Washington, D.C., took another step toward helping financial advisors protect their senior citizen clients from fraud.
The House approved the Senior Safe Act late Tuesday night, which encourages advisors and their firms to report the financial exploitation of senior citizen clients by protecting advisors from liability and the violation of privacy laws. Financial fraud costs seniors nearly $3 billion annually.
The Senior Safe Act passed as part of a larger financial services overhaul that President Trump is expected to sign into law this week.
In addition to granting legal immunity to those who report suspected abuse of seniors to regulators and law enforcement authorities, the Senior Safe Act encourages financial services firms to provide standardized training to front-line employees and advisors and brokers so they are better equipped to identify and report instances of suspected abuse.
By granting legal immunity the new law is designed to enlist advisors, who are often on the frontlines of seniors’ finances, in the fight to help stem the rising tide of financial fraud against seniors.
Industry support for the Senior Safe Act has been broad and bipartisan. “We applaud the House for taking a significant step forward in the prevention of elder financial abuse by passing the Senior Safe Act today,” Financial Services Institute (FSI) President and CEO Dale Brown said.
“Financial advisors and financial services firms are often the first to detect possible financial abuse, so it is critical that they have proper training to identify potential abuse as well as the ability to report it without fear of violating privacy laws,” Brown said.
FSI is among a broad array of industry associations including the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) and the American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI) that have supported the bipartisan legislation.