WORLD ELDER ABUSE AWARENESS DAY - 15 JUNE

By Mel Toomey

We are all getting older. There's no denying it. That's why World Elder Abuse Awareness Day is relevant to us all. And Elder Financial Abuse should worry us all. Which is why we ran a panel session on the topic on Friday 15 June.  

I moderated the comments of our expert panellists Dr Brendan French, Group Customer Advocate and Executive General Manager, Customer Advocacy and Remediation, CBA; Darryl Browne, principal, Browne Linkenbagh, and Chair of the Law Council of Australia's Elder Law and Succession Committee; and Margaret Harrison, Co-Founder and Director of Signpost Aged Care Services.  

The prevention of elder financial abuse is a high priority for the FSC and our members. Financial advice, superannuation, insurance and trustee businesses are all exposed to varied risk when it comes to elder financial abuse, so it is important to increase community understanding on this issue. 

Our panellists started off by informing us what "elder financial abuse" is, and indicating that it may or may not amount to criminal conduct. It is a single or repeated act (or failure to act) in a relationship where there is an expectation of trust which causes distress or harm to an older person.  

By and large, the perpetrators of elder abuse are family members, most often sons and daughters of elderly parents.

It takes many forms, from a daughter convincing her mother to sell the family home and move into a granny flat in the daughter's home and pocketing the difference, to online scams targeting older people to buy bogus investments. The Older Persons Rights Service in Western Australia estimated that 70% of elder financial abuse it sees involves family agreements regarding living arrangements. 

When asked how we can try to avoid elder financial abuse, the responses varied. One panellist suggested that the only way to avoid it was to "spend all our money"!  Sounds good to me.  

As for detecting it, another panellist informed us that financial advisers and bank front line staff can play an important role here. However at present, there is no body to report elder financial abuse to.

In June 2017, the Australian Law Reform Commission recommended (among many other matters) that a single national body be established to whom approved providers can report instances of elder abuse.  

Given the Royal Commission considered elder financial abuse as part of its round of hearings on Loans to Small and Medium Enterprises, this important issue is receiving more attention.

And the Federal Government's announcement to earmark $22M for combatting elder abuse is a good start to raise awareness and set up the institutions to tackle this serious issue.  

But will it be enough?