Here’s a statistic that can make any adult child’s blood boil: People 60 and older reported $7.7 billion in losses to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center in 2025. That’s up 59% from 2024, across 201,266 complaints. That money came out of savings that were built over decades of work, taken by someone who put in much less effort. You probably know someone who has fallen victim to such tactics.
Elder financial abuse can start with a stranger's phone call or, sadly, someone a parent already trusts. You can't control who targets a parent, but you can put safeguards in place ahead of time. Protecting elderly parents' assets is easier with a plan than in the middle of a crisis. An effective plan gives a parent control of their own money.
Knowing the signs and steps to take to safeguard accounts makes such abuse much harder for the perpetrators.
What Elder Financial Abuse Looks Like
Elder financial abuse (or elder financial exploitation) is the illegal or improper use of an older adult's funds, property, or assets.
FinCEN reviewed 155,415 reports filed by financial institutions between June 2022 and June 2023, covering roughly $27 billion in suspicious activity. About 80% of those reports involved scams by strangers. The remaining 20% involved theft by someone the older adult knew, and adult children were the most frequent perpetrators in those theft cases.
If you help a parent with money, clear records and shared visibility protect your parent and you.
Common forms include:
● Impostor and tech support scams
● Romance and investment scams
● Misuse of a power of attorney or joint account
● Pressure to change a will or beneficiaries
Scams make up most reported cases, so knowing how to protect elderly parents from scams can significantly reduce risk.
Signs of Elder Financial Abuse
Common signs of elder financial abuse include:
● Unusual withdrawals, transfers, or checks
● New names or authorized users on accounts
● Changes to a will, beneficiaries, or power of attorney
● Unpaid bills despite enough income
● Missing statements, checkbooks, or valuables
● Requests to pay by gift card, wire transfer, or cryptocurrency
● A new friend or caregiver who discourages family contact
● Secrecy or anxiety when money comes up
A single sign doesn’t necessarily prove abuse. Patterns and sudden changes make it harder to ignore, and the “better safe than sorry” route can help elder parents avoid losing untold amounts of money. Scam attempts are easier to spot when someone reviews a parent's accounts on a regular schedule.
Financial Planning for Elderly Parents Starts With a Conversation
Start planning while your parents are healthy and able to understand everything that’s going on. Some steps depend on it. A power of attorney, for example, can only be signed while a parent has the mental capacity to sign it. Our post on the sandwich generation's money squeeze covers power of attorney basics, a document inventory, and autopay.
Good financial planning for elderly parents keeps the parent in control of their own decisions. One of the first conversations you have should be about learning their wishes so the family can follow them later. Useful things to learn:
● Where their accounts are held
● Who their advisors are
● Which documents exist and where they're kept
● Who they'd want contacted if something looked wrong
These talks can feel awkward for adult children. After all, nobody enjoys talking about potentially morbid subjects. A neutral third party (such as your parent's financial advisor) can guide the conversation, explain options in plain terms, and keep everyone focused on what your parent wants.
Protecting Elderly Parents' Assets: Safeguards to Put in Place
Protecting assets usually means putting several safeguards in place.
Safeguard | What it does | Where to start |
Durable financial power of attorney | Names who can act/make decisions for your parent if they can't | Estate attorney |
Trusted contact person | Gives a brokerage firm someone to call if it suspects exploitation or can't reach your parent. The contact gets no authority over the account. | Your parent's brokerage or advisory firm |
Account alerts | Flags large withdrawals, transfers and new logins | Bank and investment account settings |
Beneficiary review | Confirms designations match your parent's wishes and catches unexpected changes | Retirement accounts, life insurance, and annuities |
Credit freeze | Blocks new credit in your parent's name. Placing and lifting a freeze is free at all three bureaus, according to the FTC. | Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion |
Fewer accounts | Makes activity easier to monitor | Advisor or bank |
A durable financial power of attorney gives the agent broad access to a parent's money. Some families name co-agents or require the agent to provide periodic accountings. Rules vary by state, so talk through these options with an estate attorney.
A trusted contact adds additional safeguards at brokerage firms. When a firm reasonably believes a customer is being targeted for financial exploitation, it can place a temporary hold on disbursements and notify the trusted contact.
Your parent's advisor can help coordinate things like consolidating accounts and reviewing beneficiaries during regular meetings. For more on beneficiary designations and estate documents, see our article on estate planning strategies. If your family is also weighing long-term care costs, our sandwich generation article covers that topic.
How to Protect Elderly Parents From Scams
Phishing, tech-support scams, investment fraud, and romance scams were among the crimes people 60 and older reported most often in 2025, according to the FBI's 2025 Internet Crime Report. People 60 and older also filed more cryptocurrency complaints than any other age group, with $4.4 billion in losses.
A big part of protecting elderly parents from scams is agreeing on a few family rules ahead of time:
● Agree on a family code word for calls claiming an emergency
● Never pay by gift card, wire transfer, or cryptocurrency simply because someone asked
● Hang up and call back using a number you already have
● Check with a family member or advisor before sending money in a hurry
● Ignore links in unexpected texts or emails about accounts
Rules like these give a parent a reason to pause before making any kind of money transfer, without taking any decisions away from them.
What to Do If You Suspect Elder Financial Abuse
If you notice signs of elder financial abuse, these steps can help:
- Call the fraud department at the bank or brokerage firm right away.
- In Maryland, report it to Adult Protective Services at 1-800-917-7383 (1-800-91Prevent) or your local Department of Social Services. Call 911 if a crime is in progress.
- Report online scams to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov.
- Call the National Elder Fraud Hotline at 833-372-8311. According to the Office for Victims of Crime, a case manager will help you report the fraud and connect you with other resources.
- Keep records: statements, messages, names, and dates.
- If a power of attorney agent is involved, talk to an attorney about revoking or changing the document.
An Advisor Adds Another Set of Eyes
An ongoing advisor relationship puts an experienced professional outside the family in regular contact with a parent's accounts. At Tide Creek Financial Group, clients meet with their primary advisor at least twice a year and hear from our client experience manager every quarter.
When someone looks at the accounts on a schedule, changes are noticed sooner. With an advisor involved, the responsibility of financial planning for elderly parents doesn't all fall on one adult child. The parent keeps making their own decisions with guidance from someone they trust.
No plan prevents every attempt of elder financial abuse. A plan built ahead of time gives your parents more protection and your family a clear next step. See how Tide Creek approaches financial planning.
Rules for powers of attorney, estate documents and reporting vary by state. This article is educational and not a substitute for advice from a qualified legal or financial professional about your specific situation.
Securities and investment advisory services offered through qualified registered representatives of MML Investors Services, LLC. Member SIPC (www.SIPC.org). Tide Creek Financial Group is not a subsidiary or affiliate of MML Investors Services, LLC, or its affiliated companies. Supervisory Address: 11350 McCormick Road Exec PL IV Suite 200, Hunt Valley, MD 21031. (410)785-7654.
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