A free guide for senior citizens on how to avoid falling prety to financial fraud and abuse has been published by the CFP Board of Standards.

Financial Self-Defense for Seniors is designed to give seniors guidelines on what to watch for and how to avoid being victims, according to the board. The need for such a publication is based in part on the results of a CFP survey about the financial exploitation of seniors, CFP officials say.

The CFP Board "remains deeply concerned about incidents of consumers—particularly senior citizens—being misled by those claiming to be trusted financial professionals,” says Kevin R. Keller, CFP Board CEO. “This guide to financial self-defense will help protect seniors from abusive, fraudulent and unethical financial practices.”

The guide provides warnings about what to look out for and tips for how to avoid being a victim of financial exploitation. It includes 10 tips for senior citizens:

  • Look beyond the letters after a financial advisor’s name.
  • If you don’t understand what is being sold, don’t buy it.
  • There’s no such thing as a free lunch.
  • Just because a so-called expert recommends it, doesn’t mean it is right for you.
  • If it sounds too good to be true, it’s probably not legitimate or safe.
  • Don’t confuse familiarity with trust.
  • The final sign-off should always be yours.
  • Make sure the money others are making is not yours.
  • Get the full story: Who gains the most – you or the financial professional?
  • You have rights as a homeowner. Know them.

The U.S. General Services Administration will include the guide in its fall 2013 consumer information catalogue. It also can be accessed online at www.cfp.net/financial-self-defense-for-seniors. A hard copy can be obtained by emailing [email protected] or calling 800-487-1497.

The guide draws on the CFP Board’s 2012 Senior Financial Exploitation Survey, which showed that more than half of the 2,600 CFP professionals surveyed had worked with an older client who had been subject to unfair, deceptive or abusive financial practices. Only about 5 percent of seniors report such financial abuse, the survey showed.

According to the survey, 73 percent of the professionals were aware of older investors who had been invited to free meal seminars that were actually sales pitches and 58 percent were aware of older investors who had received unsolicited pitches for financial products or services.

Likewise, 74 percent were aware of older investors who had been offered unsuitable financial products and 58 percent were aware of older investors who had been subject to the omission of material facts about financial products.