Financial exploitation is one of the most hidden forms of adult abuse. Funds stolen from senior Americans each year are estimated over $28 billion (AARP), and only 1 in 44 (Lifespan) get reported to first responders like protective services and law enforcement. Family and friend perpetrators, taboos about money, and even older adults’ lack of awareness of the abuse make investigating these cases increasingly complex.
Since the early aughts, multidisciplinary teams (MDTs) have spread across the U.S. by effectively bringing together public and private resources to help first responders better serve older adult survivors of financial abuse.
Medical providers, financial institutions, prosecutors, aging services agencies, and – critically – forensic accountants all lend a hand in seeing these cases through to justice.
Prosecutors will tell you that the forensic accountant’s testimony of facts is often the lynchpin for successful adjudication. A forensic accountant, usually a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) who carries other fraud-specific certifications such as a CFE (Certified Fraud Examiner) or CFF (Certified in Financial Forensics) collects, analyzes, and distills often thousands of subpoenaed records to a single concise report of where money went – either for the benefit of the older adult or not – and communicates their findings to the judge and jury so that an opinion can be rendered. I’ve always said our role is to break down the language barrier between the numbers people and the non-numbers people, and a jury of peers may be full of non-numbers types. We have to make sure they walk away from our testimony understanding exactly what happened and how it happened.
But a case doesn’t need to make it all the way to the courtroom to benefit from a forensic accountant. Assisting MDTs earlier in a case is where forensic accountants are the most valuable. In my practice, our analysis of older adults’ bank and credit card statements, investment activity, and other records frequently revealed years of siphoning funds out of an older adult’s control. Illustrating this money movement helped obtain guardianships and conservatorships for survivors, found investigative leads for law enforcement, and often helped the older adult and their loved ones understand what happened and how it happened so they could make informed decisions about whom to trust with their future care.
MDTs without a forensic accountant on the roster can often find one through their state CPA society, a local ACFE chapter, or a university accounting program, and some may take a case pro bono. As helpful as a forensic accountant can be, we are by no means a silver bullet. Cases benefit most from the information sharing within the MDT. Medical providers, social workers, bankers, and other parties provide the context for forensic accountants’ analysis so that we can determine normal versus aberrant spending. Without that context, all those financial records are just numbers on paper, not the convincing story we need to be able to weave to bring cases of financial exploitation to light.
Want to bring a forensic accountant onto your MDT? The USC Center for Elder Justice team developed an issue brief and video series on partnering with MDT and forensic accountants, including what they do, how they work with teams, and lessons from the field.
