Staying safe with money: the experience of older English speaking Victorians Protecting Elders’ Assets Study November 2010 Dr Jo Wainer Ms Kei Owada Dr Georgia Lowndes Professor Peteris Darzins Acknowledgements This project is funded by State Trustees limited. The study of Staying safe with money: the experience of older English speaking Victorians was conducted on behalf of State Trustees limited by Monash University, Melbourne. The report was written by Dr Jo Wainer, Dr Georgia Lowndes, Ms Kei Owada and Professor Peteris Darzins. The report should be referenced as: Wainer J, Owada K, Lowndes G, and Darzins P (2010) Staying safe with money: the experience of older English speaking Victorians. Protecting Elders’ Assets Study. Monash University, Melbourne. ISBN: 978-0-9802900-6-6 © State Trustees Limited Published by Monash University Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences Staying safe with money: the experience of older English speaking Victorians Table of Contents Glossary of general terms ......................................................................8 Glossary of statistical terms ....................................................................9 Executive Summary ..............................................................................10 Current Financial Management Practice ............................................................................................... 11 Future Financial Management Practice ............................................................................................... 11 Awareness and Satisfaction with Support Services ............................................................................. 11 Awareness of Financial Elder Abuse ..................................................................................................... 11 Concluding Comments and Insights..................................................................................................... 12 1. Introduction ......................................................................................13 1.1 Protecting Elders’ Assets Study ..................................................................................................... 13 1.2 Context for the study ...................................................................................................................... 14 2. Aim ...................................................................................................16 3. Method .............................................................................................17 4. Demographics of respondents ..........................................................18 5. Financial elder abuse ........................................................................18 5.1 Misuse of powers of attorney ......................................................................................................... 19 5.2 Misuse by professionals ................................................................................................................. 19 5.3 Misuse by family ............................................................................................................................. 20 5.4 Misuse on the media and hearsay .................................................................................................. 20 6. Current practice in money management .......................................20 6.1 Will and Enduring Power of Attorney .............................................................................................. 20 6.2 Involvement of family in managing money ...................................................................................... 22 6.3 Interest and involvement of older people in day-to-day money management ............................... 22 6.4 Knowledge of help and support services ....................................................................................... 23 6.5 Services used to help with money management ............................................................................ 23 6.5.1 Influence of age on satisfaction with services ......................................................................... 24 6.5.2 Influence of gender on satisfaction with services .................................................................... 25 6.5.3 Influence of income level on satisfaction with services ............................................................. 25 6.6 Help with managing money ............................................................................................................ 25 7. Future Practice ................................................................................26 7.1 Anticipated sources of help as participants age ............................................................................. 26 7.2 Anticipated use of services ............................................................................................................. 27 8. Trouble with money ..........................................................................28 8.1 Risk factors for financial mismanagement ...................................................................................... 28 8.1.1 Diminished capacity ................................................................................................................ 28 8.1.2 Not asking for assistance ........................................................................................................ 28 8.1.3 New technology ...................................................................................................................... 28 8.2 Reducing risk of mismanagement of financial affairs ..................................................................... 29 8.3 Support needed for future financial security ................................................................................... 29 8.4 Pathway to protection ..................................................................................................................... 30 3 9. Discussion ........................................................................................31 9.1 Current financial practice ................................................................................................................ 31 9.2 Future financial practice .................................................................................................................. 33 9.3 Financial mismanagement .............................................................................................................. 34 10. Limitations ......................................................................................36 10.1 Small sample ................................................................................................................................. 36 10.2 Low response rate and over-representation of men ..................................................................... 36 10.3 Composition of the sample - principally well, volunteer sample .................................................. 36 10.4 Qualitative examination limited by small number of Discussion groups ...................................... 36 10.5 Caution .......................................................................................................................................... 36 11. Future directions .............................................................................36 Appendix 1: Data Tables .......................................................................38 Appendix 2: References .......................................................................58 4 Staying safe with money: the experience of older English speaking Victorians List of tables Table 1: Sex distribution of Discussion Group participants ..................................................................... 18 Table 2: Satisfaction with services used to help manage money ............................................................ 24 Table 3: Satisfaction with services to manage money, older age groups compared with Survey respondents aged 65-74* ..................................................................................... 25 Table 4: Satisfaction with services to manage money, men compared with women* .............................. 25 Table 5: Satisfaction with services to manage money by income groups* .............................................. 25 Table 6: Q1.How would you rate your interest in managing your own financial affairs? .......................... 38 Table 7: Q1. Total, Mean, Standard Deviation, Minimum and Maximum ................................................. 38 Table 8: Q2.Do you have a will? ............................................................................................................ 38 Table 9: Q3.Do you have an Enduring Power of Attorney? .................................................................... 38 Table 10: Q4.Who did you appoint (EPA)? ............................................................................................. 38 Table 11: Q5.As you grow older who do you think will help you with paperwork, banking and bills? ...... 39 Table 12: Q6.Do you and your family mostly agree about how to manage your finances as you grow older?........................................................................................... 39 Table 13: Q7.How would you rate your awareness of the financial services available to support seniors in Victoria? ................................................................................. 39 Table