please share info on Elder Financial Abuse ASAP...late notice but important!

This is another step in an endless process in pointing out the failures of our system. Any organization, corporation, program that so obfiscates its rules and regulations, terms of service, etc needs to simplify their materials, contracts, etc. and, if neccessary, needs the government to make that mandatory. 

I have become cynical as I have seen how difficult tasks like completing forms, understand complex material like legal documents, etc, are so challenging that they, by nature, exploit the diminishing capacity of senior citizens. And corporations use this to gain financially.

We need laws to protect preditory and greedy corporations from exploiting the vulnerablities of old age. I have written about my experiences here about corporations such as Home Depot and Verizon and how difficult it is to do business with them, how they mislead everyone and especially seniors simply because seniors often lack the ability to understand terms and service especially written so they cannot be understood as often this results in corporations win....seniors lose....where have I heard this before?

I am not going to apologize for sticking it to greedy corporations who consider government penalties as the price of doing business while they triple their profits.

Be careful out there...the Ryan budget, Mitt Romney's taxes... this is a war on senior citizens too so lets stand with women, labor, the poor and middle class and defeat this...we are a generation that can defeat this anti-humanistic campaign simple by the sheer number of us.

Baby boomers...we can do this alone....a vote for the poor is a vote for yourself as certainly after retirement many of you will find yourself among the very people who need food stamps, medical coverage, etc. Yes, change is difficult but it is the one constant in life. The GOP vision of America is Anti-American.

Please pay attention in the months that follow and make an informed choice about the future, a future that holds your life in the balance.

Blessings,

Irene

Irene A. Masiello

Author of Paradise Costs-A Victim's Daughter Fights Back against Elder abuse

Afterword: Bennett Blum, MD, co-author of "suicide by cop"

=========================

CFPB Seeks Information on Elder Financial Abuse, Financial Advisors for Seniors

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's Request for Information on Senior Financial Exploitation (RFI) is now in the Federal Register. The request seeks information on elder financial abuse and exploitation as well as certifications or designations of financial advisors who serve seniors. The Bureau is seeking as robust a response as possible. If you have regular membership calls or email communications (such as a listserv) and if you think it is appropriate to let your membership know about the RFI, please encourage comment submissions. There is a sixty (calendar) day window for responses. The last day for responses is August 17^th.

Here is the link to the Request https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2012/06/19/2012-14854/request-for-information-regarding-senior-financial-exploitation

Please share your story asap !

Senior discounts? With some checking accounts, it's a senior penalty

By Bob Sullivan

Senior citizens are used to getting good deals. Tell the truth: if you're aren't of AARP age, there have been times you wish you were -- when buying mass transit tickets, for example, or visiting America's national parks (one $10 fee gets you into any park, all year). Plenty of restaurants and other retailers offer "senior days" and other deals.

But take checking accounts off the senior discount list. A new report by the Pew Center on the States warns(.pdf) that so-called senior checking accounts may not be a good deal at all. In fact, in some cases, senior accounts cost much more than a basic checking account.

---

At Bank of America, for instance, a senior account is far more expensive than a basic account. Here are the facts, from Bank of America's website. The bank's “Advantage for Seniors” account costs $25 per month vs. a basic checking account fee of $14 per month. In both cases, consumers can earn a fee waiver, but here again, the senior account comes up short. Direct deposit of paychecks is one way, but that's often not available to seniors, Pew points out in its report. Basic checking users can also avoid fees by maintaining a $1,500 balance in their account; but seniors have to keep at least $5,000 in their account. Fall below $5,000 for even one day, and that's a $25 fee.

"If you have $5,000, and are happy to have it sit in this account, this can be a fine deal," said Susan Urhan, director of Pew's Center on the States. "But the question is: Is the consumer in an account that best suits their needs? The point of this (research) is that consumers need to understand the terms of their accounts."

 

Seniors who could comfortably park $2,000 or $3,000 -- but not more – in their checking accounts would save $300 apiece annually by steering clear of the senior account at Bank of America. And those with balances below $1,500 would still save $132 by picking a standard, basic account instead of the senior account.

The Advantage for Seniors account does offer a few perks, such as fee-free mini-statements from ATMs (they normally cost $1), but Pew concludes in its report that such perks aren’t worth the extra fees.

 

"Essentially, accounts of this type are a luxury account tailored for seniors, not necessarily an improvement on the basic checking package," Pew concluded.

Bank of America spokeswoman Betty Riess said that seniors have a variety of low-cost choices at Bank of America, including its MyAccess product, which provides a fee waiver with any monthly direct deposit of $250 or more, including Social Security payments.

“The Advantage interest-bearing account is designed for customers who have higher balances with us, and the vast majority of seniors in that account do not pay a monthly maintenance fee on the account,” she said. She added that the Advantage account offers one benefit that is quite handy for seniors – an early CD withdrawal without a penalty.

Senior accounts at other banks also offer some tricky choices, but not quite as tricky. At TD Bank, the "60 Plus" account costs $10 monthly(.pdf), more than the $3.99 basic checking account costs, the report found. But it only takes a $250 balance to earn a fee waiver in the TD senior account, a much more manageable threshold.

At BB&T, senior accounts cost $8 per month, and a $1,000 balance earns a fee waiver, a genuine discount compared to the $10 per month the firm charges for its basic "BB&T Bright Banking" account, which requires $1,500 for a fee waiver.

Of course, if your eyes have begun to glaze over at these various numbers, then you've heard the main lesson of the Pew report -- it's not easy to pick the right checking account under even the best of circumstances. Add in a new set of variables, such as those associated with senior accounts, and you’ve got even more confusion. But seniors aren’t the only ones struggling with specialized checking account questions. A related Pew report released the same day looked at student/college checking accounts and found similar problems; some student accounts are inferior to basic accounts, and comparison shopping can be a real challenge.

"We looked at all these disclosures from banks, and 69 pages was the median length," Urhan said. "We're worried this is confusing for people ... for students, for seniors."

Pew is trying to get banks to adopt a simple disclosure format -- similar to nutrition labels on food items -- so consumers could more easily comparison shop and pick the account that's best for them.
Already, TD Bank, Chase and Citibank (since July 17) have voluntarily adopted Pew's fee box, she said. The nonprofit research group also is urging the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to make fee disclosure boxes mandatory.

“It would have the same effect as a nutrition label,” she said. “But until we get that kind of transparency ... it will be hard to make the right choice.”
* Follow Bob Sullivan on Facebook.
* Follow Bob Sullivan on Twitter.