Protect older Americans from financial abuse

Financial abuse, especially as it affects older Americans, is a scourge. It is harder to think of anything crueler than working all your adult life to secure your and your family’s financial future only to have some crooked individual empty your savings, leaving you without those necessary financial resources. If a victim is older than age 50, not only are the avenues for recovering the stolen funds limited, but so are the avenues available to replace those stolen funds (“Dan Rodricks: a ‘special place in hell’ for the perpetrators of elder fraud,” Feb. 8).

In 2017, the Maryland Office of the Comptroller and associated partners, including AARP Maryland, began a campaign called Protect Week (www. protectweek.org). Protect Week coincides with World Elder Abuse Awareness Day which is annually observed on June 15. During the week in which June 15 falls, the comptroller, the Maryland Office of the Attorney General, AARP Maryland, and other partners shine a spotlight on the terror of elder financial abuse. During this week, financial experts, consumer protection advocates, aging advocates, and law enforcement examine the causes of elder financial abuse and empower people with ways to prevent or stop it.

AARP Maryland promotes Protect Week as a focus on elder issues, but this is a problem that affects everyone. If a despicable crook empties your parents’ or your grandparents’ financial accounts, that can have devastating, long-lasting effects on your life — or your children’s’ lives.

The older we become, the more precious time becomes. We shouldn’t have to waste this precious time on anxiety over the state of our finances, not because we’ve been careless, but because some criminal claws their way into our financial lives to take what is rightfully ours. This is simply unacceptable. So, we observe Protect Week annually not only to prevent elder financial abuse but to protect all of us.