From Helaine Olen’s Slate article The Grandparent Trap on elder financial abuse:
“The motivation is basic: As Willie Sutton famously observed about the banks, the elderly are, increasingly, where the money is. Seniors have assets, and they often own their homes outright. Combine that with the estimate that people who make it past the age of 85 suffer about a 50 percent chance of suffering from a significant cognitive decline like Alzheimer’s, and you can see why the problem is so large.”
Read the full article here.
Many thanks to Cynthia Wilkerson of Little Brothers-Friends of the Elderly for sharing this with us.
The Elder Abuse Prevention Project of Greater Boston Legal Services 
Another term with which I must become accustomed. Accumulated money or even the generalized perception that there is accumulated money attract those who wish to have it through deception, craft or theft. In the twentieth century doctors were singled out as easy victims for various scams as they were considered among the well to do in american towns and cities. With the dramatic increase in home values over the last fifty years, generous retirement benefits awarded the previous generation and, for many leading simple life styles, has lead in some cases to the accumulation of limited wealth among the elderly. Like many of the doctors who were victimized by con men, these elderly are not necessarily wise in the ways of money nor do they consider themselves viable victims of fraud. Worse still is that, in my opinion and experience, they are most likely to fall prey to relatives or care takers. Careful thought and conscientious preparation is necessary to fend off such larceny but few of us find the time or simply do not like thinking about the negative things that can happen. It takes more than individuals, families or care givers to prepare and defend a very large vulnerable segment of our population. Unfortunately it seems that our society does not have the time or desire to confront such negative potential.
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