Ten states already have laws based on a model from the North American Securities Administrators Association, and about 10 more should join that list in 2018. That’s according to NASAA president Joseph Borg, who spoke in New York Thursday.
NASAA’s model rule requires advisors to report suspected abuse to authorities. It also gives them the legal ability to stop disbursements from seniors’ accounts and shields them from liability, InvestmentNews notes.
States may not have to bother with their own laws if Congress passes its own NASAA model-based law. Such a bill is in the pipeline in Congress.
Elder financial abuse is a huge problem, affecting upwards of $36 billion a year, as Advisor Center has noted. The costs, financial and otherwise, fall on families, the economy and society as a whole, Philadelphia Fed chief Patrick Harker said in a recent speech.
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Elder-Abuse Laws Seen in Half of States
This is both promising and discouraging. I don't like the idea of banks and advisors having so much power. It's troublesome.
ReplyDeleteA conservator in charge of my Mother's life for 4.5 years put all of her money with a "financial advisor" at a bank to invest. He received 500.00 per month and managed to earn less interest than a standard checking account earns. She earned less than a hundredth of one percent after his fees. When I took charge of the account I tried to speak to the financial advisor about the investments, which to keep or let go of, etc. It was a fund. There was no one making investments. Investments could not be made from the account. So the conservator, with 300 elderly, put their money into a mutual fund, collecting almost no interest. The "investment manager" whom I never actually found, although his name was on the statements, earned 500.00 per month per person, doing no investing of any kind. It was not technically illegal because it earned something.
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