>>COORDINATOR:	Welcome and thank you for standing by.  At this time all participants are in a listen-only mode until the question and answer session of today’s conference.  At that time to ask a question press Star 1 on your phone and record your name at the prompt.  Today’s call is being recorded.  If you have any objections you may disconnect at this time.  I would now like to turn the call over to Ken McDonnell.  Sir you may begin.  


>>KEN MCDONNELL: Thank you very much.  Greetings all and thank you everyone for attending today.  This webinar is in honor or World Elder Abuse Awareness Day, which is June 15.  You will be learning today about resources for elder fraud prevention and response.  I am a federal government employee as well as my colleague Jenefer Duane; we have our standard disclaimer up here that we need to present to all of you.  This is to tell you that this educational presentation by the CFPB is on behalf of the bureau.  It does not constitute legal interpretation, guidance or advice of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.  Any opinions or views stated by the presenters are our own and may not represent those of the bureau.

	Here are your speakers today.  You will have two bureau representatives – Ken McDonnell and Jenefer Duane.  I’m from the Office of Financial Education and Jenefer is from the Office of Older Americans.  We also have Marjorie Doyle from Missoula Public Library.  And then we’ll have Katy Lovell from Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services; Legal Services Developer Program and (Richard Heitstuman), Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services, Legal Services Development. 

	Since we’re doing this for librarians the CFPB has a project we call Community Financial Education Project.  The goal of this project is to make libraries as the go to resource for financial education in every community.  We know that patrons are coming to libraries and are asking questions on financial topics. We know that the senior citizens are very heavy users of libraries.  And that librarians are very active in wanting to help and promote resources for seniors.

	So we are here today to present you some information on helping prevent financial fraud with seniors and to what responses you can do if such a tragedy happens to them.  And now I’ll be turning this over to my colleague, Jenefer Duane.   


>>JENEFER DUANE: Thank you Ken.  Thank you everybody for joining and thank you to our great speakers today that you will hear from shortly.  I’m Jenefer Duane.  I am Senior Program Analyst for the Office for Older Americans in the CFPB.  I joined the bureau in 2011, the end of 2011 right when we started up the office.  And I have 30 years of experience working in what I call the elder care space and 20 years in the elder justice space formerly working out of California on elder financial exploitation issues as the founder of a non-profit that started in 2001.  

	So this is a topic that is very near and dear to my heart and that I have a great deal of passion for and am tremendously honored to have the opportunity to work here and do this work with all of you.

	So about the Office for Older Americans.  We develop tools, resources and initiatives to protect older people from financial harm and to help older people, older consumers make sound financial decisions as they age.  And what is an older consumer?  Well we go by the federal guidelines of an older adult of age 62 and older is our definition for an older adult.  

	However I want to make a special note that we also have a secondary primary audience in financial caregivers or family caregivers people who are usually in the 45 plus set -- 40-45 plus -- who are either looking out for or have an older person in their family who may be approaching the need or have the need for assistance and support in order to remain safe and independent or financially independent or financially safe.  And so our real goal is protecting older consumers from unfair, deceptive and abusive practices both in the marketplace and by anyone who would abuse an older person.  

	So let’s just do a little background here quick on elder financial exploitation.  There are many definitions of elder financial exploitation.  I will refer to it as EFE throughout the program so as not to take up too much time.  But we use a very simple definition as the illegal and improper use of an older persons’ funds, property or assets.  When talking to seniors or others I often say simply theft.  Theft of an older persons’ funds, property or assets.  There are a whole range of perpetrators from the offshore scammers to those closest to the older adult such as a family member or caregivers, friends and other people in the community.  

	Studies recently have shown that what we’re dealing with here is the tip of the iceberg phenomenon what we know about in terms of the numbers.  Only a fraction of incidents is reported to authorities.  One study showed that only 1 of 44 cases was reported to an entity that could provide services or respond to a victim.

	The estimates of annual dollar losses range.  They vary widely ranging from $2.9 billion to $36 billion.  And I have some new statistics to show you.  They’re very recent and I thought might be of interest to you.  We recently issued a report on the filings of suspicious activity reports on elder financial exploitation.  Suspicious activity reports are filed by financial institutions, depository institutions and other financial service organizations.  They are filed with the federal government.  They’re filed in a bureau within the treasury.  

	They are not – I will not get into a long tutorial about SARs as they’re known as – Suspicious Activity Reports.  But they are one of many types of suspicious or I should say elder financial exploitation is one of many types of suspicious activities that are reported to the federal government.  And only recently did the treasury add elder financial exploitation as a reportable suspicious transaction.  And our office was able to obtain a great number of those SARs -- all of them actually -- and assess them and come up with some new research.  

	So we analyzed a limited number of the structured data fields from all the SARs that were filed between April 2013 and December of 2017.  And we read full SAR transcripts of representative samples of over 1,000 SARs.  And we analyzed numerous elements that helped us to make findings about patterns, issues and amounts involved.  And this slide shows that EFE – Elder Financial Exploitation SAR filings quadrupled from 2013 to 2017.  And this is much greater than the overall growth rate for all different types of SARs that do not involve elder financial exploitation which was only 40%.  

	And these incidents likely account for only – and these incidents in these SARs likely only account for a very tiny fraction of all incidents of elder financial exploitation being reported.  And I should say that the total number of SARs that we analyzed the data fields for was 176,000 that were filed between 2013 and 2017.  So this will give you an idea.  You can see on the bars the low end and the high end of how much this really has exploded since the treasury made it possible for banks and credit unions and other financial institutions to file.

	And the institutions themselves reported a total of $1.7 billion in suspicious activities in 2017 alone.  This includes monetary losses to both the older adults and the filing institution as well as attempts at frauds or scams or other forms of financial exploitation where there may not have been an actual loss due to perhaps an intervention by the institution or another.  

	And this confirms for us that there is a variety, a wide plethora of perpetrators or suspects.  I probably shouldn’t say perpetrators unless they’re convicted but suspects.  Strangers accounted for 51%, 36% as a known person known to the elder, family at 25%.  And you can see fiduciary a person who has fiduciary authority or the authority to make financial decision for an older person represented 7% of the filings and then a non-family caregiver.  And then the most common suspected family member is an adult child. Sixty-two percent are the adult children who were reported as having conducted a suspicious – a suspicious transaction and 38% represented other family members.  

	And most suspects who were known to the targeted older adult were located – sorry were unknown to the targeted older adult are located internationally.  So this is a snapshot of the types of how serious the foreign scams are hitting older people.  Fifty-two percent being foreign, 37% being domestic and 11% being a combination of both.

	So I want to talk to you about networks.  This is one of the programs I lead here is the Elder Fraud Prevention and Response Network Initiative or Program.  Where I came from in California we were sort of on the brink, the forefront in California of the establishment of different types of community collaborations such as financial abuse specialist teams, multidisciplinary teams etcetera.  And these were professionals that would come together to talk about elder abuse usually and also financial exploitation.  And work on ways to prevent, detect and/or respond to the issue.  

	And since that time these networks as we refer to them have really grown across the country.  There’s now hundreds of them.  However they are largely voluntary.  They’re not necessarily structured within an organization.  They’re usually a collaboration of a whole different group of community stakeholders.  So for the purposes of our work we speak of networks as being, you know, a sustained effort because they’re not one-time event or meeting.  And that they are largely voluntary from formation to operation and an important distinction from mandated MDTs – multidisciplinary teams or others who are told to meet and work on the issue such as a legislated committee of state government for example.  These are groups that come together in our communities.  

	And we did a study on supporting elder financial prevention and response networks.  We studied the benefits of the networks.  They’re fairly elusive. Even to this day there is really not a network of networks.  There’s no sort of place you can Google and go find them.  So we put together a study with the Library of Congress – their Federal Research Division – to reach out across the country and find different types of networks and talk to them, reach out to them, find out what they were made of, who attends, how they work, how they’re funded, what kind of challenges they face, what their activities are.  And we wrote a report called fighting elder exploitation through community networks.  

	And in our methodology we started with a literature review.  We did interviews with various experts around the country.  We studied 23 specific networks with one on one interview groups in discussions.  We did site visits and we did an analysis of all of the networks down to a county level.  We attended network meetings.  They were interviewed and we learned about as I said their objective, structure, leadership, funding, members, activities and challenges.  I hope you have a network in your community.  

	We found this kind of coverage. Hopefully you can see yourself in one of those green zones.  And if not we see the open zones there as opportunities for expansion.  So there are large areas with no active network.  Only a quarter of the 3,143 counties in the U.S. have a known elder abuse network.  And I will also say that only a small portion of those elder abuse networks have a specific focus on elder financial exploitation but of all that we spoke to all of them want to have more.  They recognize that it is the greatest challenge facing older adults – greatest threat I would say to the safety and security of older people.

	So some of our findings in the study were that networks do improve response to cases of financial exploitation.  They increase the reporting of cases.  Member skills, a cross training, is a really important piece.  We see in these networks bankers teaching Adult Protective Services about the operations of the bank and how to reach out and get the right person on the phone for your investigations, sharing documents etcetera. Same with law enforcement, same with legal services.  A lot of cross training helps to build bridges of communication and understanding between these community entities so that they can work together on behalf of these very, very – on behalf of an elder who has been victimized by a very, very complicated usually very complex situation of elder financial exploitation.  

	Coordination is improved including the use of community resources.  And there are quite a lot of community resources out there.  However if they are not networked together it can be very – it can cause a great deal of fragmentation in getting them to the people who need them the most.  

	Some more of our findings were about and I think this is where we segue way into why libraries are so important to this effort is that communication education has been cited as the number one initiative that networks feel is needed in the communities.  Community education, public awareness, raising awareness and that includes reaching out to seniors and reaching out to family caregivers and others in the community because everybody has elders in their life.  This is a community-wide issue.  So education and awareness is key.  It’s number one.  Professional training comes up as number two and then case review -- coordinated case review – comes up as an activity that law enforcement and Adult Protective Services often need assistance with.  And so that is a common function of the networks.

	We also found that networks share a lot of common features and needs. One of the greatest needs is a resourceful coordinator.  And so as you are going out into your community looking for a network or the network that is in your community or hopefully will be soon you most likely would be looking for their super resourceful coordinator.  And their coordinator may be reaching out to you to talk about using space in your library or putting on a series of events or whatnot.  So we’re hoping that we can help you connect the dots by knowing about these networks.

	They have other issues.  Everybody has issues with funding but it’s particularly difficult in the elder justice space.  There has not been a lot of funding for elder abuse prevention.  There still is not.  It’s a very sorely underfunded area.  There’s quite a number of challenges but I will say that there is an amazing amount of super work being done out there and an incredible amount of passion in the field because people really do care.  The folks in financial institutions really, really do care about their older accountholders and do not like to see them being ripped off. 

	And existing networks often are the catalyst for new networks so if you get one nearby chances are the word will get out and advocates from another area will be coming in and saying hey we want to do what you’re doing.  And we’re seeing the spread of these at a pretty high rate of speed now.

	And we just issued a report you might be interested in as you are hopefully wanting to familiarize yourself with your local network.  We did a report that describes the outcomes of this bureau-initiated community convenings we’ve been doing.  We have been going out and providing technical assistance facilitating convenings between stakeholders.  We’ve been doing this in places where there are not already networks or there is a network that could use a little boost to expand its coverage or expand its membership or to focus on its priorities and come up with plans or strategies to build their network.  And so we issued this report.  

	We looked back over convenings we held in Florida, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Montana and Oregon.  And the purpose of the report was to share the learnings and achievements from these convenings to encourage the establishment of new networks or the enhancement of existing networks and the idea is to help communities improve coordination and collaboration between responders and service providers.  

	So before I go too much further I just want to say that I don’t want to forget to tell you where to find a network just in case you are going to look for one.  I strongly suggest that you contact your local area agency on aging because that is sort of ground zero for all of the senior service activities that are going on.  And so you will find lots and lots of resources for your older patrons and their family members there.  But you will also be able to find out whether there is an elder fraud or an elder abuse prevention network or a coalition or a taskforce or something to that effect – the group that’s coming together.  

	Okay so I mentioned on the slide already this is what the report covers.  And those are the states that we cover in the report except for New Hampshire and Vermont.  They’re not covered in the report but we recently did some work up there convening stakeholders and I have to say it is just tremendously gratifying to see folks coming together.  And actually libraries have been coming up as a way to utilize another community resource and to partner with a trusted source for good information.  And so you are very much on the radar screen as a fantastic resource in the community.  

	And I also want to stress that these networks can be a great resource for you.  I am not suggesting that you go to their monthly meetings.  I know you probably don’t have time for that.  But if you were to go to one and introduce yourself and let them know that you would like to have them come, you know, that’s where you’ll find your speaker’s bureau.  That’s where you’ll find some of your great experts in the community who could come and do a presentation for you and also you’ll learn who to report to.  And you’ll build relationships and bridges that will help you with situations that may arise or that you witness whether it be in your own library or in your personal life.  We all have older family members.

	So I’ll just finish by saying the goal of our convenings that we’ve been working on have been to gather these elder justice stakeholders to discuss how they can expand and have collaboration with the goal of preventing and resolving the cases of elder financial exploitation.  And I’m sure that they would welcome your partnership.  

	So now I will pass off to Marjorie. 


>>MARJORIE DOYLE: Hi I’m Marjorie Doyle.  I’m a Reference Librarian with Missoula Public Library.  I started working with Missoula Public Library about 15 years ago and was tasked with expanding our senior outreach program.  When I retired four years ago I began working with Dementia for Friendly Missoula as a library liaison.  It surprised me that many of the groups in Missoula that were working on becoming dementia friendly had no idea what libraries were doing.  I did go back to work about three years ago with Missoula Public Library on an on-call part-time basis and continued to work with senior outreach there.  

	On May 16, 2019, marketplace.org did a podcast series in their brains and losses segment on why seniors are more susceptible to financial fraud.  That series of podcasts revealed that 20% of older people admit when they do talk about money with others it’s out of loneliness.  That is people might engage with a scammer because they want to talk to someone, anyone.  One gerontologist put it this way.  Abuse of the elderly is at its core lack of social support.  The cure is social support.  It’s possible that the best way to help vulnerable loved ones is just to be there, to be present in their lives.  Thank you.  
	So why libraries?  Libraries have long been regarded as social gathering places within communities especially smaller, rural communities that may have limited meeting spaces open to all within the community.  Recent articles in Library Journal, Places Journal, The New York Times and elsewhere describe the importance of libraries as public social places and the critical need that they fill.  

	Eric Klinenberg in his new book Palaces for the People describes libraries as places where people gather, bonds form and communities are strengthened.  He cites a 2016 survey conducted by the Pew Research Center which states that about half of all Americans ages 16 and over used a public library in the past year.  He continues libraries don’t just provide free access to books and other cultural materials, they also offer things, like, companionship for older adults, de facto childcare for busy parents, language instruction for immigrants and welcoming public spaces for the poor, the homeless and young people.

	This is why libraries are important not only for the community in general but also for the aging population that may be experiencing cognitive decline.  Why libraries are important sectors for dementia friendly communities.  Dementia Friendly America’s Web site opens their library sector guide with the statement libraries provide access to resources, services and programs for people living with dementia and their families.  

	Everyone has been touched by dementia in some way.  I was presenting some basic information on Alzheimer’s disease within the library during a staff training.  I began by asking how many on staff had someone in their family or knew someone with dementia.  All but one person raised their hand out of a staff of 45.  Dementia is not a specific disease.  It’s an overall term that describes a group of symptoms.  Dementia is the loss of cognitive functioning, thinking, remembering and reasoning and behavioral abilities to such an extent that it interferes with the person’s daily life and activities.  

	Worldwide 50 million people are living with Alzheimer’s and other dementias.  Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia in older adults.  More than 16 million Americans provide unpaid care for 5.8 million people with Alzheimer’s or other dementias.  And provided an estimated 18.5 billion hours of care.  I asked some colleagues from the American Library Association interest group on Alzheimer’s and related dementias.  What the important things that libraries need to remember about serving those at risk for fraud.  

	In the library in general it is important for staff to be alert and as attentive to senior visitors as one would be to all visitors.  Provide staff training on recognizing the symptoms of dementia. Staff should also know that questions should be direct and that they should allow time for a response.  A good library experience can pave the way toward confidence in library services and the ability and comfort to ask questions when they need help.  

	In circulation services it is essential to be aware of the possibility and importance of physical and cognitive issues and to provide appropriate assistance in reference services.  It is also important to understand the scope of fraud and recognize the signs of exploitation.  A patron involved in a scam or fraudulent transaction may be furtive or secretive.  We need to use tact and maintain our professional respect for privacy all while looking for ways to help the patron avoid further entanglement.  We need to be non-judgmental in response to requests for assistance.  

	Most libraries have partnerships with a wide variety of service and governmental agencies.  And these partnerships often fall within the library’s function to provide information.  Information may be defined as what is in the books within the library but libraries as community anchors all within the libraries function to provide information.

	Information may be defined as what is in the books within the library.  But libraries as community anchors often find that they are providing information referrals to community services.

	Partnerships may be informal, such as the librarian contacting people they know within a community to present a program of interest, to more formalized partnerships, such as the grant our library received from the Montana Geriatric Education Center at the University of Montana to help fund our Memory Café program.

	And relationships fall between the two ends of the spectrum.  MSU Extension provides publications and programs to libraries to improve the lives of Montana citizens with unbiased research-based education and information, integrating learning, discovery, and engagement to strengthen the well-being of Montanans.

	Dementia Friendly Missoula helps promote our programs with Missoula Aging Services, our area agency on aging.  And they provide volunteers for our programs.

	Local law enforcement provide both needed assistance during library disturbances but also participate in programs at the library.  Libraries everywhere have similar resources within their communities, state or through federal offices that provide, as a part of their mission, educating or providing resources to people.

	Partnerships can range from the local level to the national level.  The American Library Association is a formal partner with Dementia Friendly America as a representative of the library sector within all of our communities.

	They also partner with the Federal Reserve Bank to sponsor Money Smart Week every year and through the Public Library Association has numerous financial literacy guidelines, programs, guides and free literature for libraries.

	Other national partners can include the Alzheimer’s Association for information, training, programming, and handouts.  I was pleased to find out they actually have free staff training for library staffs in the state of Montana.  

	The Web site includes links to resources and includes online resources, publications, and a link to their virtual library.  Their library offers interlibrary loans including DVDs and many other free resources to supplement collections, including databases.

	Dementia Friendly America for sector information on how libraries can increase accessibility, improve programming, and train their staff.  ALA interest group on Alzheimer’s and related dementias has information on best practices and other information for libraries.  The Library Memory Project is a good source for programming ideas.  

	Those benefitting from libraries offering dementia-focused programs, events, information and services include individuals living with memory loss, care partners, professionals, and community members interested in the issue of dementia.

	I have some examples of library programs here on my slide.  And memory cafés are structured informal gatherings for people with memory concerns and their care partners for the purpose of social engagement, enjoyment, and cognitive stimulation.  Facilitated by a library staff member and volunteers, memory cafés provide a warm welcoming venue for social connectedness and information sharing.  

	Sample programs that have been offered by our library range from Christmas music by a university student chamber group with singing and cooking decorated to the Eat Smart nutritionist from our county health department presenting information about healthy diets and the link between healthy eating and cognition.

	We’ve had poetry writing led by the Missoula Area Writing Collaborative and ice-cream tasting sponsored by a local ice creamery business.  Our local area agency on aging, Missoula Aging Services, provides a resource specialist at each café to share information on local resources with both the caregivers and any family members that will attend.

	Large print collections can be instrumental in keeping elder patrons engaged in reading.  And the topics run the gamut of fiction and non-fiction genres and topic areas.  

	Our collection also includes the New York Times large print weekly supplement.  Experience and research show that even persons with a middle to late stage dementia diagnosis can benefit from reading literature and obtaining information.  So libraries need to make this information available in formats that are easy to access and to read.  

	We offer free computer classes and these were started with the intent to offer basic beginner classes to prepare users, primarily seniors, with the skills to go on to more advanced classes without feeling intimidated.

	Our class topics range from computer fundamentals to programming, e-books, and social media as well as registering entries in the county fair when they went to online registrations.

	Memory-making kits include games and materials to enhance cognition and choosing a different kit each time can increase the impact while not costing the patron family or care partner lots of money for a variety of activities.

	Themed resource bags can include a number of books, movies, and music CDs geared toward different cognitive levels engaging multiple senses along with related activities to encourage discussion on the topic which are similar to the Effingham Public Library Forget Me Not Resource Center’s reminisce kits.  

	Outreach visits to the homebound within senior residences are made by our library every four weeks to coincide with circulation due dates.  Visits are at a variety of residential facilities covering a range of cognitive levels.  Deliveries are also available to private homes and can be done by volunteers and managed by a librarian.

	There have even been discussions about having local Meals on Wheels volunteers participate in deliveries to individuals.  Other programs to consider including read-aloud programs with the people involved choosing material appropriate, Tales and Travels, a program developed by the Gail Borden Public Library Tales and Travel Memories project.

	Music and memory programs can use local talent or one of professionally designed programs.  These programs can provide training on how to create and provide personalized playlists to reconnect with the world through music-triggered memories.

	Programs for those with dementia should offer a safe and welcoming environment that provides entertainment, educational opportunities, recreation, and engage their senses.  Library programs are not intended to retrain or help regain memory. 

	They can, however, increase their quality of life by giving care partners an experience with the person living with dementia outside of the daily caregiving routine.

	These programs can also decrease the feelings of isolation that often occur once a diagnosis of dementia is made.  One of the major problems that families, individuals, or couples face after a dementia diagnosis is that quote, “All of our friends disappeared.”  A welcoming library program free of stigma can help them feel that they are not alone.  

	Web Junction is where public library staff gather to build the knowledge, skills, and support they need to power relevant, vibrant libraries.  A program of OCLC research, Web Junction is free and welcome to all libraries to use regardless of size, type or location.

	So I checked to see what they might have on our topic and found this page with the link at the bottom.  How many of us have spent long hours planning a program only to have few attendees?  This is often the case with the programs on seniors and financial exploitation.

	Whether it is because of the stigma or because when it comes to financial scams, people don’t know what they don’t know.  And they tend to not seek information until they become victims. 

	To increase the likelihood of success for a library program, they suggest following the - suggest considering the following tips.  Partner with a local celebrity or anyone who has a significant following to promote or host your program.

	When you host a financial program that’s well attended by seniors such as estate or retirement planning, include a segment about financial scams and how to avoid them rather than making it the focus of your program.

	Sharing a handout with tips for protecting yourself and the warning signs of a scam.  In our library we often place handouts in holders on the shelves within the library where relevant titles are shelved.  So these would be in the 364.163 area or the 362.88.

	Interview an expert for a Facebook Live video.  This will allow people to watch and ask questions as it happens or to check it out later, including a contact number for victims to call for help.

	According to news media Alliance, the median age for daily newspaper readers is 57.9 years.  Consider an ad for a library program in your local paper.  Our library has a weekly column in the Sunday paper which we use to highlight programs and share information.

	Money is a sensitive subject so bring in an expert to train your staff on how to talk with and listen to patrons about financial issues so that one-on-one interactions are not missed opportunities to help someone.

	Broaden your target audience for traditionally senior-focused programs because adult programs should appeal and be of value to adults across the age spectrum.

	And then I have just included a couple of additional pages so that you have links and information about some of the resources that we have and a list of best practices for services to seniors and dementia friendly libraries and also Webinars that are available for later viewing.

	For libraries, person-centered care is the current gold standard for those with dementia.  The key points of person-centered care are treating the person with dignity and respect, understanding their history, lifestyle, culture and preferences including their likes, dislikes, hobbies and interests, looking at situations from the point of view of the person with dementia, providing opportunities for the person to have conversations and relationships with other people, ensuring the person has the chance to try new things or take part in activities they enjoy.

	I just have to share a conversation that I had with an elder friend.  She was describing a phone call that she had gotten from a man who wanted to warn her about viruses on her computer.  And she said, “I don’t have a computer.”  And he said, “You’re lying.”  And she said, “No, I’m not.”  

	And so she got into a long conversation with him about why she was not lying and why - and I said, “Why did you not just hang up on him?”  And I think that this hearkens back to what I said at our opening.  If somebody wants to talk - you know, older people that are by themselves want to have somebody to talk with.

	In any way, our libraries need to consider ways that they can be person-centered in their service to their community.  And we need to provide safe spaces for our elders.

	I’ll now invite Katy and (Richard) from the legal services developer program of the Montana DPHHS to discuss their resources.


>>KATY LOVELL:	Thank you Marjorie.  And thank you all for joining us today and for listening in on future Webinars.  We really appreciate it.  My name is Katy Lovell.  I’m the legal service developer for the state of Montana.  And there is a legal service developer in all 50 states.

	It’s a federally mandated position funded – or excuse me, called for – under the Older Americans Act.  And it’s a position that does a lot of different things in different states.  But in Montana we operate a legal advice and assistance program that works with seniors age 60 and above and adults with disabilities as well as their families and caregivers to provide advice and legal assistance on a wide range of civil/legal issues.

	We served over 1000 Montanans last year with advice questions ranging from landlord/tenet to consumer finance to a lot of our work is focused around financial exploitation, both addressing exploitation that’s currently happening and preventing exploitation from happening in the future.

	We have an advice line that’s staffed by an attorney and two paralegals.  It’s open five days a week.  Seniors can call in; family members can call in on a wide range of legal issues to get advice and legal advocacy assistance helping them find the right form (unintelligible).
 

>>RICHARD HEITSTMAN:	Well it looks like we lost Katy there.  She should be getting back on the call soon but I will take over with her slides for now.  Another thing that the Legal - or by the way, my name is (Richard Heistman).  I’m the project coordinator for the Senior Financial Defense Grant.  And I am part of the Legal Service Developer Program.

	Another thing we do aside from the legal advice line is outreach events.  So we try to go to locations across Montana to - as far as things like conferences, presentations for Indian land buy-back, things like that, in order to, you know, let people know that the Legal Service Developer Program exists and let them know what our resources are. 

	We find that a lot of the times resources for seniors exist.  The problem is just that they don’t know about them, so that’s what we are attempting to do with our outreach efforts.

	We also run the Senior Financial Defense Grant, of which I am the coordinator for.  This is a project funded by VOCA that focuses on limiting financial exploitation in Montana.  And I’m going to talk a little bit more about that later.

	And lastly we host legal documents clinics.  And what these are is they’re a series of legal clinics which we host throughout Montana in which senior citizens age 60 and over and also any enrolled tribal member can have their estate planning documents done for them free of charge.

	We do things like wills, powers of attorney, stuff like that.  And we’ll discuss those a little bit more in more detail later.  Looks like Katy has joined us so I will let her go with the next slide.

>>KATY LOVELL:	Thank you (Richard).  Thanks for taking over for me.  So we have a legal advice line like I discussed earlier, and it’s a very popular service here in Montana.  It’s kind of a well-hidden secret.  We’ve been doing a lot of outreach in the last few years to try to increase awareness among seniors and among aging professionals across the state in order to get that number out there a little bit more widely.

	But we do work very closely with all of the ten area agencies on aging as well as senior centers, ombudsmen, adult protective services and any other aging professional that we can bring to the table.

	We work with contracted attorneys and paralegals that provide the actual advice.  And it’s a really great program.  So far it’s been working really well here in the state of Montana.  Most states legal service developers do not run the program directly in house.  It’s usually something that’s contracted out to your local legal aid association.

	But in Montana we run it in house.  So it may look different in your state but the services being provided should be very, very similar across each state.

	We cover hundreds of legal topics.  One of the ones that I wasn’t expecting when I started this job was how many student financial aid questions we were going to be receiving.  

	So every year we do a little bit different topics.  They seem to be our - it kind of varies what is our number one topic for the year.   Over the years, however, one of the constants is financial exploitation.  And we’re only seeing the need for those cases increase as each year scammers find new and inventive ways to scam seniors.

	And we are seeing a rise in caregiver abuse as well in Montana, especially as we combat the opioid drug crisis and crises with meth, methamphetamine usage, which can lead to rising exploitation by caregivers.

	We have a limited number of staff.  There are four full-time staff members and then the (unintelligible) member that serves with the program.  And we opened over 1000 cases last year.  We have a very large demand for legal assistance in this state.

	There is one other legal aid association in Montana that’s a public - or excuse me, a nonprofit organization that takes cases, which is Montana Legal Services.  They have a full-time staff of many more people and cover a much wider range of issues in that they cover everyone from 18 and older and their legal issues.

	So they do a lot of domestic violence work.  They do a lot of consumer protection work.  And we work hand-in-hand with them on a lot of cases.  We actually fund a position over at Montana Legal Services to do full service legal issues around elder exploitation, neglect, and abuse.

	And it’s a good partnership.  It’s been a new partnership and we’re really excited to continue working with them because like I said the need is just huge and it grows every day here in Montana as it does across the country.

	We are funded by the Older Americans Act.  Funds come from the ten area agencies on aging and they come to the state where we contract out that money.  Like I said in other states, those contracts are usually divided up between legal aid associations within the state.

	But it’s a program that allows us to provide a lot of legal services here in Montana with a limited budget.  And it works pretty well here in Montana.  Part of the other source of our funding is through a grant that we receive through the Montana Board of Crime Control.

	It is VOCA funds, which is Victims of Crime Act.  And (Richard) is the project coordinator for that grant.  So (Richard) I’m going to go ahead and let you give them a little bit of background on that.


>>RICHARD HEITSTMAN:  Great, thank you.  Yes, so like Katy said, our grant, the Senior Financial Exploitation Grant, aims to do just what it says, to limit exploitation of seniors in Montana.  So we are doing that through a number of ways.

	As Katy said, it is VOCA funded.  Normally VOCA funds are aimed towards services for victims.  Actually where their funds come from are fines that are paid into the criminal justice system by criminals.  And then they’re doled out to organizations to help victims.  So I think there’s kind of a poetic justice in that.

	The grant’s focus is to reduce financial exploitation in our state.  There’s obviously a lot of ways in which we do that.  One of the big ones is enhancing reporting.  

	So when we’re going out and talking to folks, doing outreach events, holding other events that we’ll talk about a little bit later, our main goal is to spread our information and let folks know that they can report exploitation to us.  If we’re able to help them with it, we will.  If not, we’ll get it to the people that can.  

	Another way in which we’re combatting financial exploitation is direct representation with our partners.  Katy spoke a little bit about the Montana Legal Services Association and the position that we are funding over there.  It’s a position that focuses on financial exploitation cases.

	And so now when we have a case that we think we can handle in house, we’re actually able to give them to one of our attorneys over there that can actually litigate on cases, which is a huge step for us.

	Another reason or another way we are addressing financial exploitation is just by again assisting with reporting.  So whether it’s reporting to our organization or an organization like Adult Protective Services – even CFPB we’ve reported to in the past – our goal is to enhance reporting in general, not necessarily just to our program but across the board.

	This grant also funds our outreach in our clinics.  And I will tell you a little bit more about our outreach efforts right now.  First we do Indian land buy-back events.  So what the Indian land buy-back is all about is it’s a federal program that goes to the reservations and buys fragmented land back from individual owners.
	
	And then that land is collectively given to the reservation itself.  So the program aims to limit the fractionization of Indian lands.  Obviously with it there’s going to be an influx of money into the reservations.  And as we all know, anywhere money goes, scammers follow.

	So Katy and I have been working really hard to get to most of these events and make sure that we give a presentation on exploitation and let folks know what kind of scams exist out there because they’re sure to encounter them.

	Another thing we do during our outreach are senior center visits.  Usually we do these just by request.  And we’ll go to a specific senior center and again give them information on exploitation, give them some examples of the types of scams that we’ve seen, scams that we see nationally.

	And then of course we give them our information and, you know, enhance their ability to report to us as well as other organizations.

	We also work with the Senior Companions Program.  What that is, is they work with seniors who are paid - it’s a pretty modest stipend but they are paid for their services.  And they help other seniors that are homebound with things like getting groceries, taking them to appointments, stuff like that.

	We actually work with the senior companions themselves and train them on how to look for signs of exploitation and abuse and then let them know who to report to should they see those signs.

	We also go to professional conferences.  We’ve been to the gerontology conference most recently.  We go to the National Law and Aging Conference in Washington, D.C. each year.  And if we’re invited anyway we always try to present at these conferences and make sure that not only the public knows about our resources but also professionals that we partner with.  And that’s usually our audience at these conferences.  

	Lastly we like to know how we could work with libraries during our outreach.  I think our model for presentations would be really easily done in a library setting.  I think they’re a natural partner so I think part of the reason Katy and I did this presentation is so we could learn a little bit more about how we could work with libraries.  So I think outreach is a big opportunity for us.

	Okay, I think we went a little bit out of order but that’s all right.  And I will let Katy talk about the legal documents clinics and how those work.


>>KATY LOVELL:	Sure.  So one of the main objectives under the Financial Defense Grant that we receive through the VOCA was to do a lot of training within the communities and also serve as a resource within communities so that people had a trusted source or trusted location where they could report financial exploitation.

	So one of the vehicles that we’ve used to do this is our legal document clinics.  And those clinics are traveling clinics that goes to locations across the state of Montana.  We visit at least six communities, hopefully up to eight, each year.

	We bring in attorneys and paralegals.  We bring in our own equipment.  And we actually complete estate planning documents for seniors.  As part of those clinics we conduct a training the day before.  

	The training is intended to train local attorneys as well as local aging professionals about how to spot financial exploitation as well as what to do once you’ve seen it in your community and as well as working with clients who may have diminished capacity either because of Alzheimer’s or a stroke or some other age-related or disease-related issue going on in their lives at that moment.

	We have expanded that training to include nurses and social workers.  That training is approved for CLE credits which are continuing legal education credits, for attorneys, CEU credits, which are continuing education units for social workers, and credits for nurses for their continuing education credits as well.

	So that encourages those people to attend the trainings and it’s been really successful in driving out participation.

	We also have started inviting local barber shops, local salons, local electricians, local plumbers because a lot of times these are people that are in seniors’ homes that work with them on a daily basis in a situation that can feel really neutral where someone may disclose financial exploitation.

	We also send those invitations out to libraries and anyone else really in communities that we go to because we like to get as many people through those trainings as possible.

	We partner with adult protective services here in Montana to present those trainings.  And they’ve been very effective and very well received.  We do pre and posttests to make sure that we are training on the correct material and that the material is effective in helping attendees expand their knowledge of financial exploitation.

	And I think we’ve done a really good job of that.  And we’d be happy to share those trainings across the country.  And we’d also be happy to do those trainings in libraries as a resource in our community.  And I’m sure other states are developing something similar. They do estate planning documents at these clinics as a way to address financial exploitation that’s currently happening and as a way to help seniors take control over their finances and their lives and hopefully in order to prevent future financial exploitation.

	The second goal of these clinics is really to create a resource in the community to create a trusted relationship where seniors can feel free to come back to us when financial exploitation happens to them or to someone in their community. We’re seeing a high rate of success in getting clinic participants to return to us when they come up with other legal needs that they’re having in their lives or in their communities and also passing out our contact information among their community members. So it’s been very successful in that regard and it’s a model that we found very useful in building relationships into parts of Montana that we would normally have access to into a very rural and small communities.

	We provide partnerships through local law firm that provides veteran information. So we look to assist veterans in getting all of the benefits, getting access to all the benefits they are entitled to as well as their spouses and widows in order to provide more financial resources. We see a lot of seniors that live very close to the edge of the federal poverty level and just situational poverty. And this is one of the ways that we’re hoping to increase resources into these communities and also give them another place another professional that they can talk to.

	We provide access to these clinics to victim services. We always invite the local victim services representative in every community that we go to. And we do this through the court system and also through working with the Board of Crime Control. They have other sub grantees in communities across the state and we always invite those sub grantees and victim services to attend the clinic and provide additional resources to seniors. And like I said it’s a good source of training for professionals. We get a lot of very diverse groups of people that come to the trainings and come to the clinics and - that are very good hands on experience for attorneys and professionals across the state.

	And we’ve tried to incorporate spotting financial exploitation and adjusting financial exploitation into every aspect of the work that we do from any client call, to any presentation, to any outreach event we tried to make sure that we have a focus on financial exploitation in everything that we’re doing because you’ll never know when you meet someone who is being exploited or who knows someone who is and then you can provide that resource right there so that they don’t have to retort further. (Richard), why don’t you talk about how we work with libraries or how we could work with libraries? (Richard), are you still on mute? Did we lose you?


>>RICHARD HEITSTMAN: Sorry about that I was still on mute. I’m still figuring out this whole cell phone thing. They’ve only been around for 20 years so. As Katy said we are interested in working more with libraries. We had to sheepishly admit when the CFPB first came to us that we don’t work with libraries very much. But since then we’ve been brainstorming ways we could work with them, ways we want to work with them in the future, one of which is invitations to trainings.

	Katy talked about the trainings that we do before each clinic and we have decided to extend our invitation to include librarians as well. They’re natural partners, you know, they work with seniors quite a bit. As we’ve gone over earlier in the Webinar they’re a trusted source of information. They’re well-known in the community. So it was just a natural partner to reach out to them and make sure that professionals from libraries could attend our trainings and benefit from those trainings as well. We think they would be an excellent source of reports for us in the future.

	Another way we are working with libraries is through clinic advertising. We send them the flyers for our clinics and give them a little bit of information about them not only to get any staff members that may be eligible for our clinic but also so that they can post those flyers around the libraries and provide that information to seniors that they talk to on a daily basis. So often we find that libraries have the big bulletin board out front especially in small communities in Montana and in a lot of communities that is the main source of news. So they’ve been a great partner for clinic advertising and we think they’ll be very successful in the future at helping us fill those clinics.

	Obviously there’s a lot more room for involvement in the future. I think there’s a lot of potential for outreach. These presentations that we do on financial exploitation we have a projector that we bring with us. We have a screen we bring with us. So really we could do them anywhere that people are willing to gather and obviously libraries are a great location. They’ve got the equipment already, they’ve got the space and they’re well-known throughout their communities. So I think in the future we’ll be a lot more available for libraries if they do want to partake in some of the type of training or outreach.

	Also one way in which we actually have used one library in the past as a location for our events. We hosted a clinic training at the Red Lodge Library here in Montana. And it was kind of a last minute thing the senior center wasn’t able to accommodate us the day before the librarian stepped up they said no problem you can have as much space and as much time as you need. So I think in the future they’re going to play a larger role in actually housing some of our clinics and our trainings as well. Other than that like Katy said we’re very open to new ideas, new approaches to working with librarians and we’re really excited that this is now on the forefront of people’s minds and that this is something that we’re thinking about. So with that being said I’m going to turn it back over to Jenefer.


>>JENEFER DUANE: Great, thank you all. Thank you (Richard) and Katy for that, really appreciate it. I learned a lot of things about what you do that I didn’t know so appreciate this. And I wanted to just before we go on to the next slide I want to talk about resources but I wanted to just give a special shout out to (Richard) and Katy who attended the convening that we hosted in Montana. It was in Bozeman, Montana and it was for the establishment of the Montana Elder Fraud and Financial Exploitation Prevention Network.

	And the network is actually as many of them are is a little different in that it isn’t – it wasn’t established by the usual stakeholders being Adult Protective Services, law enforcement or even legal services it was actually started by a banker who is on the Executive Board of the State Financial Literacy Association. And being a banker she sees and is the sort point to – she’s point of contact in the bank because of her interest and her knowledge of the issue. When financial exploitation occurs she’s often the one who gets the call or is suspected I should say gets the call. Anyway she started an initiative and eventually had the convening and now there is this network that is statewide under the financial literacy organization for the state of Montana. So thank you very much (Richard) and Katy and I just want to give special shout out to Montana. You guys are just doing great work up there.

	So we’ll go through a few of our resources. We had a lot of resources to share that are both for professionals, intermediaries and also for consumers, older consumers and consumers across the lifespan. However this resource guide for Elder Fraud Prevention and Response Network may not be of great interest to you specifically as a librarian but it occurred to me that if you were to go to a local network meeting to introduce yourself and perhaps even give a – offer a presentation on how libraries can work together and inform them of what you’re at seeing libraries if you’re witnessing situations as Marjorie was talking about or if you have special programs for older people and family caregivers I strongly urge you to look up your local network and go to a meeting.

	And you might take this resource guide along with you because it may be helpful to them to see some of this information. It’s not just for starting a network there’s also a lot of references to resources and information from established networks within it. And I would also ask your local network coordinators and your - or stakeholders if you don’t have a network you talk to APS, talk to law enforcement, talk to legal services and ask to be included in training opportunities. I think that a whole lot of doors would be open to you immediately with great respect and gratefulness for all you do.

	Okay, so one of our programs is Money Smart for Older Adults. This is I’m very pleased to say that we received an award this year just on April 15 we were presented with the Gloria Cavanaugh Award for Excellence in Training and Education. And this is from the American Society on Aging. So it was a very nice acknowledgment of the program. I’ll go quickly through it. It was, we developed this program jointly with the FDIC. It’s an  - we developed it as an instructor led training meaning we and others train trainers to deliver Money Smart to older for Older Adults to older people and others.

	And it what it does is it raises awareness on how to prevent elder financial exploitation and it encourages planning and informed financial decision making. The objectives are first and foremost to help people to recognize and reduce the risk of elder financial exploitation. There is a very robust section on identity theft. One of the greatest risk factors out there around elder financial exploitation is that people do not necessarily plan for the loss, for an unexpected loss of the ability to manage their finances in other words they’re not planning for diminished capacity. And that is something that we really need to do and actually legal services as you are hearing from Katy and (Richard) is, that’s very much what they’re doing when they’re doing estate planning is they’re helping people to make plans for when they are unable to manage their finances or to regain control if they have perhaps signed a power of attorney they realize that they chose the wrong person. They may be legal services could help to revoke a power of attorney or do what needs to get done. And in Money Smart for Older Adults we touch upon these subjects.

	We also have a section on preparing financially for disasters which is increasingly becoming a major thing in this country. And also there’s a large section on finding helpful resources for reporting elder financial exploitation and on managing financial matters. There - I mentioned that, I said that it was an instructor led training it is however the program will stand alone and I’ll tell you how in a moment. There is a resource guide. And the resource guide covers common types of financial exploitation but as an instructor led section segment that’s about a 40 minute presentation. And then you can always customize your 40 minute presentation with a ten minute section on scams that target homeowners, ones that target veterans, the planning for unexpected life events again which would be great to partner with your local legal services on, being financial for disasters as I mentioned.

	These are the primary topic areas and we cover I think about 20 different scams although of course that doesn’t cover the world of scams but it covers enough we hope to give people a basic understanding of the most common types of frauds and scams and to develop an awareness of being suspicious, and warning signs, and the different kinds of methods that scammers or family members and other people will, you know, methods that they use to separate older people from their money. And to help people become more suspicious, and to ask more questions, and to say no, to get ask for help, to know where to report suspected elder financial exploitation or where to report and ask for help but also to feel empowered.

	And I think Marjorie said this in a very, very nice way earlier about empowering people to reach out for help. The number one reason why older people do not report elder financial exploitation is because of shame, and embarrassment, and fear of losing their independence, fear of being declared incapacitated, fear of being shamed somehow or being retaliated against. And while the big message is here within Money Smart for Older Adults and I think that we all share in the elder justice world is that the shame is not on the victim. And that older people and even family caregivers need to be empowered to reach out to the support that exists in the community and ask for help so what that we’ll go on to curriculum components. There is the instructor guide. And I’m not suggesting that you all become instructors you may like, you may want to become instructors and it’s very easy to do that with this guide. It’s fully scripted and very easy to follow with the PowerPoint slides on one side and the content for delivery on the other.

	The curriculum is 300 minutes’ worth of material. So we do not recommend that it be delivered all in one sitting. It is designed to be broken up into sections and customized. So you could break it out into a series or you may want to introduce your local network to the Money Smart program if they don’t already have an outreach program and say we would love for somebody to come in teach this over a three month or a six month period or whatever you want to do or around a focal event such as World Elder Abuse Awareness Day or Older Americans Month which is May by the way right now. So there are opportunities and you could share these resources with others in the community that may not know they exist and they may want to adopt them and partner with you to deliver them.

	The resource guide is of itself it’s designed to support the classroom instruction but it is absolutely standalone. You can hand one to an older person or it can be on the shelf at your library and people can take it, and walk with it, and read it, and get what they need to get out of it. And then the PowerPoint can be downloaded from the FDIC’s Web site. We’ll give you that info in a moment but that supplements the classroom instruction. And the resource guide for Money Smart for Older Adults has a lot of parts to it.

	It’s not just straight reading it has information of course but it also has activities that help the reader learn the material. There’s lots of tools and instructions. There’s a robust glossary of terms in the back. One of the problems with elder abuse and elder financial exploitation is that it really isn’t quite yet in the mainstream enough that these are household words. A lot of folks hear or know that something is going on in the family, or that somebody is being taken advantage of or the use these words but they don’t know what it is, they don’t know how to speak about it. And so we hope that and we think that with Money Smart for Older Adults that this is helping to improve. And every time we do outreach we’re helping to improve people’s vocabulary and bring the situation to light, reduce the amount of isolation and fear around it, empower people to report, et cetera. So there, I’ve got off track, glossary but the glossary is intended to support that as well. Lots of resources and as I mentioned it serves as a standalone.

	And the resource guide can be ordered in bulk. We’ll tell you where to go to get that but you can order as many copies as you need, there’s no limit. And they are free of charge and shipping included. If you have an event coming up and you need any of our materials -- we have quite a few aside from Money Smart -- do order four to six weeks in advance. You can get away with three to four weeks in advance but if you have an event we highly recommend four to six weeks in advance to be sure that you get them in time.

	The instructor guide has all these items you see. The icon guide really is just a visual reference to whether you are at a place where you are speaking, or whether you’re asking the audience a question or whether you’re engaging them in an activity so it’s quite a well-rounded well-designed program that meets the needs of different types of instructors who have different ways of delivering. So it has nice visual references throughout for those that benefit them. Lots of activities all the different frauds and scams, now within the instructor guide there is also a summary and posttest that you can hand to your participants, your class or you can assess, you can ask them to assess your training with the evaluation form.

	Now just to make sure we let you know where to go to get help for an older person or where to direct an elder person or a family member to go to get help. The primary reporting agency is Adult Protective Services. They may have different names in different communities so you can find them very easily and you can also find networks at the same location. This is a national Web site. It’s eldercare.gov. If you go on there that is actually a network of all the area agency on aging’s throughout the country. So that’s a national Web site.

	And all you need to do is just put in your ZIP Code or you can put in the ZIP Code of the victim or the person you’re concerned about. And the AP – the list of resources through the local area agency on aging will come up under that ZIP Code. It will be tied directly to that particular area agency on aging. And you can usually find in the list I think almost always the elder abuse you go down to elder abuse and click on that and that’ll give you the hotline for adult protective services. There’s also a phone number that can be called.

	Now you can hand this to someone or you can call it yourself. And I also want to mention that calls to Adult Protective Services can be made anonymously. They’re actually very protected. APS is not allowed to share information about the reporter. They are not allowed to return, come back around to you and tell you what happened with their visit should they visit the older person. They are covered under HIPAA privacy laws and so, you know, it may seem a little unsatisfying but if you are concerned about an older person and you feel that somebody should look in on them and you cannot convince them to call themselves or you don’t have a way to get a hold of their family and you’re really concerned please consider calling Adult Protective Services and letting them know about this person.

	If the person is in danger, you feel that they are in danger or that a crime has actually been committed they should be encouraged to call the police. They might prefer to do that from the library rather than from home where they can. Where they will not have a police car pull up in front of their house. That could actually be a very good way to connect them and have them in a private room somewhere where they can have a chat. And the same with Adult Protective Services they may be willing to meet somebody at the library away from whoever it is at home that’s abusing them or whatever the case is. You may actually be a really effective lifeline for folks so keep that in mind.

	I’m going to share here we have the managing someone else’s money guides. These are designed for financial caregivers, people who are taking on the fiduciary responsibility of being either an agent under power of attorney, a guardian or a conservatory, a trustee of a trust, a Social Security or Department of Veterans representative payee. And I will say that I believe and Katy and (Richard) could correct me if I’m wrong but the POA, the agents under power of attorney and the Social Security and Veterans representative payees would be the most common combination of need out there. The POA is probably more so but they run hand in hand.

	People who are POAs, agents under power of attorney are often Social Security payees as well as are the trustees, et cetera. But these are – include tips on protecting assets from frauds, and scams. That all of our materials are pretty much are available in English and Spanish. But I also want to suggest that these are not just for family caregivers. I highly recommend sharing them with older people who may be needing to consider appointing a power of attorney or another type of fiduciary.

	And the reason I say that is because often older people appoint the wrong one. They appoint by tradition the oldest son or they appoint someone who offers who may not have their best interests in mind. And so I think it would be very beneficial for older people to read these guides or at least get a feeling from these guides as to what’s required of the person in that position. And then they may think twice about appointing someone who has money management problems, or drug alcohol, or gambling issues, or who is otherwise unsuitable to manage their money. We really want older people to be thinking about that and thinking about it in advance of, you know, cognitive impairment coming on. Actually we should all be thinking about it. If you are over 40 you should be on it I’ll put that out there right now. There’s no, you can’t really start too soon on this stuff.

	And then I mentioned sort of focal months, focal points may being Older Americans Month. We’re in it right now but perhaps next year that would be a theme that you may want to focus on. June 15 World Elder Abuse Awareness Month, there might be a lot of activities going on. Well we know there are a lot of activities going on but you might – it might be good timing to try to connect with some of your local elder justice advocates because they may well be out there in the community beating the drum on World Elder Abuse Awareness Month and doing events. But that also is something that may be of interest to you next year is some events around World Elder Abuse Awareness Month. November is National Family Caregivers Month. I believe September is Grandparents Month. But again any time is the right time to address this issue. You don’t need a focal month but sometimes those are helpful and can help generate a little press around the issue or otherwise.

	And last well okay so while you’re looking at that slide I’m just going to mention in addition to Money Smart for Money Smart and managing someone else’s money we have some other publications like, Know Your Financial Advisor with a checklist to vet your own financial advisor. pension lump sum payouts and your retirement security information, how to protect your retirement pension. Another hot topic that you may get a lot of questions about is reverse mortgages. And we have a publication called, Considering a Reverse Mortgage question mark. That also has a checklist very simple short checklist that helps people to determine whether reverse mortgages are suitable for them or not. We have a reverse mortgage discussion guide and we have a lot more. We have a – we have several online tools as well.

	So you can order and download our publications for free at the consumerfinance.gov/olderamericans. That’ll take you directly to our page. And we encourage you also to sign up for our information distribution list. It’s like an email list. We send out about an email every four to six weeks. Sometimes it’s an announcement of older report, sometimes it’s an announcement of a new product like we have a series of placemats that are used by senior services, senior service centers where congregant males are being served and for special events. So you can order all kinds of goodies online free of charge and you can tell others in the networks that you connect with that they too can have access to these resources. So with that I will turn it back over to Ken. And I think you’re very, very much for all you do and for all of your care and concern for your older patrons and the community that supports them.

>>KEN MCDONNELL: Great, thank you all for attending. I thank my, our speakers who presented a great deal of knowledge and a lot of stuff for us to all ruminate over. So thank you again for your time and have a good day.

>>COORDINATOR:	That concludes today’s conference. Thank you for participating. You may disconnect at this time.


END