By 2030, seniors aged 65 and over will make up 18% of the nation’s population. In the United States, seniors lose an estimated $2.9 billion every year in cases of financial exploitation reported by media outlets, while only an estimated 1 in 44 cases is even reported to authorities. It is vital that we are able to protect our senior investors from financial exploitation and the dangers of cognitive decline.

SIFMA has been working with industry members, academics, and state and federal lawmakers to advance policies, practices, rules, regulations, and statutes which enhance senior investor protections. A growing number of states have enacted senior investor protection laws that extend to broker-dealers, and several others are currently working to develop a similar path.

Additionally, FINRA Rule 2165, permitting pauses on certain suspicious activity, and FINRA Rule 4512, requiring firms to request trusted contact information from certain clients, went into effect in February 2018. SIFMA continues to push for updated laws and regulations to get ahead of this emerging threat and better equip advisors – through regional workshops, toolkits and more – to protect aging clients.

This is an issue of increasing importance, and SIFMA looks to continue to lead on this issue, as it has for the past several years.

SIFMA has teamed up with AARP to distribute the BankSafe training program, which was recently expanded to include financial advisors and arm broker-dealers, investment firms and asset managers with the skills and confidence to take action.

 

By helping to shape the expanded BankSafe training and participating in this program, this is yet another step to fight financial exploitation of senior investors. Financial exploitation is a problem that hits home for many older Americans and it is imperative all segments of the financial industry are skilled in protecting senior investors.

SIFMA is committed to working across the financial industry to protect senior investors and continues to seek new ways to fight against financial exploitation of older Americans.

 

Additional Resources:

• Be WISER About Financial Scams
• Protecting Your Income: Tips for Elders
• A Checklist to Help You Protect Those You Care About from Financial Abuse
• WISER Special Report: Senior Fraud
• National Senior Investor Initiative
• WISER Women Elder Financial Abuse Resources
• American Bar Association Elder Abuse
• National Adult Protective Services Association (NAPSA)
• WATCH: SIFMA Spotlight on Protecting Our Senior Investors
• WATCH: Replay of SEC Roundtable on Combating Elder Investor Fraud