Savings & Retirement
Older Americans Robbed of $20 Billion a Year by People They Know
Nearly three-quarters of financial exploitation is done by family, friends or caregivers.
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Financial exploitation costs older Americans $28.3 billion annually, with nearly three-quarters of that stolen by people the victim knows, such as family, friends or caregivers, according to a new report released Thursday.
Quantifying the cost of elder financial exploitation — defined as “the illegal or improper use of an older adult’s funds, property, or assets” by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network — is a challenge. That’s partly because so much of it goes unreported, according to the study from AARP, done with the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago.