memory loss – AgingInvestor

The Hole in The Senior Safe Act: Why Briefly Holding Transactions Is Not Enough To Stop Abuse

May 9, 2019 | aging, aging investor, cost of aging, declining health, diminished cognition, elder investor, elderly, finances for elders, financial advisors, financial capacity, financial elder abuse, financial judgement, handling money for aging parents, handling money for seniors, resources for senior, resources for seniors, scammers, senior citizen investor, senior investor, seniors finances

The Senior Safe Act allows you to hold transactions when you suspect financial abuse of a client. The Act is designed, at least in theory, to allow time for the trusted contacts you have on file to take appropriate action. Many of those victimized by predators or manipulated by unscrupulous family have dementia and have lost their judgment about what makes sense financially. The Act urges you to get trusted contacts and provides that you are not breaking privacy rules to contact them in the reasonable belief that your client is being financially abused. The length of time you can hold a requested transaction can be as long as a month. This is where the Senior Safe Act has missed the mark.

Let’s look at the reality of impaired elders who are in charge of their wealth on the family trust. The trust is in order, and if the elder recognizes that he or she is experiencing decline in mental ability, that trustee may choose to resign. Simple. But that is not what happens in too many cases. For many persons who have cognitive decline and dementia, the elder does not recognize that he is impaired at all. “I feel fine!” he tells his worried family. When asked to resign as trustee, having total control over (theoretically) millions of dollars in a trust, the elder flatly and stubbornly refuses. Meanwhile, financial abuse by predatory people can continue unabated.

When an older person experiences cognitive decline, it typically has a very slow onset. Short-term memory loss does not raise enough red flags for those closest to the elder to take any action. “She’s just getting old” they say dismissively. But memory loss is often the first and earliest warning sign of Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia. The odds of having Alzheimer’s disease by age 85 are at least one in three. Think about your own older clients. Some live well beyond age 85. The risk of dementia rises with age. Short-term memory loss interfering with daily life is not a normal part of aging. Financial abuse and cognitive impairment often go together.

When financial abuse reaches a visible level, the advisor may do what the law allows and call the trusted contact person, usually an adult child. The advisor hopes that the call will somehow trigger something and the abuse will be stopped. But here is a reality check: The family can’t accomplish anything needed in two weeks or even a month if you hold transactions then. Here is a real case example of just such a situation, showing how long it really did take.

In our work with a family at AgingParents.com we saw rampant financial abuse of an elder by a family member. The elder had dementia but had not been formally diagnosed by his doctor. Over 70% of his income was going to the predator. He was asked to resign as trustee by his two adult children, who were reasonably worried that he was going to give away all his cash and further encumber his home. The dad, whom we’ll call Gene, had been developing dementia for at least two years. He felt obligated to the predator and was totally powerless in resisting her demands for money. He just kept writing checks, draining his own resources. It was clearly a case of financial manipulation.

We were involved in working to persuade Gene to allow what his family trust provided: to have his daughter, Jennie, become the successor trustee. He agreed, then reneged. He accepted the logic and then refused to accept it. The kids had no choice but to use the law to take over control. Their father was too stubborn to resign as trustee when asked, even with the entire family presenting a united front, asking and respectfully begging.

The trust, like many such documents provided that Gene could be removed as trustee by his appointed successor, his daughter, after two physicians had declared him to be incapacitated for handling his own finances. A court decision was not required. However, getting him to two doctors willing to assess him and put their observations in writing was a challenge that took months to accomplish. The total time spent getting the change of trustees accomplished according to the terms of Gene’s trust was eight months.

His children were the trusted contacts in the advisor’s file. They knew about the abuse and were in agreement with the advisor that Gene had to stop being the trustee. The adult children had to hire consultants (AgingParents.com), have meetings, hire an attorney, and try various methods to get the job done. Their time energy and thousands of dollars were expended to prevent an even worse outcome, which was being left to support their aging father if he were to totally deplete his own funds.

The takeaways:

Though well intended, we do not expect that the Senior Safe Act will do much to stop financial abuse because of the short time allowed for a financial professional to hold transactions. In Gene’s case, the predator would have been happy to wait a mere two weeks or a month before resuming the financial manipulation of Gene.
Know that any older impaired client may not understand that he or she is cognitively impaired and will ignore pleas to resign as trustee with total control over any family trust.
If you see that an older client is showing signs of cognitive decline, do not wait until it gets worse. Reach out at the time of your first suspicions of trouble. The family or other trusted persons may well have a better opportunity to persuade an elder to transfer power over finances to the appointed successor before complete loss of capacity. Expect this to take time.

In the case described above as a result of ongoing financial abuse, nearly all of Gene’s cash was depleted during the eight months of effort on the part of his adult children to have him removed. The advisor did the right thing but too much of Gene’s cash was depleted in the period when the abuser could keep manipulating him for those months of effort by family to have him removed as trustee.

By Carolyn L. Rosenblatt, RN, Elder law attorney, AgingInvestor.com

If you are seeing abuse and feel lost about how to stop it, contact us at AgingInvestor.com for a confidential consultation with our nurse-lawyer, geriatric psychologist team so you can do everything possible to protect your vulnerable client.

Danger! Your Client Has Serious Memory Problems

Apr 3, 2017 | aging, aging investor, Alzheimer's disease, diminished cognition, elder investor, elderly, investor, senior investor

Have you ever found yourself in a situation with an older client who can't seem to remember anything any more? You may have known the client over a number of years and feel responsible. But you are at a loss now. What are you supposed to do with this client? She's pleasant and just loves you. But you are worried.

You are pretty sure your client is experiencing a slow, but steady cognitive decline. She has a daughter in another state but maybe she isn't paying attention to what is going on with mom. She has a son she's not close to, though he lives in the same area she does. You asked her once if she had someone to be her agent, her power of attorney. She hadn't gotten around to that yet.

No one acts. No one insists that your client choose a relative or friend and sign the Durable Power of Attorney document. She says he doesn't want to talk about it and you just back off and never mention it again. You suspect she may have Alzheimer's disease, from your experience with your own family member.

Here is what can happen to your client.

She steadily loses judgment about what is a good thing to spend money on or invest in; therefore, bad decisions happen. We have observed savvy and intelligent clients who were once financially comfortable start falling for obvious scams. They buy worthless coins or stamps or fly-by-night property investments that take their money and disappear. Perhaps no one knows because the elder is in the secrecy habit. Time passes and the client's cognitive ability declines even more. There is no stopping dementia caused by Alzheimer's disease. The predators find an easy mark. As long as there is cash to spend or credit cards to run up, the elder keeps getting into deeper and deeper trouble. Unquestionably, financial decimation can result.

These situations are real. Here at AgingInvestor.com, we're in the consulting business. We have talked to the families of elders who have probably been impaired for years, hearing them say they wished someone had done something sooner. No one but the financial professional knew what the client had nor where his money was going. The family thought the elder's finances were fine. Now, with too much drained out by excessive giving, the family may well end up having to support their aging relative just at the time when extensive care is needed and the expense of it skyrockets.

How do you prevent the worst? By engaging in discussion with your client's family or appointed other early in your relationship. If you have an ongoing connection with that trusted person in your client's life, you stand a better chance of protecting her from dumb and destructive decisions if her mind starts to go, later on in life. Even if you can't imagine how a perfectly alert, intelligent person could get dementia, it happens to millions of people as they live longer. 5.6 million of them are diagnosed with the disease right now in the U.S. alone. The risk rises with age.

If you have never had conversations with your older clients' families, now is the time to start. You need to educate your client about the importance of having someone else named by her for you to reach out to if she gets sick or has an accident.

You need to develop the skill of conducting family meetings while each client is fully competent. Even if a client has a few memory lapses now it is not too late to have a meeting with family to figure out the path forward in case of trouble ahead. This is a "soft skill" every advisor needs. If you want to learn how to conduct a family meeting or get better at this, you can learn the techniques in a hour.

Putting these skills to work takes some practice. It is especially important to know what to do when a client's family is difficult, or there is a history of conflict among them. That's tricky and you will need some outside help. Get a one hour accredited crash course on conducting successful family meetings by clicking here.

By Carolyn Rosenblatt, RN, Elder Law Attorney, & Dr. Mikol Davis, Gerontologist co-founders of AgingInvestor.com

How Can You Tell If Your Client Has Diminished Capacity?

Mar 27, 2017 | aging, aging investor, diminished cognition, elder investor, elderly, financial advisors, investor, senior citizen investor, senior investor

How good are you at spotting the telltale signs of diminished capacity in an older client? Many older people have a bit of difficulty remembering. We often dismiss this when we see it, thinking it's "just getting old". It may be part of aging, as we do process things more slowly as we age and recall may take longer. But, there is a point when a problem recalling things should be a red flag for diminished capacity for you, the advisor. What are those red flags anyway? How do we label them? There are numerous signs of diminished capacity, more extensive than this article allows, but we'll look at one category, which we call cognitive signs. Here's a breakdown of what you should look for when your client has a lot of difficulty remembering things.

What to note and document about memory loss

This is one of the first things most advisors may notice in a client that causes concern. Perhaps she does not remember important meetings, decisions and discussions. Here are some examples of what you may see: Multiple telephone calls in one day that are repetitive and do not make sense. The client forgets that she has already talked with you and is calling about the same thing in another call to you. She repeats a question she already asked you and that you already answered. Client forgets why he has an appointment with you. This can be by telephone or in person. Perhaps the client himself asked for the meeting but then he forgets why. Or perhaps you wanted to discuss a proposed transaction with him and told him that, but when you call or he comes into your office, he has no idea why he is there. Trying to refresh his memory about it does not help. Complete forgetting of an event that just took place. You just spent a hour with your client telling her some important information about upcoming changes to her portfolio. She seemed to understand when you were talking but an hour later she asks you questions as if the meeting you just had never took place. She had totally forgotten about it. No shows. You have arranged meetings, appointments with others or events that require your client's participation. He agrees on the pre-arranged date and time but then does not show up. When you call him, he has no recollection of the event, that others are involved nor that he had agreed to this.

If your client demonstrates any of these indicators you need to be paying close attention and make an effort to contact your client more often than you did before you noticed these problems. Any or all of them might be warnings of developing dementia. There could be other reasons for memory loss, but you won't know unless you are keeping good records. The only way to determine if you have a serious problem here is to track these signs over time and document each instance you see. If the problem gets worse, it is time to take it to the next level. In your organization that might mean escalation, or having the documentation reviewed by a committee. Ideally, as we see it, the next step should include contacting the client's appointed trusted third party who would step in when the client became impaired. To learn more about diminished capacity and just what you should do about it, click here. An hour of accredited learning on the course Best Practices for Clients With Diminished Capacity will make you a lot wiser in your approach.

By Carolyn Rosenblatt, RN, Elder Law Attorney, & Dr. Mikol Davis, Gerontologist co-founder of AgingInvestor.com

What Should You Say To A Client With Diminished Capacity?

Mar 1, 2017 | aging investor, elder investor

We've all had them. Those clients who seem to be more and more forgetful. They're with it some of the time and other times, not so much. They call you multiple times asking the same questions. They repeat their stories to you. It gets scary is when they start wanting to do dumb things with their money.

Unfortunately most firms do not have clear and specific protocols for you to follow when a client begins to show those telltale signs that he's slipping mentally. Or that she is flat out vulnerable to manipulation by some unscrupulous person. You see it, but what can you say? You just carry on hoping it will get better or that family will take care of it. But that doesn't happen. Then what?

At AgingInvestor.com we think it is far too dangerous for you to simply ignore the problem, or expect someone else to take care of it for you. If a scammer takes Dad, you will know when those strange and unexplained large withdrawals start coming out of his account. Family can reasonably expect that you will do something to keep your client, their father safe financially. That's fair enough, but how do you start?

First, you need to document every instance of anything that you observe that shows you that your client's ability to make financial decisions is becoming impaired. You don't need to be an expert to see what's obvious. Multiple phone calls in one day with the same question is an example. When you explain something slowly and clearly enough for a high school kid to understand and your formerly sharp client doesn't get it at all, that's another example: easily confused. There are numerous signs.

When you have collected the signs over a period of say, six months or more, and you have carefully recorded them somewhere, it's time to bring your client in for a face-to-face conversation. If you are at a distance, this may have to be by phone but it has to happen.

Start with your concerns. For instance, you can say "Jack, I'm getting concerned about some things I've noticed with you over the last few months. I've heard you ask the same thing multiple times in the same day. I have noticed that you are forgetting some important things I've explained to you about your portfolio." Jack may push back and probably will. You follow up by calmly showing him or describing to him the dates and your documentations of instances. "See here's what I mean. This is worrisome to me Jack. My job is to be sure your money is safe and that no one tries to rip you off. When you forget a lot, predators are waiting to target you".

Then you bring the conversation to the ask. "Whom do you trust that we could involve in being a backup safety person with you, or just joining in on the decisions about your investments here that might be a reassurance for me that you are ok?"

If you were smart before the diminished capacity issue came up long ago, you would have had Jack identify two trusted others you could contact in this situation. You would have had Jack give you permission to disclose protected information with the trusted others and thus dispose of the barrier that stops so many: the privacy issue. All this would be in your client file.

People respond to this approach in various ways. If you know your client, you will know some words that may work best with him or her. The point here is that you need to have this conversation, which may initiate a series of steps to keep that vulnerable client with diminished capacity as safe from predators or his own foolish decisions as you can.

Here are some takeaways from AgingInvestor.com, where you can learn more on this subject.

Face the issue that you have to address this, awkward or not. Diminished capacity must not be ignored.
Document each and every sign of diminished capacity as you communicate with your client. Here's a checklist to help you.
Open the conversation by making it your concern. You are worried about the client. You want to keep him/ her safe. You want to do your professional job.
Have at the ready your trusted 3d party contacts for your client. Get your client's permission to involve the trusted others at the earliest opportunity.

Does this expand your role as a financial professional? You bet. But there is no escaping aging clients and the issues longevity brings. Be ready for them.

Carolyn Rosenblatt, R.N., Elder Law Attorney, & Dr. Mikol Davis, Gerontologist co-founder of AgingInvestor.com

Why You Need To Act When Your Client Has Serious Memory Problems

Jun 17, 2016 | aging, diminished cognition, elderly, financial capacity

Have you ever found yourself in a situation with an older client who can't seem to remember anything anymore. You may have known the client over a number of years and feel responsible. But you are at a loss now. What are you supposed to do with this client? He's pleasant and just loves you. But you are worried.

You are pretty sure your client is experiencing a slow, but steady cognitive decline. He has a daughter in another state but maybe she isn't paying attention to what is going on. He has a son she's not close to, though he lives in the same area she does. You asked him once if he had someone to be his agent, his power of attorney. He hadn't gotten around to that yet.

No one acts. No one insists that your client choose a relative or friend and sign the Durable Power of Attorney document. He says he doesn't want to talk about it and you just back off and never mention it again. You suspect he may have Alzheimer's disease, from your experience with your own family member.

Here is what can happen to your client.

He steadily loses judgment about what is a good thing to spend money on or invest in; therefore, bad decisions happen. We have observed clients who were once financially comfortable start falling for obvious scams. They buy worthless coins or stamps or fly-by-night property investments that take their money and disappear. Perhaps no one knows because the elder is in the secrecy habit. Time passes and the client's cognitive ability declines even more. There is no stopping dementia caused by Alzheimer's disease. The predators find an easy mark. As long as there is cash to spend or credit cards to run up, the elder keeps getting into deeper and deeper trouble. Unquestionably, financial decimation can result.

These situations are real. We have talked to the families of elders who have probably been impaired for years, hearing them say they wished someone had done something sooner. No one but the financial professional knew what the client had nor where his money was going. The family thought the elder's finances were fine. Now, with too much drained out by excessive giving, the family may well end up having to support their aging relative just at the time when extensive care is needed and the expense of it skyrockets.

How do you prevent the worst? By engaging in discussion with your client's family or appointed other early in your relationship. If you have an ongoing connection with that trusted person in your client's life, you stand a better chance of protecting her from dumb and destructive decisions if her mind starts to go, later on in life. Even if you can't imagine how a perfectly alert, intelligent person could get dementia, it happens to millions of people as they live longer. The risk rises with age.

If you have never had conversations with your older clients' families now is the time to start. You need to educate your client about the importance of having someone else named by her for you to reach out to if she gets sick or has an accident.

You need to develop the skill of conducting family meetings while each client is fully competent. Even if a client has a few memory lapses now it is not too late to have a meeting with family to figure out the path forward in case of trouble ahead. This is a "soft skill" every advisor needs. If you want to learn how to conduct a family meeting or get better at this, you can learn the techniques in an hour.

Putting these skills to work takes some practice. It is especially important to know what to do when a client's family is difficult, or there is a history of conflict among them. That's tricky and you will need some outside help. Get smarter about conducting successful family meetings in our new book, Succeed With Senior Clients: A Financial Advisor's Guide to Best Practices. There's a great chapter entitled "Your Client's Family: An Open Book or Pandora's Box?" Click HERE for your copy today!