Financial exploitation of the elderly or the incapacitated is one of the most common forms of maltreatment toward adults. Not only is financial exploitation typically perpetrated upon those with health risks, it can contribute to or cause health risks in those who are exploited in this way. If you think about the type of people who would prey upon others, it makes sense that they would come after the most vulnerable targets, particularly those who are unable to defend themselves.
Financial exploitation can be significantly more detrimental to the elderly because many of their assets are irreplaceable. Their resources and savings, once depleted, can never be recovered. They do not have a lifetime of additional earning potential ahead of them and desperately rely upon those assets to maintain what independence they have left.
Beyond the loss of independence, elderly people who are victimized in such a way can suffer psychologically and be left far more vulnerable. This abuse can fuel confusion, depression, a sense of hopelessness and may even contribute to premature death.
A primary factor that may make a person more susceptible is his or her ethnicity. Minority women, elderly suffering from diminished cognitive capacity and those older than mid-seventies.
If someone you love has been or appears to currently be a victim of financial exploitation, you don’t have time to waste. There is help to stop the abuse and there may even be relief in a pursuit of compensation on behalf of any agency that was negligent. You may want to contact an attorney can advise you of your options.