 Hello. My name is Robin Weissman and I serve as Pennsylvania's Secretary of Banking and Securities. Financial fraud is the crime of the 21st century. I want to thank you for taking the time to learn more about how we can work together to protect the most vulnerable members of our families, as well as our friends and neighbors. Thank you. One in five of everybody you see on these sidewalks in about 20 years will be age 65 or older. In 20 years after that, 50 percent of them are going to have some cognitive impairment dementia that will make them extremely vulnerable to being defrauded of their money. Each year, con artists swindle elders out of more than two and a half billion dollars. Being a victim of fraud can make you dead broke. Older people just don't have time to make up for the losses. Older people control 70 percent of the wealth in this country. So the money is there and you have professional scam artists who know where the money is and they've developed a great set of tools to go get it. People look at me and figure number one, she's old. Number two, she's a woman. Number three, she won't be able to do anything about it anyway. So why do we become more vulnerable to financial fraud as we age? What actually happens to our brains? The older brain shrinks in size. There's less fluid in it. It's not as big as it used to be. The neurons, electrical signals, the pathways for cognitive function are all impaired. Then when you overlay cognitive impairment on this normal age-related change, then you have an individual who is not fully capable of making sound financial decisions. Karen Wilson understands that all too well. She was incapacitated. She was in a situation where she was completely broke. She had no money left. Helplessly, she watched as her mother's cognitive capacity started to decline. She was really a wonderful mother, really sweet and calm and caring. I'd taken her shopping and we went into a jewelry store and just for fun like a breakfast at Tiffany's moment. I looked at a ring and I said, I love this, do you? And she said, yeah, she said, I'll buy it for you. And I said, mother, it's like $60,000. And she goes, that's okay, I have my checkbook. And I knew she was being serious and I knew that she was not okay mentally. People with early onset dementia are more willing to gamble literally with their money. And of course, some dishonest quote unquote money managers take advantage. And the result? Countless horror stories. I have an aunt who lives in the Midwest. One afternoon, she got a phone call and during this phone call, she was convinced to send $5,000 Western Union, which she did. So she called the police and they tried to trace it. And of course, by that time, the money was gone. A gentleman in Houston was treated for having fallen to the Nigerian email scam. He had about $750,000 and he lost all but $35,000. And he felt like if he gave that last $35,000, he'd got all his money back. Even legitimate everyday investing opportunities can become a nightmare. Yes, it's very frustrating. They look at you and think, oh, she doesn't have anything left up there. We can rip it off and it'll be okay. And it's not okay. Hand in hand with financial abuse is the shame of having been taken. It's embarrassing to fall for a high-pressure sale or a friendly voice on the phone promising fantastic returns. We decided to take her checking account out of her hands because there were checks being written that we couldn't document. And we should have started preparing 15 or 20 years earlier. When a loved one is in cognitive decline, family members can be in massive denial, unable to reverse the roles of who was caring for whom. She died in a deficit situation. Somebody had worked that hard her whole life. I'm guilty. I wasn't there. I didn't do the right things. So what can we do to stem the rising tide of financial abuse? Financial fraud is elder abuse, pure and simple. On our intake form in our office, we do have a question, are you having financial difficulties or stress? And if appropriate, we can help refer people to community resources. Even people with mild cognitive impairment lose the ability to make good financial decisions. People with mild cognitive impairment can go to the opera, play golf, go out to dinner with friends, have fun, almost be like their old selves with the exception of managing their money. They make financial errors four times that of persons who don't have mild cognitive impairment. There are signs that can help health care providers and family members identify a potential problem. Has a patient or relative become socially isolated? Have they made questionable financial decisions or been asked to change their will? Have you noticed deterioration in their ability to make daily decisions? The worst thing you can do is be disconnected and isolated. Your parents need for you to take control. They need to have one of their children manage their health care and manage their investments at the same time. Everybody needs to stop and think of themselves as someday being a frail, older person and asking him or herself, what type of systems do I want to have in place when it's my turn? That's our goal is to help everybody have as good an old age as they can. I still have complete faith in people. I keep thinking that maybe they just have had a bad day or have had a situation. You kind of hate to give up on people. So you just keep hoping that things get better. Hello, my name is Teresa Osborn and I serve as Pennsylvania's Secretary of Aging. Each one of us has a responsibility to keep older Pennsylvanians safe from harm and ensure that they are treated with the dignity and respect they deserve. On behalf of the Pennsylvania Department of Aging, thanks for watching.