom. Mom refused to press charges because she doesn't want to cause hard feelings in the family. I live 4 hours away. I did get mom to have me put on her account so at least I can monitor it and hopefully catch problems before they become huge. What can one do in a situation like this? My mother doesn't want us girls to fight, but my sister is not trustworthy to be in charge of mom's finances, so I call discrepancies to her attention and try to ask mom about them, but her memory isn't as good as it once was so sometimes she doesn't remember certain transactions.
As an investigator of adult protective services, this is the only issue I and one of my coworkers work on, of about 23 investigators for our jurisdiction. The issues are very complex. Yes, this costs our society over 3 billion dollars a year - of those cases we know (MetLife Study). But, other studies show that elders who are financially exploited fare worse than their peers who are not exploited - victims die earlier and are sick more often. FINANCIAL EXPLOITATION IS NOT JUST A PROPERTY CRIME, NOR IS IT JUST A CIVIL MATTER. We hear this from ill-informed law enforcement often, and I WORK with several on these matters.
If issues confronting you seem not to be in the elder's best interest, find out what the elder knows about transactions. We look at many, many factors when assessing how to assist - and it is VERY CHALLENGING. Our elders are adults first, and have the RIGHT to make decision we may not like.
We take referrals from all kinds of callers. Do not hesitate to CALL. Sometimes it takes lots of referrals to help, but it does happen.
We are having more success in addressing this - but this truly takes everyone pulling together. Be a "squeaky" wheel. Finally, find out the difference between confusion/undue influence, and an adult's right to make decisions for themselves.
A good report on an issue we don’t hear nearly enough about. Old people get the shaft in America, and our social services don’t protect them much. Rather than restricting the legal goals to financial recovery in personal liability suits, though, the emphasis should be on protecting the elderly from abuse in the first place. With all due respect to state enforcement agencies, in my experience, they can’t do much until after the fact. People can be unbelievably ghoulish; from telemarketers to health care insurance providers to nursing home care facilities to unconscionable family members, right on down to the undertaker. Ours is a system geared for financial abuse. Well-intentioned lawyers or family members can only do so much—physically and legally—when it comes to dealing with financial, verbal, (prescription) drug, and psychological abuse. Third party intervention is essential, but it usually isn’t there until a crime is committed and someone is ready to be hauled off to jail, or the morgue. A good calling for all those unemployed lawyers out there, were the public financing available, not to make money but to curtail an abusive system and check abuse at every stage.
I have two unemployed siblings (one bipolar, one an alcoholic) in their 50s who live with our 80-year-old parents in South Florida. My other sister and myself watch our parents bank accounts weekly. We noticed an unexplained $200.00 ATM withdrawal and confronted the two dysfunctional family members about a theft that neither admitted.
We then reported suspected elder abuse to the State of Florida and they had a case worker and a detective at our parents home the NEXT DAY interviewing everyone. Have not had a problem since their visit.
I agree with shineshuge. The will and/or resources to investigate and prosecute abusers is not there. In some cases it's another casualty of draconian state budget cuts. The state laws still require reporting by financial institutions and others, but in too many cases no investigation is undertaken.
After my husband had a stroke, our daughter and her female ‘partner’ talked my husband and me into giving her our home. Talk about 'Elder-Abuse'. She nagged and complained endlessly.
She begged us for help as she wanted to have a baby and needed fertility money. We gave money and gifts and later, babysat whenever she called until our granddaughter was 9 months old. Then she cast us out of her life. We never saw our granddaughter again. Our daughter didn’t even come to his funeral. And yet, our daughter was angry that we wrote her out of our will. Her sense of 'entitlement' is unbelievable.
a lot of talk here- but when my cousin ripped my mother off for all she had - and had hastened her demise by neglect and cruelty- not one agency in NYC would help one bit=I still want to see what he did exposed and information I've collected looked into - he not only abused her mentally and physically but he committed Grand Larceny and intended to- set it up and did it= no one gave me any help- he an ugly woman hater his whole life- and he got away with it- so talk all you want- sounds good- but in reality all you get is blown off
