Tag: elder financial planning

Review Your Credit Card Charges Every Month – Healthy Habit 16

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Credit card fraud where a card is not present for the transaction was $4.57 billion in 2016 and increasing every year. Cyber pickpockets have made checking your statement monthly a necessity of being a credit card holder. I have set up an alert on my card so that every time it is used, I get a text notice.

The nonprofit Merchant Risk Council estimates that 80 percent of credit cards in people’s wallets have been compromised.  From a skimmer at the gas station to malware on a merchant card site to the data breach at Equifax – assume your card information has been exposed to criminals.

In the past few years, I have been able to save clients thousands of dollars in the first few months by just reviewing their past credit card statements. From monthly charges for services they don’t recognize or use, to purchases they never made but never reported. I shiver at the suggestion of setting up a credit card on an automated payment plan.

That automated system continues to roll and too often no one is minding the store. No matter what your financial resources, most of us would be upset to know we are paying for things we don’t use or never received. Warned.

Age-Associated Financial Vulnerability is an Emerging Public Health & Safety Issue

The Annals of Internal Medicine reported on Age-Associated Financial Vulnerability: An Emerging Public Health Issue back in 2015. They define “AAFV as a pattern of financial behavior that places an older adult at substantial risk for a considerable loss of resources, such that dramatic changes in quality of life would result, and that is inconsistent with previous patterns of financial decision making during younger adult life.” So normal adults are at risk of becoming a victim of one of the latest frauds or scams.

This is not about older-adults with a form of dementia, but is an emerging issue that is impacting the health and safety of a large segment of older adults.

As a Daily Money Manager, I am seeing this play out with adults on a pretty regular basis.  I’ve seen research on how brain changes in older adults can make us more trusting (Scientific America) and more recently have stepped in to work with highly-educated adults in good health that have been victims of a fraud or scam.

You can’t miss the stories in the news, but if you have, take a look at this recent story Age of fraud: Are seniors more vulnerable to financial scams? (Marketplace). You will get a sense of how very smart and reasonable people are getting scammed.

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Not only are these matters incredibly embarrassing, but they are finding that in many cases, they are individuals that don’t have a strong socio-emotional network around them.

I’ve walked into client engagements where there has been a recent issue, and the adults are well-educated, successful and are independent. However they usually share that they have lost a spouse, partner, and/or friends recently. It takes time to build up those social networks. Loneliness impacts a huge segment of older adults … and by “older adult” that covers individuals 50 years and older.

If you have someone in your life you can help offer to be a sounding board on big purchases or even on upcoming plans — if even just to listen. Maybe they just want a shopping partner. My hope is that we can squash these crooks by helping our loved ones have a deeper line of defense. Wished.  

Giving Back the Checkbook

You know the feeling of helplessness when you don’t have any cash in your pocket and the thing you want requires cash? Well imagine if your loved ones took away your ability to buy things when you feel like you are making good choices.

In my job as a Daily Money Manager, I work for individuals who have usually been diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment or even a specific form of dementia. Usually, at the request of a family member they call and invite me to come meet. They don’t understand why the family is concerned.

I start by asking them how they feel things are going. The response is usually more of “I am managing” and then they usually confess they know they have made “a few over/under payments.” I explain how my job is to help them feel confident in their bill payments and cash flow management. Ultimately, I work to help them feel empowered by continuing to pay bills together.

If I see there is a big concern over exposure to fraud or predatory service providers, I will set up a new checking account. It allows the individual to have a checkbook but the amount of money that is at risk is limited to the money in the account. NOTE: Do not set up overdraft protection but allow the checks to bounce.

A second option is the TrueLink Card. It is basically a funded gift card that you can apply protections to like turning off the ability to charge fees for jewelry, liquor, or phone charges (there are over 20 categories you can tweak). You can see what has been purchased. It does have some complications and limitations as I have seen. One client has had the card fail when he was trying to buy a watch battery (deemed as jewelry) as well as was not able to get his favorite local cheese at the Farmer’s Market because they were using a portable pay device (deemed as a phone charge). I have been able to customize the options and pre-approve that favorite cheese vendor, but when he is at the market, he needs the card to work and it doesn’t always.

At the end of the day, what we want is for our loved one to have meaning and purpose and often, taking away the money can strip them of some independence they deserve.

Is there a way for you to give back that power to a loved one and help them regain a sense of self? Hoped.