He says not many people who have some measure of fame have stepped forward to advance the mission of preventing elder abuse. Mickey Rooney, who suffered financial exploitation late in his life, came forward and testified before Congress, making him an effective advocate, but he died soon after his situation became public.
“It is a good thing there are people like Philip out there who have a stage they can speak from,” says Don M. Blandin, who has worked with Marshall and is the president and CEO of Investor Protection Trust, a nonprofit organization devoted to investor education.
“The Brooke Astor case made headlines because of her wealth and her public persona and because her grandson fought for her, but similar cases of elder abuse and elder financial abuse take place every day,” Blandin says. “Philip shined a spotlight on the issue. We share his story whenever we talk to medical, legal, financial and other professionals who routinely work with seniors.
“We need a multidisciplinary approach to protecting older Americans. It begins with professionals who interact with older Americans frequently, [including] banking and financial professionals,” he adds. “They need to be trained to recognize the signs of cognitive impairment in the seniors they see regularly and the signs that the senior may be being abused or exploited. They need to know what actions they can take and how and to whom to report suspected abuse.”
The Senior Safe Act pending in the U.S. Senate would go a long way toward making reporting suspicions easier, says Marshall. The proposed legislation would provide immunity to investment advisors, broker-dealers, banking officials and others who act in good faith to report elder abuse and financial exploitation. State legislation is also needed, Marshall says.
He urges others not to hesitate if they see exploitation or abuse, even if it is being perpetrated by a family member, which can make the situation more emotional. When confronted, Anthony Marshall told his son he would never speak to him again.
“But if you are complacent, you are complicit,” says Marshall. “I wondered, and others wonder, how do you gain the permission to act? Sometimes, you just have to give the permission to yourself.”
Dr. Jason Karlawish, associate director of the Memory Center at the University of Pennsylvania Health System and an elder justice advocate, says, “Elder abuse cannot be just a criminal justice issue, or a medical issue; it is also a financial issue. We have to put all of those together for the issue to make sense.”
Marshall also says an important advance in the fight for elder justice is that advisors and other financial professionals are being brought into it, because they are often the ones who see cognitive decline first through the elder person’s lack of ability to deal with money.
“The numbers are numbing,” says Marshall. “One in five people over the age of 65 are subject to elder financial exploitation … and it remains under the radar. The cost of elder financial exploitation is enormous [and] even when the sum is small, the effect can be devastating to the person and to society.”