Financial Abuse of the Elderly Often Overlaps with Other Types of Elder Abuse

“Only a small fraction of [elder financial exploitation] crimes are properly investigated and prosecuted,” said Page Ulrey, Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney for the King County Prosecutor’s Office in Seattle, Wash., at the Senate Special Committee on Aging hearing. “We are woefully ill equipped to handle these cases, both in terms of knowledge and resources.” Why? For one thing, Ulrey said, the abuse often involves overlapping types of crimes, including neglect and physical and sexual assault. As Marie-Therese Connolly, a leading elder abuse expert and Senior Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, told me: “There’s a lack of dedicated law enforcement and prosecution units of people with expertise in these often complex cases.” For another, many caregivers, family members, financial services employees and police officers aren’t trained in preventing, detecting or dealing with financial exploitation of the elderly. And there’s often a lack of coordination between agencies and professionals who have pieces of the puzzle.