Financial exploitation of seniors is evolving and increasingly sophisticated, even as banks strengthen detection and improve escalation and intervention processes. Regulations are advancing, but banks are continually facing new and more sophisticated threats to a very vulnerable population.
“I feel like elder fraud is the antithesis to the financial services industry,” said Mike Duff, director at Edward Jones, during a presentation on the topic hosted with Norma Da Rosa, senior counsel at TD Wealth, at the recent American Bankers Association’s Wealth and Trust 360 Virtual Conference.
The session focused on the state of play across a wide range of continually evolving threats, and how wealth managers can be crucial defenses for vulnerable clients. “As an industry we build trust,” Duff said. “We support our customers’ ability to be able to plan, to save, to invest, to use and pass their money on however they see fit. But when it comes to elder fraud, I sometimes say that 48 years can be gone in 48 hours.”
Duff and Da Rosa emphasized that elder financial exploitation is driven by factors as diverse as loneliness and diminished capacity, to recent threat variations including social engineering, AI-generated voices and cryptocurrency. Even as romance scams and family-member exploitation continue.
The session noted the value of training to wealth managers and all bank staff, to spot behavioral changes, unusual transaction patterns, coached client answers and other red flags, crucial steps in preventing losses. Da Rosa and Duff point to AARP and ABA training tools and the need for both employee‑focused and customer‑focused education.
Both stressed collaboration, including using inter‑agency sharing, reporting to Adult Protective Services, leveraging trusted‑contact authorizations and escalating concerns to compliance or legal teams.
Even as wealth‑management professionals see increased threats to older clients from anonymous scammers lurking online, Da Rosa stressed that the most heartbreaking and most common cases begin much closer to home.
“Very often the tragedy of senior financial exploitation is that it starts with the immediate family members and trusted advisors,” she said. “Even in the context of vehicles like trusts, we still see many instances of attempts to subvert control.”
Da Rosa stressed that new influencers suddenly entering a client’s orbit can signal manipulation.
Clients “showing up with someone you’ve never met before” can be a major concern, she added. Especially those who suddenly participate in financial conversations.
“I think it’s very important to make sure that your bankers and trust advisors and investment advisors are all comfortable escalating these issues to compliance and to legal.”
When urgency is the priority, the red flags should go up, Duff pointed out.
“The bad actor wants the money fast before anybody has a chance to ask questions, so by pausing and saying, hang on, we’ve got some questions, it just gives an opportunity for cooler heads to prevail,” Duff added. “To maybe get some third parties involved for the best outcome for customers.”
