Steps families can take to prevent financial mistakes by aging relatives

Advocates and experts are urging families to take preventive steps to protect aging relatives from financial mistakes and scams, saying older Americans are prime targets. Americans over 70 control $53 trillion in wealth, and family members are often the first to notice when something seems amiss.

The article recounts examples that prompted action: a banker who used a dye pack to catch a home care worker stealing cash and a 2024 check-fraud scam that targeted a woman’s mother. Cybercrime against older adults is rising: in 2024 the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center received nearly 150,000 complaints of cyber-enabled fraud against people 60 or older, with almost $5 billion in losses and an average loss of $83,000, according to the agency’s annual report.

Scams include risky investments, impostors claiming to be the IRS, online romances and social-media traps. Experts recommend leading with empathy, doing due diligence and sometimes bringing in neutral third parties. Concrete steps include checking public records like the SEC’s EDGAR and FINRA’s BrokerCheck, using the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Better Business Bureau complaint databases, verifying professional designations, asking banks about transaction alerts or daily limits, adding a trusted contact, using view-only account access or monitoring services such as EverSafe, and freezing credit through Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.

Key Topics

Business, Aarp, Fbi, Credit Freeze, Eversafe, Edgar