Training helps financial planners detect elder abuse

Financial planners can complete an accredited training program to help them detect and prevent financial abuse of seniors.

Financial planners can now complete an accredited training program to help them detect and prevent financial abuse of seniors.

The program, offered by consultancy and training company Protecting Seniors Wealth, is designed to help financial advisors assist clients who may be experiencing financial abuse, including the effects of “inheritance impatience”.

Anne McGowan

Protecting seniors CEO Anne McGowan says the course is designed to provide professional advisors, management and support staff with insights into how to help clients who may be trapped in a situation of abuse.

She says an area of concern is so-called inheritance impatience, when adult children begin helping themselves to an ageing parent’s finances, with the result that savings can be stolen or lost.

“Financial advisers are in a unique position to assist clients,” Ms McGowan says. “It’s important not to be complicit, even inadvertently, in a financial exploitation situation as advisers could be held accountable”.

Upskilling in financial elder abuse could also prevent losing long-term quality clients, she says.

“Clients’ best interest is the focus in the training courses, helping them to remain safe and sure with their finances intact, along with their dignity and right to make choices, preventing further impact on their finances and preserving those quality long term relationships” Ms McGowan says.

“When financial abuse hits, if the perpetrators are successful, they often continue. Prevention is imperative and leads to positive client outcomes.”

It comes after the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) recommended training for financial planners in its response to its Elder Abuse Inquiry.

The one day workshop, Protecting Seniors Wealth – Their Whole Wealth, is accredited for 6.5 hours of professional training.

Attendees who complete the course will have access to resources, case studies and government reports.

Protecting Seniors Wealth also offers a two hour course on Financial Senior Abuse and Inheritance Impatience, and a one hour webinar on New Expectations and Professional Accountability.

For more information or to enroll in the course go here.

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