Financial Exploitation of Older Adults in Pennsylvania

What it looks like

• Unexplained withdrawals, transfers or new accounts.
• A new name added to accounts, deeds or as a beneficiary.
• A power of attorney signed when the person was already significantly impaired.
• A will or deed changed suddenly, favoring a recent arrival in their life.
• Property transferred for far less than value.
• Missing cash, jewellery or personal items in a facility.
• A caregiver who has become controlling about visits and phone calls.

Isolation is the common thread. Exploitation almost always involves separating the person from anyone who would notice.

The legal routes

Several exist and they are frequently used together:

• Challenging a transaction on lack of capacity, or on undue influence where a confidential relationship existed and the person benefiting was active in procuring the transfer.
• Breach of fiduciary duty, where an agent under a power of attorney used the authority for their own benefit. An agent is required to act for the principal, not themselves.
• Conversion, for property simply taken.
• Guardianship proceedings, where the person can no longer manage their affairs and needs protecting now.
• Estate litigation, where the person has died and the transfers affected what passed under the will.

Powers of attorney are the usual instrument

A power of attorney is a broad grant of authority and it is regularly misused. The agent must act in the principal’s interest, keep their money separate, and keep records.

Gifts to the agent are a particular problem area, since a general grant of authority does not automatically permit an agent to give the principal’s money to themselves. Ask to see the document, and ask for an accounting, which an agent can be compelled to provide.

Facilities and staff theft

Missing cash and belongings in a facility are common and rarely investigated seriously. Facilities are expected to safeguard resident property and to have policies covering it. Report it in writing, ask what their investigation found, and ask for the resident’s personal property inventory.

Act while the money is still traceable

The practical constraint is not the deadline, it is dissipation. Funds spent are difficult to recover from someone with nothing. Where transfers are recent, urgent steps to preserve assets can matter more than the eventual claim.