Seeking Volunteers for 2025 Texas Elder Justice Coalition committees!
We’re seeking passionate and dedicated individuals to join our committees. If you’re interested in making a positive impact, collaborating with others, and contributing to important decisions, we encourage you to reach out. No prior experience required—just a 30 -60 minute meeting each month, a commitment to teamwork and a willingness to learn!
· Collaboration committee
· Professional Education committee
· Older Adult Financial Exploitation Awareness, Education and Services committee
· Resources/fundraising
If you’d like to get involved, please reach out to dhoffman@guardianshipservices.org by February 14, 2025.
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TEJC Recordings Available on YouTube
You can find the recordings of the 2024 speakers on the Texas Elder Justice Coalition’s Youtube channel. Presenters included: Amanda Polk, APS, Pat Gleason-Wynn, Texas Silver Haired Legislature, Jami Palmer, Frost Bank, Det Jeff Prater, Colleyville Police Department, Anna Thomas, Georgia Department of Human Services, Brad Cannel, UTHealth Institute of Aging, Andrea Earl, AARP Texas, Amy Allen, Legal Aid, Dana Hoffman, Texas Elder Justice Coalition, Renae Perry, The Senior Source.
CLICK HERE FOR TEJC YouTube channel.
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Texas Elder Justice Coalition Summit
Official Date and Location Announced
Planning for the First Texas Elder Justice Coalition Summit is underway!
Date/time: Tuesday, June 10, 2025 from 8am – 5pm
Location: Lena Pope, 3200 Sanguinet St, Fort Worth, TX 76107
Continuing Education credits will be offered. Stay tuned.
For sponsorship, advertising and exhibition details, contact dhoffman@guardianshipservices.org
Save! Early bird registration is open until 2/28.2025. Register HERE.
Sessions will include:
Storytelling: Justice for Older Victims of Financial Exploitation
Awareness: Research on predictors, prevention and post exploitation
Awareness: Aging Population in Texas, cultural demographics and impact on serving
Prevention: Overcoming silos/ what chapters of TEJC & local MDTs – interactive
Prevention: Federal, state and local resources
Action: Coordinating Locally for awareness, prevention and reporting – interactive
Action: 10 tips on prosecuting financial exploitation
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October Presentation Highlights: Legal Aid, Amy Allen, Supervising Attorney for the Fort Worth Branch of Legal Aid of NorthWest Texas
Legal Aid serves 114 counties in panhandle across the northwest toward north central Texas, including Dallas and Fort Worth. LANWT provides free civil legal services to eligible low-income clients in North and West Texas. (wills, federal tax issues, public benefits, foreclosure prevention, consumer protection, environmental justice, youth rights)
They provide consumer fraud services affecting elderly, like investment fraud and financial scams, deceptive telephone, mail and internet solicitations, Medicare fraud, senior tenants’ rights, mortgage fraud.
Resources: Amy shared links to US Department of Justice website with link to find help near you, recommended reporting to bank as soon as possible, file police report if appropriate, APS, National Elder Fraud Hotline 1-833-FRAUD-11, Eldercare locator helpline 1-800-677-1116 and FTC Consumer advice.
Link to Identity Theft and what to do, Unwanted calls and text messages and what to do and to use annual credit report, what to look for and using proactive security freezes and how to dispute discrepancies.
Create a family password.
Watch presentation on Youtube.
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November Presentation Highlights: Dana Hoffman, Coordinator, Texas Elder Justice Coalition
Dana reviewed the first year of the Texas Elder Coalition grant and survey feedback from Coalition members. Overall, Year 1 grant objectives were achieved, and the Texas Elder Justice Coalition was launched. 119 people have expressed interest and/or participated in monthly meetings. Satisfaction with information, meetings and speakers was all 4.3-4.7 on 5 point scale.
Watch presentation on Youtube.
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December Presentation Highlights: Renae Perry, COO, The Senior Source
Renae shared her extensive background in nonprofit leadership and discussed the significant growth of the older adult population in Dallas, which is expanding at a rate five times faster than other age groups. She emphasized the rising poverty rates among seniors and the increased risks of fraud and scams, underscoring the need for financial security and support services.
Renae detailed the support provided to victims of financial exploitation, including assistance with filing reports and safeguarding their accounts. The Elder Financial Safety Center serves approximately 7,000 individuals each year, helping to protect around $8 million in assets. She also outlined the guardianship services offered by The Senior Source, which assist individuals lacking family or friends, ensuring their needs for safe housing, medical care, and dignity are met. Additionally, Renae discussed the organization’s legislative priorities, focusing on elder financial abuse protections and long-term care facility resident protections, particularly emphasizing the importance of title theft legislation as the state legislative session approaches.
Watch presentation on Youtube.
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TEJC Introduction Webinar
Looking for an introduction to the Texas Elder Justice Coalition, have questions or want to dig a bit deeper?
Join Dana Hoffman for a 30 minute overview covering the mission, committees and goals of the Coalition.
Share with colleagues who would like to learn more!
Next opportunity is February 25 at 2pm.
Contact dhoffman@guardianshipservices.org for virtual meeting info.
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2025 Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Elder Justice Webinars
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB’s) Office for Older Americans is offering new webinars on protecting older adults from financial exploitation.
The 2025 series includes:
• Cognitive Decline and Financial Exploitation in Older Age – Wednesday, February 12, 2:00 – 3:30 Eastern
• Social Isolation and Financial Exploitation in Older Age – Wednesday, March 5, 2:00 – 3:30 Eastern
• Government Imposter Scams and Older Adults – Thursday, March 6, 2:00 – 3:00 Eastern
• Solar Financing and Consumer Protection for Older Adults – Tuesday, April 15, 3:00 – 4:00 Eastern
• Reverse Mortgages, Home Equity Investment Products, and Consumer Protection for Older Adults – Thursday, May 15, 3:00 – 4:00 Eastern
Register HERE.
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Combatting Elder Financial Exploitation
Older adults who experience financial exploitation can lose their life savings and financial security and face other harm. A FinCEN financial trend analysis of Bank Secrecy Act reports over a one-year period ending in June 2023 found that about $27 billion in reported suspicious activity was linked to elder financial exploitation.
Banks, credit unions, and other supervised institutions play an important role in combatting elder financial exploitation and supporting their customers who experience these crimes. In December 2024, five federal financial regulatory agencies, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), and state financial regulators issued a statement to provide supervised institutions with examples of risk management and other practices that may be effective in combatting elder financial exploitation.
The statement provides examples of risk management and other practices that supervised institutions may use to help identify, prevent, and respond to elder financial exploitation, including but not limited to:
Developing effective governance and oversight, including policies and practices to protect account holders and the institution
Training employees on recognizing and responding to elder financial exploitation
Using transaction holds and disbursement delays, as appropriate, and consistent with applicable law
Establishing a trusted contact designation process for account holders
Filing suspicious activity reports to FinCEN in a timely manner
Reporting suspected elder financial exploitation to law enforcement, Adult Protective Services, and other appropriate entities
Providing financial records to appropriate authorities where consistent with applicable law
Engaging with elder fraud prevention and response networks
Increasing awareness through consumer outreach
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Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
Financial Crimes Enforcement Network
National Credit Union Administration
Office of the Comptroller of the Currency
State Financial Regulators
Published December 4, 2024
Original article: https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/agencies-issue-statement-on-elder-financial-exploitation/
Interagency Statement: https://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/documents/cfpb_interagency-statement-on-elder-financial-exploitation_2024-12.pdf
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Upcoming meetings
February monthly meeting:
2/12/2025 2-3pm
Speaker: Kelle Slaughter, CFE, Senior Investigator, Federal Trade Commission
March monthly meeting:
3/12/2025 2-3pm
Speaker: Zack Wheeler, Licensed Medicaid Planner, GreatWorth
April monthly meeting:
4/9/2025 2-3pm
Speaker: Marcela Nava, PhD, MPP, MSSW, Assistant Professor, School of Social Work, University Texas at Arlington
Click HERE to Join the TEJC Monthly Meeting on Microsoft Teams
Meeting ID: 262 864 068 674
Passcode: LwgXJt
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Invite your colleagues to join our monthly meetings.
Texas Elder Justice Coalition (TEJC) is dedicated to safeguarding older Texans from financial exploitation and asks individuals and organizations to take the pledge to Stop the Stigma so that older adults, their families, neighbors and caregivers feel safe to come forward and report any instance of suspected fraud or scams as soon as possible.
If you received this newsletter from a colleague and would like to sign up for more information, sign up by visiting https://txelderjustice.org/join-network/
or contact Dana Hoffman at dhoffman@txelderjustice.org
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