If an elderly family member was experiencing financial abuse, would you know it? In 2016, Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America completed a Safeguarding Our Seniors Study and found that 40 percent of seniors experience financial abuse more than once. Victims of elder financial abuse lose on average $36,000. Consumer Reports estimates that Americans lose up to $30 billion a year to elder financial abuse. Many of these crimes go unreported, because victims are ashamed or unable to speak up for themselves.

Often we will read or hear about an elderly person or couple unwittingly defrauded by a contractor, service provider or a family member, causing them to lose substantial money from their retirement savings. This kind of crime is known in general as financial abuse.

Seniors are particularly at risk for being financially abused. Sometimes this susceptibility is the result of diminished financial capacity, when aging conditions like Alzheimer’s or dementia impairs someone’s ability to make sound financial decisions. But older adults are often targeted also because they control the majority of the nation’s wealth. They frequently have homes which have appreciated over time, and they don’t realize the value of these assets.