Senior citizens often fall victim to elder financial abuse, even at the hands of their closest relatives, but accountants can help protect them.
Seniors lost over $3.4 billion to elder fraud in 2023, according to the
"If an individual in the community experiences some form of abuse — it could be physical abuse, it could be sexual and more often than not financial is associated with those — generally, those calls go to an agency called Adult Protective Services, or they go to law enforcement," she said. "The challenge is there isn't a lot of training out there on financial exploitation, so that's something that we get hired to do a lot is to go in and train these agencies."
Webber also does investigations. Those can involve gathering financial records, such as banking, credit card and brokerage account statements, or real estate documents to paint a picture of what happened to an older adult's money over a period of time.
"It's a lot of tracing, it's a lot of looking at patterns — not only patterns of where the money went but also patterns of money coming in," said Webber. "If we know an older adult's income is supposed to be X, are we seeing that deposit? Are we seeing Social Security deposited every month? If we know they rent out a unit or have rental property, do we see that rent income deposited every month and, if not, where's it going? If an individual sold their house in the last year, do we see those deposits? Do we see those proceeds getting deposited in the bank account? And if it's missing, where did it go? We're looking at patterns of transactions that exist in the bank statements, but we're also looking for what's not there."
The 2020 Netflix movie "I Care A Lot" dramatized how senior citizens can be victimized by guardianships and conservatorships and have their savings drained. "It's a cottage industry and the perfect crime really," said Webber.
Bonadio gets involved in such cases as well as estate litigation, sometimes on referral from government agencies.
"We do expert witness testimony or fact witness testimony, depending on what they need us for," said Webber. "That helps the agency build a stronger case in court because there's an automatic credibility that comes with being a CPA. When a CPA stands up there and says here's what happened and how, it carries more weight than if the social worker or law enforcement officer went and tried to explain it themselves. Breaking down the language barrier between the non-numbers people and the numbers people is what a forensic accountant's job is at its core."
She has seen some egregious cases of abuse and exploitation of seniors. "From a financial perspective, we've seen over a million dollars stolen from an older adult right out from under her nose, and she had no idea," said Webber. "That was by a caregiver. And as soon as the caregiver was found out, she ran off to the Philippines, and we couldn't pursue her over there."
"But then there are other cases that I think are even worse, because of the co-occurring abuse," she continued. "You see older adults who the family moves into their home. They're not necessarily taking money. They're just using up the resources of the older adult. There was an individual who was basically relegated to the vestibule. They put a cot in the vestibule of this guy's own house and made him live there all while the rest of the family took over his house. Boyfriends were in and out, and kids of boyfriends. They were letting the animals poop and pee in the house and totally neglecting this guy. If you looked at the dollar value of what was stolen, it wasn't huge, but the conditions that he was forced into were appalling."
The impact can go beyond the financial repercussions to affecting the elderly person's health and lifespace. "People think it's just money," said Webber. "Money is stolen and it can be returned or, even if it can't, it's not a big deal. But there's growing research that supports the long-term health impact of financial abuse. They're more likely to rely on government assistance. They have increased isolation because they're removed from the close relationship to the perpetrators."
She pointed to a
Government agencies such as Adult Protective Services departments are often short-handed in terms of staffing, and may not receive as much funding as Child Protective Services. "Adult Services gets a fraction of a fraction of what Child Services gets," said Webber. "There's this automatic assumption, rooted in ageism, really, that an adult doesn't need help, when oftentimes they do."
Seniors often feel ashamed that they've been financially exploited and are loath to report it, especially if a close family member was involved. "They don't want to admit that they've been exploited," said Webber. "Another thing a lot of people don't know is that financial acuity in general peaks in your early 50s. So from your early 50s, for the rest of your life, your financial decision-making is declining, whether you recognize it or not. That's even without a dementia diagnosis."
For accountants who want to get involved in this area, she recommends training materials from the
"There are training courses specific for elder abuse and financial exploitation from both of those, and you can get CPE by viewing them," said Webber. "The best thing to do is to research it online. There's a lot of case studies, a lot of articles like a
The ACFE also recently released its
She and Bonadio have also built such technology. "The technology that I built was to try to automate the work that we do, and sell the software to government agencies so that they don't have to hire forensic accountants," said Webber. "They've got software and the power of forensic accounting is now in their hands."
Nevertheless, forensic accountants will still need to provide such services directly. "There has to be a better, faster, cheaper way to do this, and technology can do that, at least for lower-level analysis," said Webber. "You certainly still need the human element. You're always going to need human forensic accountants to do this work."
