Securities and Exchange Commission Republican Commissioner Daniel Gallagher and Democratic Commissioner Luis Aguilar Thursday urged the agency to beef-up elder financial protection efforts.

Gallagher criticized the SEC for letting anti-elder fraud activities fall away since the start of the financial crisis.

“It’s time to step up again,” the Republican Commissioner said.

On the Democratic side, Aguilar said the agency should do more. For one, it should establish a working group on senior fraud composed of representatives from the enforcement, examination and investor education sections, he said.

He added senior issues should be included in the agency’s rulemakings across the board. “Elder abuse is a problem that has grown exponentially,” Commissioner Aguilar said.

Aguilar’s and Gallagher’s comments came at an SEC Investor Advisory Committee meeting in Washington, D.C.

During the discussion, Committee Member and AFL-CIO Policy Director Damon Silvers said financial advisors ought to have as a tool of trade the five signs a client might be brain impaired and what to do about it.

He said this knowledge should be brought up during training and SEC examinations -- as an aid rather than a threat to advisors. “The vast majority of market professionals want to help,” the labor union leader said.

Department of Health and Human Services Assistant Secretary for Aging Kathy Greenlee told the committee educating those who work with seniors is more important and potentially more effective at stemming elder abuse than enforcement actions.

“We cannot prosecute our way out of the problem,” she said.

She added that elder abuse prevention won’t end all bad investments by seniors. “You don’t lose the right to make bad decisions when you’re old,” said Greenlee, who also heads the federal interagency Elder Justice Coordinating Council.

The Investor Advisory Committee’s session on elder abuse came the day after the council issued an Elder Justice Roadmap, a 40-page agenda for a coordinated government and private sector attack on elder abuse of all kinds.