Civil Actions and Financial Exploitation of Older Adults: Who Brings the Action?

Financial exploitation of an older adult is a type of elder abuse.  It occurs in many forms.  A door-to-door home repairman defrauds an older adult out of her life savings.  A caregiver gets an older adult who lacks capacity to sign a deed conveying the older adult’s property to the caregiver’s son.  An adult child steals the older adult’s debit card and withdraws significant amounts of money for his own benefit.  (Notably, a recent study suggests that relatives may perpetrate more financial elder abuse than strangers.)