Financial Exploitation, Financial Capacity, and Alzheimer's Disease

Research in the past decade has documented that financial exploitation of older adults has become a major problem, and psychology is only recently increasing its presence in efforts to reduce exploitation. During the same time period, psychology has been a leader in setting best practices for the assessment of diminished capacity in older adults culminating in the 2008 American Bar Association Commission on Law and Aging and American Psychological Association (ABA/APA) joint publication on a handbook for psychologists. Assessment of financial decision-making capacity is often the cornerstone assessment needed in cases of financial exploitation. This article will examine the intersection of financial exploitation and decision-making capacity and introduce a new conceptual model and new tools for both the investigation and prevention of financial exploitation.