Elder Financial Protection Guide
Protecting the People You Love
How to talk with an aging parent about money, spot the scams that target them, and put the protections in place before something happens.
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Americans over sixty lost more than $3.4 billion to reported fraud in 2023. The AARP estimates the actual number is closer to $28 billion a year, because most incidents never get reported. The average victim loses $33,900. Losses over $100,000 are common in romance and investment scams.
If you have a parent or grandparent in their sixties or seventies, especially one who is recently widowed, recently retired, or living alone, they fit the profile that scammers target hardest.
Most families spot warning signs weeks or months before they realize what is happening. They just do not know the signs are warning signs, and they do not know how to raise the conversation without insulting the person they are trying to protect. This guide is for those families.
What’s inside
A field guide you can implement this weekend.
The scale of elder fraud
Why reported numbers ($3.4B) understate reality ($28B). Who gets targeted and why.
Why aging brains are targeted
The biology behind the vulnerability. Not cognitive decline. Not weakness. A specific set of conditions criminals exploit.
The 10 most common scams
Romance, grandparent, tech support, IRS, sweepstakes, home repair, investment, funeral, charity, POA abuse. Each with a defense.
Red flags checklist
Behavioral, financial, and environmental warning signs. Print it, review after every visit.
The conversation
How to raise the topic with your parent without triggering shame. Six actual scripts you can use.
Family financial care plan
Template your family can adapt. Code word, call-me-first rule, trusted contact designation.
Legal tools
POA, revocable trust, guardianship, healthcare proxy. When to use each. What can go wrong.
Bank protections
Trusted contact, transaction alerts, wire holds, daily limits, credit freeze. Most families don’t know these exist.
Working with APS + law enforcement
State-by-state phone numbers. What Adult Protective Services actually does. Filing with the FBI.
Recovery realities
Honest analysis of recovery odds by fraud type. What’s realistic. What’s not.
Emergency contact card
One-page card to print for your parent’s wallet. Every number they might need in one place.
Conversation scripts
Adapt-and-use scripts for every version of the elder-protection conversation.
$25 vs. the alternative.
Cost of one grandparent scam: $8,000 to $12,000 typical, up to $50,000+.
Cost of one romance scam: $50,000 to $500,000+ over the arc of the relationship.
Cost of one tech support scam with account access: $20,000 to $80,000 typical.
Cost of POA abuse by a family member or paid caregiver: often an entire estate, plus fractured family relationships that never recover.
Cost of this guide: $25.
More important than money: the moment when a parent you love calls you crying to say they made a mistake. That moment cannot be undone with any amount of restitution.
The best time to have the conversations in this guide was ten years ago. The next best time is this weekend.
Get the guide
$25. Instant download.
30 day money back guarantee. Written by Stewart Martin, CFE. Two decades of financial services experience.