Preventing elderly financial abuse

an post by Jean-Yves Gilg for the Family Law blog originally published in the “New Law Journal”

There shouldn’t be anything suspicious about a young man accompanying his aunt to see her solicitor. Frail or elderly people often seek the assistance of family members when making important decisions. Most of the time, there is indeed no concern, just a caring relative looking after a loved one. But there is a growing sense among private client practitioners that financial elderly abuse is on the rise, and an overly protective nephew could be a sign that the situation is perhaps not as straightforward as it seems.

Elderly financial abuse is a crime that takes place behind closed doors. It can be difficult to spot and there is no official data on how prevalent it is, but concerns have been rising, in particular in relation to lasting powers of attorney (LPAs). Introduced in 2005 to replace enduring powers of attorney, LPAs initially had to include a provision for the notification of a third party – usually it was a family member – when activated. This requirement was scrapped when the process was simplified in July 2015 as part of a drive to encourage greater take-up of LPAs. The main safeguard still in place is the requirement that an LPA must be registered with the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG), the Ministry of Justice agency responsible for the protection of individuals who lack mental capacity.

There are otherwise few preventive measures. When approached to advise on LPAs, lawyers usually insist on seeing the donor on their own, if not from the start at least once they’ve had an initial conversation with interested parties.

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This article concerned me greatly. Not that I expect to have any problems with my family as I trust both my daughters implicitly and anyway there is nothing that they could swindle. I live from week to week.
However, the safeguards against older people being conned into handing over power over their financial affairs and then finding that they do not have enough to live on do not appear to me to be at all robust.

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