Reports

Forced collection of Social Security benefits increasingly pushes borrowers into poverty and hardship, undermining the purpose of the Social Security program.

The 2023 Financial Literacy Annual Report describes the CFPB’s financial literacy activities and strategy to improve the financial literacy of consumers.

Reverse mortgage lenders send millions of advertisements to older adult homeowners via mail every year. The CFPB found that the number of such advertisements increased in 2021 and 2022 compared to the previous five years. These advertisements were largely sent to low-and middle-income households, and to southern and western states.

Medical billing practices can leave people 65 and older with inaccurate bills and attempts to collect amounts they do not owe.

The 2022 Financial Literacy Annual Report of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is required under Section 1013 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

Elder financial exploitation (EFE) robs millions of older adults of their money and property. This report provides the first comprehensive description of the experience of how older adults recover from elder financial exploitation.

An analysis of the risks that nursing home residents and their caregivers face by assessing consumer complaints, nursing home admission contracts, and debt collection lawsuits.

Over 1.2 million adults ages 60 and older lost a spouse in 2019. This spotlight describes the characteristics and financial circumstances of older surviving spouses.

This data spotlight examines the characteristics and experiences of the 3.2 million older adults living in mobile homes in 2022.

In 2018, 4.5 million adults ages 65 and older had medical debt, and many experienced significant hardships. This data spotlight describes the characteristics of older adults with medical debt, measured as having a past due medical bill, using the most recent data from the FINRA Foundation National Financial Capability Study (NFCS).

The 2021 Financial Literacy Annual Report details the CFPB’s financial literacy strategy and activities to improve the financial literacy of consumers. Overall, this report describes the CFPB’s efforts in a broad range of financial literacy areas relevant to consumers’ financial lives.

In 2020, financial institutions filed over 62,000 Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) to report suspected elder financial exploitation (EFE) involving over $3.4 billion.

The 2020 Financial Literacy Annual Report of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau details the Bureau’s financial literacy activities and strategy to improve the financial literacy of consumers. Overall, this report describes the Bureau’s efforts in a broad range of financial literacy areas relevant to consumers’ financial lives.

This study examines whether people who retired between 1992 and 2014 were able to maintain the same spending level for five consecutive years after retiring.

The 2019 Financial Literacy Annual Report of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau details the Bureau's financial literacy activities and strategy to improve the financial literacy of consumers. Overall, this report describes the Bureau's efforts in a broad range of financial literacy areas relevant to consumers' financial lives.

This report provides the first state-by-state description of the financial well-being of adults in the United States, as measured by the CFPB Financial Well-Being Scale.

This Advisory Update focuses on financial institution reporting of elder financial exploitation to federal, state and local first responders.

This report describes the outcomes of the Bureau-initiated community convenings in Florida, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Montana, and Oregon. The purpose of the report is to share the learnings and achievements from the convenings to encourage the establishment of new or enhance existing networks and help communities improve coordination and collaboration between responders and service providers.

This report identifies key patterns revealed in Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) on elder financial exploitation filed by financial institutions with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) from 2013 to 2017.

This report explores the factors that are associated with the financial well-being of older Americans. It relies on data from the National Financial Well-Being Survey to examine the distribution of financial well-being scores for adults ages 62 and older in the United States.

The 2017 Financial Literacy Annual Report is a statutorily mandated report to Congress on the Bureau’s activities and strategy to improve the financial capability and well-being of consumers.

This issue brief explores the tradeoffs of borrowing a reverse mortgage loan in order to delay claiming Social Security.

The CFPB has identified ten promising practices for tax assistance providers to help people save when filing their taxes.

Student loan debt is having an increasing impact on older Americans, according to CFPB research.

This report describes CFPB research on ways to help people make decisions for spending their retirement savings. The study explored ways to communicate retirement spending options, whether it is years before retirement or “just in time” when retirement is near.