Elder financial exploitation has been estimated to cost older Americans in excess of $35 billion annually. This paper expects to find evidence of older Americans' preference for being protected from financial exploitation. Using probit and ordered probit models, as well as pooled cross-sectional data from FINRA's National Financial Capability Study, this research analyzes older Americans' preferences for protection from financial exploitation and the correlation these protections have with older American's use of financial products and services. The results indicate that the preference exists and may be correlated to increases or decreases in usage dependent on several factors, including transparency of compensation and complexity of product.
Author(s): B. Steele Campbell, Charlene Kalenkoski, Mitzi Lauderdale
