To address the rising number of elder fraud cases, the North American Securities Administrators Association said Tuesday that it has formed a new Board-level committee to tackle the "wide range of challenges" confronting senior investors, regulators and securities industry professionals.
The new Committee on Senior Issues and Diminished Capacity will be chaired by Montana Deputy Securities Commissioner Lynne Egan, and include representatives from the NASAA Board of Directors and each NASAA section — broker-dealer, corporation finance, enforcement, investment advisor and investor education — as well as Canadian securities regulators.
Since 2008, NASAA said, 34% of enforcement actions taken by state securities regulators have involved senior victims among states that track victims by age.
Of the 10,526 enforcement actions initiated between 2008 and 2013 by those states, 3,548 involved victims 62 and older.
Andrea Seidt, NASAA president and Ohio securities commissioner, said in a statement that the above statistic is "conservative, as it does not include cases from states that do not report the age of victims and many senior victims simply do not come forward."
"Protecting senior investors from financial exploitation long has been a primary focus of state and provincial securities regulators," Seidt said. "Regrettably, senior investor fraud and abuse is an ever-growing problem due to the amount of wealth seniors have accumulated throughout their careers and the steadily rising numbers of retirees."
