LIFE@OSU

By Ryo Hirayama
PhD student in Human Development and Family Sciences

Dr. Katherine Pearson, Petersen Visiting Scholar in Gerontology and Family Studies

Suppose you had given a younger relative of yours power of attorney over your property. When and how could you identify her misusing your money and “self-gifting?” Dr. Katherine Pearson, Professor of Law at the Dickinson School of Law, Pennsylvania State University, and the 2009–2010 Petersen Visiting Scholar in Gerontology and Family Studies, discussed what we can do against financial exploitation of older adults in her public lecture entitled “Family Banking: The Perils of Powers of Attorney and Joint Bank Accounts.”

With the increase of the elderly, many of whom need to depend on others, there is a growing concern about how to protect their rights and property. Referring to actual and hypothetical cases of financial elder abuse by relatives, Professor Pearson pointed to the need for cooperation among families, banks, and attorneys to discourage, prevent, and catch exploiters. Lessons include the following. When older adults consider a multiple party account, they should be well informed of potential risks and consequences and of different types of “joint” accounts available, some of which may better fit what they really want and expect. It also should be assured that older adults are capable of promptly reviewing the account statement from which their joint holders might make a wrongful withdrawal. Bankers need to know when they are legally permitted and required to provide the Area Agency on Aging with information on elders’ accounts that are suspected to be exploited by their caregivers. Attorneys are expected to counsel families on “Fiduciary Duty” they should have when granted powers of attorney by older relatives.

Dr. Pearson’s PowerPoint presentation [pdf]

Ryo Hirayama recently received two impressive awards to support his dissertation research “Transforming Social Relations: How Caregiving Sons ‘Do’ Gender Subversively” that will explore how men’s experience of caregiving may actually help to change our ideas about gender.