The Financial Industry National Regulatory Authority's Investor Education Foundation and Stanford University's Center on Longevity are teaming up to research financial fraud.

The two entities will launch the Research Center on the Prevention of Financial Fraud, which will be an interdisciplinary resource for law enforcement, government and research groups studying financial fraud, officials announced Wednesday. Financial fraud, ranging from Ponzi schemes to online phishing scams and work from home schemes, swindles Americans out of billions of dollars each year, officials from both organizations said.

The center's inaugural conference, The State and Future of Financial Fraud, will be held November 3-4 at the Sofitel Hotel in Washington, D.C.

Acting president of the Finra Foundation, Gerri Walsh, said the partnership with Stanford "will deliver practical, cutting-edge research to policymakers and law enforcement. This new joint initiative complements an array of Finra Foundation initiatives to protect Americans from fraud."

Laura Carstensen, founding director of the Stanford Center on Longevity, called financial fraud "a serious economic and social problem for people of all ages and our rapidly aging population places an increasing number of older adults at risk for fraud."