Sen. Susan Collins, chair of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, has reintroduced her Senior Safe Act, which is designed to protect vulnerable adults from financial exploitation.
In introducing the Senior$afe Act of 2017 (S. 223), Collins, R-Maine, noted that the bill aims to protect banks, credit unions, investment advisors, broker-dealers, insurance companies and certain supervisory, compliance and legal employees from civil or administrative liability — as long as they receive training in how to spot and report predatory activity and disclose any possible exploitation of senior citizens to state or federal regulatory and law enforcement entities.
A similar bill passed the House last July.
Collins' bill is based on Maine's Senior$afe program, a collaborative effort by Maine's regulators, financial institutions and legal organizations to educate bank and credit union employees on how to identify and help stop the financial exploitation of older Maine residents.
The program, pioneered by Maine Securities Administrator Judith Shaw, also serves as the template for a model rule developed for adoption at the state level by the North American Securities Administrators Association.
The Financial Services Institute said Tuesday that it urges the Senate “to support the Senior$afe Act of 2017, ensuring that financial advisors and broker-dealers have the ability to report suspicions of financial exploitation whenever they suspect fraudulent behavior without fear of liability,” according to a statement.
NASAA President and Minnesota Commissioner of Commerce Mike Rothman believes Collins' bill “will better protect persons aged 65 and older from financial exploitation by increasing the likelihood it will be identified by financial services professionals, and by removing barriers to reporting it, so that together we as state securities regulators and other appropriate governmental authorities can help stop it,” he said in a statement.
To better ensure that financial services employees have the knowledge and training to identify “red flags” associated with financial exploitation, the bill would require that, as a condition of receiving immunity, financial institutions train certain personnel regarding the identification and reporting of senior financial exploitation.
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Melanie Waddell
Melanie is senior editor and Washington bureau chief of ThinkAdvisor. Her ThinkAdvisor coverage zeros in on how politics, policy, legislation and regulations affect the investment advisory space. Melanie’s coverage has been cited in various lawmakers’ reports, letters and bills, and in the Labor Department’s fiduciary rule in 2024. In 2019, Melanie received an Honorable Mention, Range of Work by a Single Author award from @Folio. Melanie joined Investment Advisor magazine as New York bureau chief in 2000. She has been a columnist since 2002. She started her career in Washington in 1994, covering financial issues at American Banker. Since 1997, Melanie has been covering investment-related issues, holding senior editorial positions at American Banker publications in both Washington and New York. Briefly, she was content chief for Internet Capital Group’s EFinancialWorld in New York and wrote freelance articles for Institutional Investor. Melanie holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Towson University. She interned at The Baltimore Sun and its suburban edition.
