On June 15, 2021, in recognition of World Elder Abuse Awareness Day, the SEC announced its collaboration with regulatory counterparts, the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), to develop a free, online training program focused on protecting senior investors. The resource, entitled “Addressing and Reporting Financial Exploitation of Senior and Vulnerable Adult Investors”, fulfills implementation requirements pursuant to the Senior Safe Act of 2018.
This act:
- addresses challenges financial professionals face in reporting suspected senior financial exploitation or abuse to authorities
- encourages reporting but does not require any action
- safeguards and provides immunity to covered financial institutions, including investment advisers, broker-dealers, and transfer agents as well as their eligible employees, affiliated persons, and related individuals from liability in any civil or administrative proceeding for reporting a case of potential abuse of persons 65+ to a covered agency.
This immunity applies to both individuals and firms and is conditioned on employees participating in training on identifying and reporting exploitative activity against seniors before making a report. Reports of suspected instances of exploitation must be made “in good faith” and “with reasonable care”.
The agencies partnered to produce the training program to educate and provide resources to help securities firms learn how to detect, prevent, and report financial exploitation of senior and vulnerable adult investors. The program also aims to promote greater and earlier detection and reporting of suspected financial abuse of senior Americans.
The online training resource may be accessed by visiting the following webpages:
For questions or more details on each of the participating agencies, see the following contact information:
- NASAA – Jeanne Hamrick, Director of Communications, NASAA at (202) 737-0900 or jhamrick@nassa.org
- FINRA – Michelle Ong, Senior Director, FINRA at (202) 728-8464 michelle.ong@finra.org
- SEC – Aisha Johnson, Media Relations Director, SEC at (202) 255-3629 or johnsonai@sec.gov
Sources:
SEC, NASAA, and FINRA Offer Free Resource to Securities Firms to Assist in Detection, Prevention and Reporting of Financial Exploitation of Seniors (sec.gov)
