The risk of being 'financially abused' by relatives in old age

Cases involving elderly people being conned out of their life savings by relatives, friends and caregivers are likely to increase as more people live longer around the world, a survey has found.

- Tan Ooi Boon

The Society for Trust and Estate Practitioners (Step) – a global body with more than 20,000 members comprising lawyers, accountants, trustees and other practitioners – did a poll on the loss of mental capacity in 2023 and received inputs from its members from over 40 countries.

Step described the findings as "concerning" because about 60 per cent of around 800 practitioners who help families with legacy planning reported seeing elderly people being "financially abused", by having their money or other assets taken by undeserving people.

Indeed, about 40 per cent of the same practitioners said the number of such cases had been rising in the last two years.

What is disconcerting is that there is no easy answer to the problem, simply because such cases are hard to detect due to the victims' inability to complain as a result of their poor mental condition.

A few such cases have found their way to the courts here only because some upright relatives and employees of financial institutions had come to the rescue.