Annual/Termination Reports:

[05/06/2013] [08/18/2014] [08/31/2015] [10/14/2016]

Report Information

Participants

Vincenti, Virginia, Ph.D., vincenti@uwyo.edu, Professor, Co-Investigator, University of Wyoming;
Browne, Lorna, Ph.D., lbrowne@uwyo.edu, Project Associate, Co-Investigator, University of Wyoming;
Jasper, Cynthia, Ph.D., crjasper@wisc.edu, Professor, Co-Investigator,
University of Wisconsin;
Goebel, Karen, Ph.D., kpgoebel@wisc.edu, Professor Emeritus, Co-Investigator, University of Wisconsin;
Betz-Hamilton, Axton, Ph.D., aebetz@eiu.edu, Assistant Professor, Co-Investigator, Eastern Illinois University;
Donovon Rudisuhle, MBA, Elder Expert Witness & Fraud Examiner, Co-Investigator, Independent Consultant

Brief Summary of Minutes

The minutes of the multi-state project W2191 are attached.

Accomplishments

Approved Project Objectives:<br /> 1. Understand the participants lived experiences (knowledge and feelings) related to elder financial exploitation.<br /> <br /> 2. Identify factors in the victims/perpetrator family system that participants consider to be significant antecedents to the Power of Attorney elder financial exploitation in their family.<br /> <br /> 3. Gain insights into the victims and perpetrators family experiences that could assist professionals in facilitating healing of emotional and relationship wounds within families.<br /> <br /> 4. Identify the range and scope of family experiences related to foundational antecedents, exploitation situations, and impact and meaning of the elder financial exploitation that could contribute to prevention and effective redress.<br /> <br /> 5. Refine and/or expand the Conceptual Model of Elder Financial Exploitation by Rabiner, OKeeffe, and Brown, 2004.<br /> <br /> 6. Refine the current research design and identify future studies that could contribute to prevention and more effective redress of familial elder financial exploitation.<br /> <br /> 7. Create a means of measuring the prevalence of elder financial abuse by family members who have had Powers of Attorney.<br /> <br /> Milestones (2013): <br /> <br /> (Objective 1 & 4): Continue grant writing as needed. Add legal expertise to our team that can help to interpret legal aspects of participants experiences shared during the in-depth interviews. <br /> <br /> We have written written the following 4 grant proposals. Two were funded, one unfunded, and one pending.<br /> <br /> Virginia B. Vincenti, Karen P. Goebel, Jeanne M. Hogarth, Cynthia R. Jasper, Eileen S. Gilchrist, Power of Attorney (POA) Financial Exploitation of Elders: The Experience of Family Members and the Impact on the Family, Phi Upsilon Omicron Educational Foundation, Inc., December 1, 2011-December 31, 2013, $2,500. <br /> <br /> Cynthia R. Jasper, Elder Financial Exploitation in Wisconsin, Wisconsin Association of Family and Consumer Sciences (WAFCS), Spring 2012 - Spring 2013, $500.<br /> <br /> Virginia B. Vincenti, CRIS (Current Research Information System) USDA, Elder Financial Exploitation: Impact on Families, Based on Multistate Project, $3,600. <br /> <br /> Virginia B. Vincenti, Cynthia R. Jasper, Karen P. Goebel. Financial Exploitation of the Elderly Within the Family System. Social Justice Research Center Grant, March 2013-October 2014, $3,000.<br /> <br /> Virginia B. Vincenti. Faculty Development in Aging Grant. Wyoming Geriatric Education Center, March 2013-September 2014, $3,060. <br /> <br /> Virginia B. Vincenti, Lorna B. Browne, Donovan Rudisuhle, Cynthia Jasper, Axton Betz, Karen P. Goebel, Elder Financial Exploitation Within the Family System, Retirement Research Foundation, Chicago, IL, September 1, 2013-March 31, 2015, $126,410.36. <br /> <br /> <br /> Donovan Rudishule has been added to our team. He has experience investigating and preparing evidene for trials on elder financial exploitation cases for lawyers in Colorado.<br /> <br /> Dr. Lorna Browne has been added to our team because of her expertise in hermeneutic phenomenology and transcript analysis.<br /> <br /> Dr. Marina Nunez and Dr. Eileen Gilchrist have dropped out of the team.<br /> <br /> (Objectives 4 & 6): Write and submit for publication a manuscript on challenges faced in trying to study this family secret. <br /> <br /> This has not been started yet.<br /> <br /> (Objectives 1-5): Write and submit for publication a manuscript on the findings on the in-depth interviews. Share findings with academic and lay audiences. <br /> <br /> Transcripts are being analyzed and a research journal manuscript has been started.<br /> <br /> The following presentations have been made based on preliminary findings from this research:<br /> <br /> Elder Financial Exploitation: Why is it a Family Affair?, Sheppard Symposium on Social Justice - University of Wyoming, 5-Apr-2013, Virginia B. Vincenti.<br /> <br /> Challenges of Studying Elder Financial Exploitation, Graduate Seminar, Dept. of Family & Consumer Sciences,- University of Wyoming, 22-Feb-2013, Virginia B. Vincenti.<br /> <br /> Making POA Contacts: Victims and Presentation to Financial Abuse Specialist Team (FAST), F.A.S.T. - Madison, WI, 28-Feb-2013, Karen P. Goebel.<br /> <br /> Misuse of Power of Attorney by Family Members - Poster Session, Wisconsin Association of Family and Consumer Sciences (WAFCS) Annual Conference, 8-Mar-2013, Cynthia R. Jasper, Karen P. Goebel.<br /> <br /> The Crime of Elder Financial Exploitation: A Threat to Community and Family Stability, Groves Conference on Marriage and Family, Boston, MA, 5-Jun-2013, Virginia B. Vincenti, Karen P. Goebel.<br /> <br /> (Objectives 4, 5, & 7): Conduct the pilot prevalence survey. Seek additional funding. <br /> <br /> We decided that this was a task so large that we could not undertake this at this point in our project. <br /> <br /> (Objective 6): If additional researchers are added to this multistate project, development of new studies may be needed.<br /> <br /> A new study was developed for a proposal submitted 5/1/13 to the Retirement Research Foundation.

Publications

We have a journal manuscript in process, but none have been completed as of 5/15/2013.

Impact Statements

1. The W_2191 Multi-state Research Team met early in its first year to formulate and integrate actions and content of the project. Impacts of 2013 were input in nature and focused on establishing the working relationships of the team, identifying and planning for obtaining support dollars for the project, and preliminary data collection. These inputs are documented under Milestones. Year two of the project will likely yield impacts that will begin to reflect the overall goals and desired outcomes.

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Report Information

Participants

Axton Betz-Hamilton, aebetz@eiu.edu, Eastern Illinois University
Cynthia Jasper: crjasper@wisc.edu, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Don Rudisuhle donrudi@donrudi.com, Fraud Investigator, Laramie, WY
Karen Goebel: kpgoebel@wisc.edu, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Lorna Browne: lbrowne@uwyo.edu, University of Wyoming
Virginia Vincenti, PI, vincenti@uwyo.edu, University of Wyoming

Debbie Maddy, Advisor, deborah.maddy@oregonstate.edu, Oregon State University

Brief Summary of Minutes

Wednesday July 30, 2014
We began with a discussion with Deb Maddy, our Project Advisor, of several questions about what should go into our annual report for this meeting and following our timeline. Then we launched into learning to use NVivo software, using a 30 day free trial, to analyze interview transcripts. We had all down loaded the free trial software onto our own computers so that we could each learn to use it. We had decided to read and individually analyze two transcripts 1) HK and 2) RJ and MJ, a couple interviewed in sequence concerning the same family situation. Since we don’t have an NVivo server at this time, we had to have one of us, Ginny Vincent, work in NVivo while sharing her screen through Skype so the other teammates could work together. After we figured out how to enlarge the image so all team members could read it, we were able to work well together.

That night we were to individually read and refine into more specific codes three broad codes, Financial Management Behavior, Family Relations, and Family Communication that had many excerpts in them. We had to do our individual work outside of NVivo and then entered the next day into NVivo by hand as we came to agreement after discussing our own individual insights and coding.

Thursday July 31, 2014
Each of us did our individual work on paper or in Word after I copied the list of coded excerpts in each of the three broad codes identified the day before and emailed them to the team members. This day we worked on refining the codes with large numbers of excerpts, Family Financial Behaviors and Family Relations, but didn’t have time to complete the Family Communication code. In the process of doing this, we created additional codes and combined and reorganized others.
Our assignment for this night was to continue working on individual analysis of Family Communications and work on a new transcript by participant JM.

Friday August 1, 2014
One team member had done her individual analysis homework in her copy of NVivo on her computer. We had to merge her work into Ginny Vincenti’s project in NVivo on her computer which we had used for our joint work on the previous two days. However, that proved to create problems because it duplicated some codes since the updated work done together the day before had not been done on this individual’s own version of NVivo. Because of this problem, it was even more apparent that an NVivo server would help us to be more efficient. Thus, we learned by trial that without individuals being able to work on a common server, working on separate computers and then trying to merge them creates problem that must be corrected before the group can proceed to work together. With an NVivo server, we would be able to individually without creating this problem and we would then be able to check inter-rater reliability.

Accomplishments

Objective 1: Understand the participants lived experiences (knowledge and feelings) related to elder financial exploitation.<br /> <br /> We have revised our interview protocol twice and created a survey to be the first step in data collection with the interviews to follow with those participants who meet our criteria and are willing to provide more in-depth accounts of their experiences with elder financial exploitation. This means that our survey participants are likely to have a broader range of experiences. In spite of focusing our research on risk factors for elder financial exploitation within families, we are still coding interviews for participants’ experiences before, during and after the exploitation.<br /> <br /> Objective 2: Identify factors in the victims/perpetrators family system that participants consider to be significant antecedents to the Power of Attorney elder financial exploitation in their family.<br /> <br /> We have focused our research since our last annual meeting to focus on identification of risk factors in families which increase the likelihood of later elder financial exploitation happening by family members. Both the survey and the interview protocol are more structured now than the earlier two versions. Although we wrote an article using a hermeneutic phenomenological approach, we have recently decided that we need to use NVivo qualitative analysis software which helps us to manage a large volume of interview data with more precision and detail and to do it more quickly, although the process is still quite time consuming.<br /> <br /> We are likely to broaden our criteria for participation in our research beyond the use of powers of attorney as a means of exploitation. The survey tracks the means of exploitation and our coding of interview pilot data is tracking multiple means and methods of financial exploitation.<br /> <br /> We are also planning to recruit participants whose families have successfully moved through their elders’ dependent period without experiencing exploitation. Comparison of factors between the two groups of families could further clarify factors that increase risk and factors that seem to reduce risk. We are, however, concerned that successful families may be more difficult to recruit. So far families who have experienced exploitation have indicated that participation in this research, although somewhat painful to relieve, also eases their pain by attempting to prevent such experience for others by sharing their experiences.<br /> <br /> Objective 3: Gain insights into the victims’ and perpetrators’ family experiences that could assist professionals in facilitating healing of emotional and relationship wounds within families.<br /> <br /> We may have some insights that will address this objective, but we need to do more in-depth analysis after we complete all the coding using NVivo.<br /> <br /> Objective 4: Identify the range and scope of family experiences related to foundational antecedents, exploitation situations, and impact and meaning of the elder financial exploitation that could contribute to prevention and effective redress.<br /> <br /> We will need to continue collecting data and analyzing it to be able to identify what seem like a range and scope of family experiences.<br /> <br /> Objective 5: Refine and/or expand the Conceptual Model of Elder Financial Exploitation by Rabiner, OKeeffe, and Brown, 2004.<br /> <br /> We gaining much more insight into the family dynamics, values, and relationships that will expand the conceptual model of Rabiner et al. We have incorporated Jackson & Hafemeister (2011) and Acierno’s (2009) research on risk factors into our survey and interview protocol so that we can build on their work as well.<br /> <br /> Acierno, R., Hernandez-Tejada, M., Muzzy, W., & Steve, K. (2009, March). National elderly mistreatment study. National Institute of Justice. (Document No. 226456). <br /> <br /> Jackson, S.L., & Hafemeiser, T.L. (2011). Risk factors a ssociated with elder abuse: The importance of differentiating by type of elder maltreatment. Violence and Victims 26(6): 738-757. <br /> <br /> Rabiner, D. J., O'Keeffe, J., & Brown, D. (2004). A conceptual framework of financial exploitation of older persons. Journal of Elder Abuse & Neglect, 16 (2), 53-73. doi: 10.1300/J084v16n02_05<br /> <br /> Objective 6: Refine the current research design and identify future studies that could contribute to prevention and more effective redress of familial elder financial exploitation. <br /> <br /> Don Rudisuhle with assistance from graduate student, Catherine Webb, developed a system for searching and assigning pseudonyms to the interview transcripts.<br /> <br /> The detailed coding and analysis we are doing now will provide guidance for future studies by identifying potential patterns in the data that will need to be researched further. This approach using NVivo software is helping us manage much more detail than our earlier more general approach without the use of analysis software.<br /> <br /> Objective 7: Create a means of measuring the prevalence of elder financial abuse by family members who have had Powers of Attorney.<br /> <br /> This objective may not be doable until states have a common database and collect the same data that can be compiled. Even then, the secrecy surrounding this “family problem” makes is extremely difficult to measure prevalence. More important is the potential for this research to identify risk factors that can be addressed proactively in addressing family problems and in making better planning decisions for later life to avoid the risks of elder financial exploitation. Once these are identified, dissemination of this information is a key component of prevention.<br /> <br /> (2014-2015 Plans): (Objective 1 & 4): Continue grant writing as needed. Although not an attorney, Don Rudisuhle, as a fraud investigator who has worked with attorneys on numerous cases of elder financial exploitation, has contributed legal expertise to our team that has helped us understand some legal aspects of participants’ experiences. (Objectives 1-5): Continue the in-depth interviews and now conduct surveys of family members of exploited elders and those who have had successful experiences with family POA agents. We will continue to submit manuscripts on the findings and share findings with academic and lay audiences. (Objectives 1-6): We will continue to seek additional researchers for this multi-state project and use the findings to design new studies. (Objectives 4, 5, & 6): We will also continue grant writing as needed. <br />

Publications

<br /> Grants<br /> We have submitted ten grant proposals during this period of time, with two being funded. Feedback from reviewers has contributed to the revisions we have made. <br /> <br /> Vincenti, V. B.; Betz-Hamilton, A.’ Schatz, M. C. S.; Goebel, K. P.; Rudisuhle, D. P. (2014). Understanding Elder Financial Exploitation in the Family: Identifying Relational Complexities. National Kappa Omicron Nu Honor Society. National Alumni Chapter Grant $1,000 and the New Initiatives Grant, $3,000 for a total of $4,000. Funded.<br /> <br /> Vincenti, V. B.; Rudisuhle, D.; Browne, L.B.; Jasper, C. R.; Goebel, K. P.;Betz-Hamilton, A. (2013). Financial Exploitation by Family Members with Powers of Attorney: What Family Members’ Experiences Reveal About This Problem, Its Causes, and Consequences. Alumni Research Grant, Phi Upsilon Omicron, Inc., December 31, 2013-December 31, 2015. $2,500. Funded.<br /> <br /> Jasper, Cynthia (PI). 2013. Elder Financial Exploitation in Wisconsin. Wisconsin Association of Family and Consumer Sciences. October 2013 to April 2015. $500 Funded.<br /> <br /> Vincenti, Virginia B.; Schatz, Mona S.; and Noy, Shiri. (2014). Understanding Elder Financial Exploitation in the Family: Identifying Relational Complexities, University of Wyoming President’s Office New Initiative Grant. February 3, 2014. $24,919.09 Unfunded.<br /> <br /> Vincenti, Virginia B.; Browne, Lorna B.; Betz-Hamilton, Axton; Jasper, Cynthia R.; Goebel, Karen P.; Rudisuhle, Donovan; and Schatz, Mona S. (2014) Elder Financial Exploitation by Relatives with Powers of Attorney: What Family Members’ Experiences Reveal About this Problem, Its Causes, and Consequences. Social Justice Research Center. January 17, 2014. $4,000. Unfunded.<br /> <br /> Vincenti, Virginia B. (2014). Faculty Development in Aging Mini-Grant. Wyoming Geriatric Education Center. February 3, 2014. $3000. Unfunded<br /> <br /> Vincenti, V.B.; Browne, L.B.; Betz-Hamilton, A.; Jasper, C.R. and Rudisuhle, D. (2013). Elder Financial Exploitation via Power of Attorney Abuse: What Family Members’ Experiences Reveal About This Problem, Its Causes, and Consequences. Agriculture Experiment Station Competitive Grant, July 1, 2014 through June 30, 2017. $75,000. Unfunded.<br /> <br /> Vincenti, V.B.; Betz-Hamilton, A.; Browne, L.B.; and Rudisuhle, D. (2013). Elder Financial Exploitation via Power of Attorney Abuse: What Family Members’ Experiences Reveal About This Problem, Its Causes, and Consequences. National Council on Family Relations Innovation Grant. December 1, 2013 through December 1, 2014, $10,000. Unfunded<br /> <br /> Virginia Vincenti (PI), Cynthia Jasper, Professor, U. of Wisconsin, Madison<br /> Karen Goebel, Professor Emeritus, U. of Wisconsin, Madison. UW Faculty Grant-in-aid Program. Elder Financial Exploitation by Family Members within the Family System. 05/01/2013 04/30/2014 $7,496.00. Unfunded.<br /> <br /> Virginia Vincenti (PI), Lorna Browne, Cynthia Jasper, Karen Goebel. Axton Betz-Hamilton, Donovan Rudisuhle. Retirement Research Foundation. Elder Financial Exploration Within the Family System. September 1, 2013 to March 31, 2015 $126,410.00. Unfunded.<br /> <br /> Jasper, Cynthia (PI). Elder Financial Exploitation: Impact on Families. Hatch Proposal. Submitted to Agricultural Research Station in Wisconsin. October 1, 2014 to September 30, 2019. $162,152. Unfunded.<br /> <br /> Publications<br /> Vincenti, Virginia B.; Brown, Lorna B.; Jasper, Betz-Hamilton, Axton; and Jasper, Cynthia R. 2014. Secrecy and Elder Power of Attorney Financial Exploitation within the Family System. Journal of Consumer Education. Accepted with revisions.<br /> <br /> Jasper, C.R.; Vincenti, V.; and Goebel, K. P. (2014). Power of Attorney and the Financial Exploitation of Elders: Family Impacts. Phi Upsilon Omicron Honor Society. The Candle. Spring 2014 95 (1): 14-15.<br /> <br /> Abstracts and Posters<br /> Vincenti, V., Betz-Hamilton, A., Browne, L., Goebel, K., & Jasper, C. (2014). Elder financial exploitation via Power of Attorney abuse: An analysis of in-depth interview data from a pilot study. Consumer Interests Annual, 60. A poster was presented at the annual meeting of the American Council on Consumer Interests. Milwaukee, WI on April 11, 2014.<br /> <br /> Presentations<br /> Goebel, Karen P. 2013. Elder Financial Exploitation through Power of Attorney. Madison Financial Abuse Specialist Team. February 28, 2013.<br /> <br /> Vincenti, Virginia B. 2013. Elder Financial Exploitation: Why is it a Family Affair?. University of Wyoming, Wyoming Union. Shepard Symposium on Social Justice. April 5, 2013. <br /> <br /> Vincenti, V. B., Goebel, K. P., and Jasper, C. R. 2013. The Crime of Elder Financial Exploitation: A Threat to Community and Family Stability. Newton, MA. Groves Conference on Marriage and Family. June 5, 2013. <br /> <br /> Vincenti, V. B. 2013. Elder Financial Exploitation Via Powers of Attorney: Insights from Family Members’ Experiences. Laramie, WY. 13th Consumer Issues Conference, October 4, 2013. <br /> <br /> Vincenti, Virginia. 2013. Elder Financial Exploitation: What Families Contribute and How They Are Affected? Keystone, CO. Colorado Organization for Victim Assistance. October 29, 2013.<br /> <br /> Rudisuhle, Don. 2013. Overcoming Impediments to Effective Protection of Elderly Victims’ Assets. Keystone, CO. Colorado Organization for Victim Assistance. October 30, 2013.<br /> <br /> Vincenti, Virginia. 2014. Elder Financial Exploitation via Power of Attorney Within Families: Family Contributions and Consequences. American Society on Aging, San Diego, CA, March 12, 2014. <br /> <br /> Vincenti, Virginia. 2014. Elder Financial Exploitation: What Professionals Can Do. UW Wyoming Union. Shepard Symposium on Social Justice. April 3, 2014. <br />

Impact Statements

1. The pilot research has contributed to a focus for forthcoming research on identification of risk factors for exploitation within families themselves. As a team we gave 8 presentations at professional conferences or meetings that raised professional and lay audience awareness.
2. Preliminary results include patterns of POA appointments based on convenience, sexism, emotion, not competence & character; families/elders/agents lack understanding of fiduciary responsibilities; enabling financial dependency and fiscal mismanagement; childhood rivalries, power struggles, interpersonal or family conflict; inadequate family communication; personal/family identities tied to materialism & expectation of payment for services; and ageist belief that an individual?s worth is tied his/her ability to be productive.
3. Preliminary findings also revealed problems with attorney selection reported as unprofessional behaviors such as attorney conflicts-of-interest in assisting elder planning &/or asset management, dishonesty w/ relatives, & collusion w/ exploiter in a number of family cases.
4. The research has had an impact on some participants who expressed gratitude for the opportunity to make their voices heard by someone listening intensely and by knowing that they are not alone. Some have also shared that recounting their experiences have improved their understanding of their own family situation. Some share their motivation to participate was based on the hope that experiences may possibly help to prevent such exploitation in other families in the future.

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Report Information

Participants

Axton Betz-Hamilton, aebetz@eiu.edu, Eastern Illinois University
Cynthia Jasper: crjasper@wisc.edu, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Don Rudisuhle donrudi@donrudi.com, Fraud Investigator, Laramie, WY
Karen Goebel: kpgoebel@wisc.edu, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Virginia Vincenti, PI, vincenti@uwyo.edu, University of Wyoming

Brief Summary of Minutes

Monday July 20, 2015
We
Since we launched into learning to use NVivo software to analyze interview transcripts, using a 30 day free trial (renewed several times with some minimal training), we began coding transcripts from a phenomenological perspective, i.e. without predetermine code categories since we were exploring the experiences of participants. This resulted in an enormous number of codes that needed to be analyzed for ever-broader themes. This has been a very time-consuming process. Although we had worked a great deal on this before our annual meeting, we still had much work to do. Cindy, Karen, Axton, and Ginny worked on this, while Don worked on planning spreadsheet structures for NVivo for the demographic data that we need to organize for the next phase of our research which we will use to glean as much of it as possible from the transcript data we already have. We learned too late that it would have been much more efficient had we done this before we started to do the coding.

Since our last annual meeting we have purchased an NVivo server and individual NVivo desktops needed for each of us to be able to access the server from our various locations since the speed required to use NVivo is faster than many Internet lines?????. Now we can each work on this server individually. However, when we work together, we still use Skype to talk and share the screen to one of our computers logged into the NVivo server so that we can all see it at the same time. This has worked very well.

That night we were to individually read and refine into more specific codes three broad codes, Financial Management Behavior, Family Relations, and Family Communication that had many excerpts in them. We had to do our individual work outside of NVivo and then entered the next day into NVivo by hand as we came to agreement after discussing our own individual insights and coding.

Tuesday July 21, 2015
Each of us did our individual work on paper or in Word after I copied the list of coded excerpts in each of the three broad codes identified the day before and emailed them to the team members. This day we worked on refining the codes with large numbers of excerpts, Family Financial Behaviors and Family Relations, but didn’t have time to complete the Family Communication code. In the process of doing this, we created additional codes and combined and reorganized others.
Our assignment for this night was to continue working on individual analysis of Family Communications and work on a new transcript by participant JM.

Wednesday July 22, 2015
One team member had done her individual analysis homework in her copy of NVivo on her computer. We had to merge her work into Ginny Vincenti’s project in NVivo on her computer which we had used for our joint work on the previous two days. However, that proved to create problems because it duplicated some codes since the updated work done together the day before had not been done on this individual’s own version of NVivo. Because of this problem, it was even more apparent that an NVivo server would help us to be more efficient. Thus, we learned by trial that without individuals being able to work on a common server, working on separate computers and then trying to merge them creates problem that must be corrected before the group can proceed to work together. With an NVivo server, we would be able to individually without creating this problem and we would then be able to check inter-rater reliability.

Accomplishments

Objective 1: Understand the participants lived experiences (knowledge and feelings) related to elder financial exploitation.<br /> <br /> We have revised our interview protocol twice and created a survey to be the first step in data collection with the interviews to follow with those participants who meet our criteria and are willing to provide more in-depth accounts of their experiences with elder financial exploitation. This means that our survey participants are likely to have a broader range of experiences. In spite of focusing our research on risk factors for elder financial exploitation within families, we are still coding interviews for participants’ experiences before, during and after the exploitation.<br /> <br /> Objective 2: Identify factors in the victims/perpetrators family system that participants consider to be significant antecedents to the Power of Attorney elder financial exploitation in their family.<br /> <br /> We have focused our research since our last annual meeting to focus on identification of risk factors in families which increase the likelihood of later elder financial exploitation happening by family members. Both the survey and the interview protocol are more structured now than the earlier two versions. Although we wrote an article using a hermeneutic phenomenological approach, we have recently decided that we need to use NVivo qualitative analysis software which helps us to manage a large volume of interview data with more precision and detail and to do it more quickly, although the process is still quite time consuming.<br /> <br /> We are likely to broaden our criteria for participation in our research beyond the use of powers of attorney as a means of exploitation. The survey tracks the means of exploitation and our coding of interview pilot data is tracking multiple means and methods of financial exploitation.<br /> <br /> We are also planning to recruit participants whose families have successfully moved through their elders’ dependent period without experiencing exploitation. Comparison of factors between the two groups of families could further clarify factors that increase risk and factors that seem to reduce risk. We are, however, concerned that successful families may be more difficult to recruit. So far families who have experienced exploitation have indicated that participation in this research, although somewhat painful to relieve, also eases their pain by attempting to prevent such experience for others by sharing their experiences.<br /> <br /> Objective 3: Gain insights into the victims’ and perpetrators’ family experiences that could assist professionals in facilitating healing of emotional and relationship wounds within families.<br /> <br /> We may have some insights that will address this objective, but we need to do more in-depth analysis after we complete all the coding using NVivo.<br /> <br /> Objective 4: Identify the range and scope of family experiences related to foundational antecedents, exploitation situations, and impact and meaning of the elder financial exploitation that could contribute to prevention and effective redress.<br /> <br /> We will need to continue collecting data and analyzing it to be able to identify what seem like a range and scope of family experiences.<br /> <br /> Objective 5: Refine and/or expand the Conceptual Model of Elder Financial Exploitation by Rabiner, OKeeffe, and Brown, 2004.<br /> <br /> We gaining much more insight into the family dynamics, values, and relationships that will expand the conceptual model of Rabiner et al. We have incorporated Jackson & Hafemeister (2011) and Acierno’s (2009) research on risk factors into our survey and interview protocol so that we can build on their work as well.<br /> <br /> Acierno, R., Hernandez-Tejada, M., Muzzy, W., & Steve, K. (2009, March). National elderly mistreatment study. National Institute of Justice. (Document No. 226456). <br /> <br /> Jackson, S.L., & Hafemeiser, T.L. (2011). Risk factors a ssociated with elder abuse: The importance of differentiating by type of elder maltreatment. Violence and Victims 26(6): 738-757. <br /> <br /> Rabiner, D. J., O'Keeffe, J., & Brown, D. (2004). A conceptual framework of financial exploitation of older persons. Journal of Elder Abuse & Neglect, 16 (2), 53-73. doi: 10.1300/J084v16n02_05<br /> <br /> Objective 6: Refine the current research design and identify future studies that could contribute to prevention and more effective redress of familial elder financial exploitation. <br /> <br /> Don Rudisuhle with assistance from graduate student, Catherine Webb, developed a system for searching and assigning pseudonyms to the interview transcripts.<br /> <br /> The detailed coding and analysis we are doing now will provide guidance for future studies by identifying potential patterns in the data that will need to be researched further. This approach using NVivo software is helping us manage much more detail than our earlier more general approach without the use of analysis software.<br /> <br /> Objective 7: Create a means of measuring the prevalence of elder financial abuse by family members who have had Powers of Attorney.<br /> <br /> This objective may not be doable until states have a common database and collect the same data that can be compiled. Even then, the secrecy surrounding this “family problem” makes is extremely difficult to measure prevalence. More important is the potential for this research to identify risk factors that can be addressed proactively in addressing family problems and in making better planning decisions for later life to avoid the risks of elder financial exploitation. Once these are identified, dissemination of this information is a key component of prevention.<br /> <br /> (2014-2015 Plans): (Objective 1 & 4): Continue grant writing as needed. Although not an attorney, Don Rudisuhle, as a fraud investigator who has worked with attorneys on numerous cases of elder financial exploitation, has contributed legal expertise to our team that has helped us understand some legal aspects of participants’ experiences. (Objectives 1-5): Continue the in-depth interviews and now conduct surveys of family members of exploited elders and those who have had successful experiences with family POA agents. We will continue to submit manuscripts on the findings and share findings with academic and lay audiences. (Objectives 1-6): We will continue to seek additional researchers for this multi-state project and use the findings to design new studies. (Objectives 4, 5, & 6): We will also continue grant writing as needed. <br /> <br /> V. Grants<br /> We have submitted ten grant proposals during this period of time, with two being funded. Feedback from reviewers has contributed to the revisions we have made. <br /> <br /> Vincenti, V. B.; Betz-Hamilton, A.’ Schatz, M. C. S.; Goebel, K. P.; Rudisuhle, D. P. (2014). Understanding Elder Financial Exploitation in the Family: Identifying Relational Complexities. National Kappa Omicron Nu Honor Society. National Alumni Chapter Grant $1,000 and the New Initiatives Grant, $3,000 for a total of $4,000. Funded.<br /> <br /> Vincenti, V. B.; Rudisuhle, D.; Browne, L.B.; Jasper, C. R.; Goebel, K. P.;Betz-Hamilton, A. (2013). Financial Exploitation by Family Members with Powers of Attorney: What Family Members’ Experiences Reveal About This Problem, Its Causes, and Consequences. Alumni Research Grant, Phi Upsilon Omicron, Inc., December 31, 2013-December 31, 2015. $2,500. Funded.<br /> <br /> Jasper, Cynthia (PI). 2013. Elder Financial Exploitation in Wisconsin. Wisconsin Association of Family and Consumer Sciences. October 2013 to April 2015. $500 Funded.<br /> <br /> Vincenti, Virginia B.; Schatz, Mona S.; and Noy, Shiri. (2014). Understanding Elder Financial Exploitation in the Family: Identifying Relational Complexities, University of Wyoming President’s Office New Initiative Grant. February 3, 2014. $24,919.09 Unfunded.<br /> <br /> Vincenti, Virginia B.; Browne, Lorna B.; Betz-Hamilton, Axton; Jasper, Cynthia R.; Goebel, Karen P.; Rudisuhle, Donovan; and Schatz, Mona S. (2014) Elder Financial Exploitation by Relatives with Powers of Attorney: What Family Members’ Experiences Reveal About this Problem, Its Causes, and Consequences. Social Justice Research Center. January 17, 2014. $4,000. Unfunded.<br /> <br /> Vincenti, Virginia B. (2014). Faculty Development in Aging Mini-Grant. Wyoming Geriatric Education Center. February 3, 2014. $3000. Unfunded<br /> <br /> Vincenti, V.B.; Browne, L.B.; Betz-Hamilton, A.; Jasper, C.R. and Rudisuhle, D. (2013). Elder Financial Exploitation via Power of Attorney Abuse: What Family Members’ Experiences Reveal About This Problem, Its Causes, and Consequences. Agriculture Experiment Station Competitive Grant, July 1, 2014 through June 30, 2017. $75,000. Unfunded.<br /> <br /> Vincenti, V.B.; Betz-Hamilton, A.; Browne, L.B.; and Rudisuhle, D. (2013). Elder Financial Exploitation via Power of Attorney Abuse: What Family Members’ Experiences Reveal About This Problem, Its Causes, and Consequences. National Council on Family Relations Innovation Grant. December 1, 2013 through December 1, 2014, $10,000. Unfunded<br /> <br /> Virginia Vincenti (PI), Cynthia Jasper, Professor, U. of Wisconsin, Madison<br /> Karen Goebel, Professor Emeritus, U. of Wisconsin, Madison. UW Faculty Grant-in-aid Program. Elder Financial Exploitation by Family Members within the Family System. 05/01/2013 04/30/2014 $7,496.00. Unfunded.<br /> <br /> Virginia Vincenti (PI), Lorna Browne, Cynthia Jasper, Karen Goebel. Axton Betz-Hamilton, Donovan Rudisuhle. Retirement Research Foundation. Elder Financial Exploration Within the Family System. September 1, 2013 to March 31, 2015 $126,410.00. Unfunded.<br /> <br /> Jasper, Cynthia (PI). Elder Financial Exploitation: Impact on Families. Hatch Proposal. Submitted to Agricultural Research Station in Wisconsin. October 1, 2014 to September 30, 2019. $162,152. Unfunded.<br /> <br /> VIII. Presentations (Dissemination of findings and Recruitment)<br /> Goebel, Karen P. 2013. Elder Financial Exploitation through Power of Attorney. Madison Financial Abuse Specialist Team. February 28, 2013.<br /> <br /> Vincenti, Virginia B. 2013. Elder Financial Exploitation: Why is it a Family Affair?. University of Wyoming, Wyoming Union. Shepard Symposium on Social Justice. April 5, 2013. <br /> <br /> Vincenti, V. B., Goebel, K. P., and Jasper, C. R. 2013. The Crime of Elder Financial Exploitation: A Threat to Community and Family Stability. Newton, MA. Groves Conference on Marriage and Family. June 5, 2013. <br /> <br /> Vincenti, V. B. 2013. Elder Financial Exploitation Via Powers of Attorney: Insights from Family Members’ Experiences. Laramie, WY. 13th Consumer Issues Conference, October 4, 2013. <br /> <br /> Vincenti, Virginia. 2013. Elder Financial Exploitation: What Families Contribute and How They Are Affected? Keystone, CO. Colorado Organization for Victim Assistance. October 29, 2013.<br /> <br /> Rudisuhle, Don. 2013. Overcoming Impediments to Effective Protection of Elderly Victims’ Assets. Keystone, CO. Colorado Organization for Victim Assistance. October 30, 2013.<br /> <br /> Vincenti, Virginia. 2014. Elder Financial Exploitation via Power of Attorney Within Families: Family Contributions and Consequences. American Society on Aging, San Diego, CA, March 12, 2014. <br /> <br /> Vincenti, Virginia. 2014. Elder Financial Exploitation: What Professionals Can Do. UW Wyoming Union. Shepard Symposium on Social Justice. April 3, 2014. <br />

Publications

VI. Publications<br /> Vincenti, Virginia B.; Brown, Lorna B.; Jasper, Betz-Hamilton, Axton; and Jasper, Cynthia R. 2014. Secrecy and Elder Power of Attorney Financial Exploitation within the Family System. Journal of Consumer Education. Accepted with revisions.<br /> <br /> Jasper, C.R.; Vincenti, V.; and Goebel, K. P. (2014). Power of Attorney and the Financial Exploitation of Elders: Family Impacts. Phi Upsilon Omicron Honor Society. The Candle. Spring 2014 95 (1): 14-15.<br /> <br /> VII. Abstracts and Posters<br /> Vincenti, V., Betz-Hamilton, A., Browne, L., Goebel, K., & Jasper, C. (2014). Elder financial exploitation via Power of Attorney abuse: An analysis of in-depth interview data from a pilot study. Consumer Interests Annual, 60. A poster was presented at the annual meeting of the American Council on Consumer Interests. Milwaukee, WI on April 11, 2014.<br />

Impact Statements

1. 1. The pilot research has contributed to a focus for forthcoming research on identification of risk factors for exploitation within families themselves. As a team we gave 8 presentations at professional conferences or meetings that raised professional and lay audience awareness.
2. 2. Preliminary results include patterns of POA appointments based on convenience, sexism, emotion, not competence & character; families/elders/agents lack understanding of fiduciary responsibilities; enabling financial dependency and fiscal mismanagement; childhood rivalries, power struggles, interpersonal or family conflict; inadequate family communication; personal/family identities tied to materialism & expectation of payment for services; and ageist belief that an individual?s worth is tied his/her ability to be productive.
3. 3. Preliminary findings also revealed problems with attorney selection reported as unprofessional behaviors such as attorney conflicts-of-interest in assisting elder planning &/or asset management, dishonesty w/ relatives, & collusion w/ exploiter in a number of family cases.
4. 4. The research has had an impact on some participants who expressed gratitude for the opportunity to make their voices heard by someone listening intensely and by knowing that they are not alone. Some have also shared that recounting their experiences have improved their understanding of their own family situation. Some share their motivation to participate was based on the hope that experiences may possibly help to prevent such exploitation in other families in the future.

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Report Information

Participants

Axton Betz-Hamilton, aebetz@eiu.edu, Eastern Illinois University
Bernard Steinman, bsteinm1@uwyo.edu, University of Wyoming
Cory Bolkan, Bolkan@wsu.edu, Washington State University, Vancouver
Cynthia Jasper: crjasper@wisc.edu, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Don Rudisuhle donrudi@donrudi.com, Fraud Investigator, Laramie, WY
Ken Gerow, gerow@uwyo.edu, University of Wyoming
Marlene Stum, mstum@umn.edu, University of Minnesota
Pamela Teaster, pteaster@vt.edu, Virginia Tech University
Virginia Vincenti, PI, vincenti@uwyo.edu, University of Wyoming
Karen Goebel, kpgoebel@wisc.edu, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Jenna Hotovec, jennahotovec@yahoo.com, Project Assistant

Brief Summary of Minutes

June 29. 2016 Minutes

Overview of Lit Review: Jenna reported updating our literature review, but she found only a few articles that add to Rabiner, O’Keeffe, & Brown’s model and to Bronfenbrenner’s model. She will upload them to RefWorks & create a new folder for these articles on theoretical models. She provided an introductory explanation to Refworks and gave the team the URL to Refworks and how to get into our account.

Marlene asked about whether all the articles in our extensive literature review have been reviewed. Some of this has been done already because everyone has some knowledge of the articles. Pam will also talk to her colleague, Karen about EndNote and how to merge with RefWorks to work on categorizing articles that have been read and categorized since others have literature on this topic in EndNote.

Jenna will try to use RefWorks when citing sources in writing. She contacted Cheryl Goldenstein in Coe Library about coming tomorrow morning to explain to the group how to use this feature and about RefWorks entries having reference numbers.

Axton will send to the team information about two upcoming webinars we will be doing                                                                               

Survey:

The survey is currently 40 pages long, and everyone would like it to be much smaller.

Marlene discussed not grasping the big picture/purpose of survey versus the in-depth interview. Ginny reports that the project started as all interviews and a lot of time was spent getting facts during the interviews. They want to use survey as a precursor to gain information before interviews take place. What is asked in survey can be analyzed quantitatively separate from the qualitative interview data.

Then, there was discussion on eligibility. We need to balance the questions to include family-member participants with good & bad POA experiences?” It was decided that it is important to revise the survey accordingly. Part of the grant proposal to the Retirement Research Foundation in process will be for refining the survey instrument. Several research questions were omitted. Marlene suggested adding one of several tested scales measuring family relationships & functioning. She will send them to Bernard. There is a survey question about states involved in the family situations, which is important because of different regulations and laws that could have influenced the family situations. Then, there was discussion about adding a question about geographic proximity of POA to victim. This comes from pilot data because elders chose POA agent based on proximity even if the agent has demonstrated financial irresponsibility.   

Discussion followed on how to administer the survey. It was decided that we will track effectiveness of administering the survey three ways: online, in person and over phone. Consensus was not entirely achieved.

Other considerations discussed included whether to ask participants to focus on just one victim instead of multiple victims in the interest of keeping the survey at a reasonable length. It was decided to focus on one with the assumption that others will emerge during the interviews.

Survey Statistics (Ken, Head of the UW Department of Statistics)

To determine how to differentiate successful versus unsuccessful (exploitative) family POA experiences, we decided to define a successful POA outcome as one in which there are/were no charges, no legal issues, and nothing contested. An unsuccessful outcome is defined as misuse of POA agent powers, a civil case, and/or a legal case resulting from the POA period. We continue to expect that it is unlikely that we will collect data from elders or POA agents, especially perpetrators. The survey developed and administered in Qualtrics will import into NVivo.

There is concern about how having family members pick others who agree with them. If all are in agreement, may only need to interview a couple unless there is ambiguity which requires more than participants. Our intent is to get equal number of successful and unsuccessful families with family-member POA agents.     

Random Sample:

We plan to connect with agencies who work with elder people. It is possible to do statistical randomization by selecting participants randomly from the list provided by agencies who know people whose families have had family-member POAs for an elderly relative. For example, AoA might be able to make a list and then the agency staff contact people who may be interested. Then we get in contact with the family members once they agree to have their contact info forwarded to us.

We will be using family as our unit of analysis because family is where the exploitation happens. We will be collecting data from individual family members which are likely to be somewhat different from each other, but we will be aggregating it focused on the family unit, not on individuals.

Sample Size

We can recruitment through webinars, and Don can recruit when finishing up a case (exclusively bad cases). Can also use 4 regions of the country (PI Vincenti, Wyoming and Colorado; Co-I Bolkan, WA; Co-I Betz-Hamilton, Illinois; and Co-I Teaster, Virginia) where we have team members who have contacts with relevant agencies for 1^st stage recruitment in RRF proposal, and if that doesn’t work, we will reach out to our national contacts.

Potentially, we could manage a sample size of 12 “successful” and 12 “unsuccessful” families, with each of the four sites recruiting participants from 3 families (with 2 family members per family) for each category. This would equal 48 participants.

Discussion regarding Dragon Naturally Speaking voice to text software and subsequent cleaning transcripts concluded with a decision not to use it. Susan Star, graduate student of Axton, took 20 hours to clean a relatively short transcript transcribed by Dragon.

It was decided that the interview protocol should be revised to reflect risk and protective factors. We plan to build in 1.5 hours for interviews into the RRF grant (can split into multiple shorter interviews if necessary).

Planning for the next year:

We plan to submit a manuscript to the Journal of Elder Abuse and Neglect (after transcript coding is complete) and Journal of Consumer Affairs (regarding perpetrators and build upon several conference proceedings), but we need to clean up coding and reduce levels in NVivo first. We also plan to submit conference proposals for IAGG (due 7/1/16) for a poster on risk and protective factors.

Thursday, June 30, 2016

Meeting began at 8:05am. Members present: Bernard, Ginny, Don, Marlene, Cindy, Axton, Pam, Jenna, Cory (via Skype at 9am MT)

Don discussed importing Qualtrics into NVivo server and touched on 5 main points. He will put the info he discussed into NVivo Folder in Dropbox, or you can go to the website of QSR International in order to find out more info and tutorials about NVivo.

Cheryl Goldenstein, Coe Library, came in to answer our questions about RefWorks.

Grant Proposal & Survey Continued

The team completed going through survey to keep, discard, and reorganize questions. We also need to rework the interview questions, and Bernard will send Axton the removed questions.

Adam Wales (IT) came in to help those who need help with NVivo. Cory and Marlene reported that they will email Bernard with scales that may be put into the survey. Pam discussed that we can use Peter Lichtenberg’s work to look at undue influence and how to incorporate it to the survey. Pam will look up his information and send to Bernard. Pam led a grant proposal discussion. We discussed needing to consider administrative paperwork within each university (may be something tricky with timing for some). 

We discussed who would be part of the Retirement Research Foundation grant in development and what each person would bring to the grant.

Concerns:

Marlene questioned the implications of not having all team members on the grant. Everyone wants to have Pam on grant in some way because of her background and expertise. Bernard should be on grant because of his survey expertise. Axton should be on grant because of her qualitative experience. We think we need a budget of $75,000-$100,000. The final proposal is due August 1, 2016. We need to have proposal done by July 25^th to give University of Wyoming enough time to approve it.

We decided on recruitment strategy, please see the email from Pam that was sent in morning of 6/30/16.

Discussion was held about using a public health/prevention model versus resilience. Currently, the draft of the grant uses a public health/prevention model, and we decided to stay with this. Marlene suggested making sure that family as the unit of analysis is clear in each part of the study, especially with respect to coding qualitative data (How do individual units interrelate?).

We worked on development of the RRF grant and who would work on which aspects.

All of us should look forgrant opportunities within our universities. U. of WY Faculty Grant in Aid is a potential grant.

Larger Planning for the Year

Ginny began discussion about the “timeline” for the group and adding to things we want to accomplish.

Axton noted missing presentations that we need in Dropbox. Jenna is to ask people to insert their presentations, and Ginny needs to “share” Dropbox folders. We also need graphics for the models that we use, Bronfenbrenner, Resilience, Rabiner et al (see in Rabiner article, Bernard to find model).

Articles for the future:

Pamela suggests getting out a team article before November. We will work on an article for the Journal of Consumer Affairs discussing what characteristics could contribute to being a perpetrator. Axton will work on this and get it out in September. Cory is taking lead on an abstract for the Gerontological Society of America. Ginny and Bernard will work on an article discussing consequences of EFE on families for NCFR or another family-focused journal. Marlene suggests an overall article about the “meaning of what we have learned” that may discuss consequences to families (financial, relationships, etc.). We should also write an article for lawyers, maybe the bar association journals. Other potential journal appropriate for our research are Journal of Financial Crime (not ranked); Journal of Financial Counselling and Planning; Journal of Family and Economic Issues (impact factor, 1.0); Journal of Family Relations (acceptance rate 20%, impact factor 0.9)

Marlene encourages “fleshing out the findings” by flagging the best quotes, illustrating themes using the “words of participants”, best examples (usually one or two); make sure quotes are from a variety of people (must code, and clean up our nodes, before this can be done).

The Social Justice Research Center grant will focus on beta testing survey this fall and winter.

Don has created a database that has scraped media articles on EFE. He will try sort out the articles into some meaningful categories and share them.

Conferences for the next year:

National Adult Protective Service Association (NAPSA) is August 2017 “The Elder Abuse Conference”

Bernard will write an abstract of IAGG, before July 15, for a poster on risk and protective factors and get it to the group by July 6.

Pamela recommends not getting involved in too many conference proposals, so we need to build status through peer reviewed articles (presentations are too distracting).

Marlene wondered whether there are concrete deliverables (dissemination) that we must have. We might look at something that really addresses NIFA objectives (need to do this to get our project renewed). We also should look at something that relates to Extension (Extension publication). Maybe we can work on a longer pamphlet about POA. We had some discussion of how these Extension publications get published nationally. We would want it done before the end of next September. Marlene is willing to work on this. Someone brought up the idea of mandatory training for how to be a POA.

Marlene wondered how to proceed with scheduling meetings, so we can plan around a regular day and time? Ginny thinks we don’t need to meet every week. Marlene thinks subgroup meetings are more important and larger group meet once a month to talk about the “bigger picture.” Ginny wonders what do we do to keep ourselves on track? Axton says we need to be saying “no” to other requests, especially when it is not going to get you tenure or support our priorities. We need a Doodle poll to schedule our regular meetings, but try for one meeting in September.

Accomplishments

<table width="884"><br /> <tbody><br /> <tr><br /> <td width="188"><br /> <p><strong>Grant Title</strong></p><br /> </td><br /> <td width="155"><br /> <p><strong>Funding Source</strong></p><br /> </td><br /> <td width="120"><br /> <p><strong>Funding Period</strong></p><br /> </td><br /> <td width="118"><br /> <p><strong>Dollar Amount</strong></p><br /> </td><br /> <td width="124"><br /> <p><strong>Funded?</strong></p><br /> </td><br /> <td width="178"><br /> <p><strong>Investigators</strong></p><br /> </td><br /> </tr><br /> <tr><br /> <td width="188"><br /> <p>Risk and Protective Factors Associated with Elder Financial Exploitation by Relatives with Powers of Attorney</p><br /> </td><br /> <td width="155"><br /> <p>Social Justice Research Center Grant &nbsp; Submitted January 29, 2016</p><br /> </td><br /> <td width="120"><br /> <p>2016-2017</p><br /> </td><br /> <td width="118"><br /> <p>$4,000</p><br /> </td><br /> <td width="124"><br /> <p>Yes</p><br /> </td><br /> <td width="178"><br /> <p>Bernard Steinman and Virginia Vincenti</p><br /> <p>&nbsp;</p><br /> </td><br /> </tr><br /> <tr><br /> <td width="188"><br /> <p>Risk and Protective Factors for Elder Financial Exploitation by a Family Member Power of Attorney</p><br /> <p>&nbsp;</p><br /> </td><br /> <td width="155"><br /> <p>UW Ag Experiment Station Competitive Grants Program</p><br /> <p>&nbsp;</p><br /> </td><br /> <td width="120"><br /> <p>FY 2016</p><br /> </td><br /> <td width="118"><br /> <p>$75,000</p><br /> </td><br /> <td width="124"><br /> <p>No</p><br /> </td><br /> <td width="178"><br /> <p>Virginia B. Vincenti, Axton Betz- Hamilton, Cynthia Jasper, Pamela B Teaster, Bernard Steinman, Cory Bolkan, Donovan Rudisuhle</p><br /> </td><br /> </tr><br /> <tr><br /> <td width="188"><br /> <p>UW Competitive Grant: Risk and Protective Factors within Family Systems Associated with Elder Financial Exploitation by a Family Member Power of Attorney</p><br /> </td><br /> <td width="155"><br /> <p>UW Ag Experiment Station</p><br /> <p>&nbsp;</p><br /> </td><br /> <td width="120"><br /> <p>FY 2016</p><br /> </td><br /> <td width="118"><br /> <p>$90,000</p><br /> </td><br /> <td width="124"><br /> <p>No</p><br /> </td><br /> <td width="178"><br /> <p>Virginia Vincenti, Axton Betz-Hamilton, Cynthia Jasper, Pamela Teaster, Bernard Steinman, Cory Bolkan, Don Rudisuhle.</p><br /> </td><br /> </tr><br /> </tbody><br /> </table><br /> <table width="885"><br /> <tbody><br /> <tr><br /> <td width="218"><br /> <p><strong>Title</strong></p><br /> </td><br /> <td width="188"><br /> <p><strong>Organization </strong></p><br /> </td><br /> <td width="173"><br /> <p><strong>Date Presented/ Published</strong></p><br /> </td><br /> <td width="105"><br /> <p><strong>Refereed?</strong></p><br /> </td><br /> <td width="203"><br /> <p><strong>Author/Presenter</strong></p><br /> </td><br /> </tr><br /> <tr><br /> <td width="218"><br /> <p>Risk Factors within Families for Elder Financial Exploitation by Family Members (Abstract)</p><br /> </td><br /> <td width="188"><br /> <p>International Federation of Home Economics (IFHE), XXIII World Congress, about 20 attended</p><br /> </td><br /> <td width="173"><br /> <p>2015 submitted, published in 2016 in IFHE Abstract Book.</p><br /> </td><br /> <td width="105"><br /> <p>Yes</p><br /> </td><br /> <td width="203"><br /> <p>Virginia Vincenti</p><br /> </td><br /> </tr><br /> <tr><br /> <td width="218"><br /> <p>Could you be Contributing to EFE? A Preliminary Look at Professionals&rsquo; Attitudes and Actions (Poster)</p><br /> </td><br /> <td width="188"><br /> <p>Family Therapy Association, about 15 attended</p><br /> </td><br /> <td width="173"><br /> <p>May 2016</p><br /> </td><br /> <td width="105"><br /> <p>Yes</p><br /> </td><br /> <td width="203"><br /> <p>Axton Betz-Hamilton</p><br /> </td><br /> </tr><br /> </tbody><br /> </table><br /> <p><strong>&nbsp;</strong></p><br /> <ul><br /> <li><strong><strong>Presentation and Webinars</strong></strong></li><br /> </ul><br /> <p>&nbsp;</p><br /> <table width="885"><br /> <tbody><br /> <tr><br /> <td width="218"><br /> <p><strong>Presentation Title</strong></p><br /> </td><br /> <td width="188"><br /> <p><strong>Organization</strong></p><br /> </td><br /> <td width="173"><br /> <p><strong>Date Presented</strong></p><br /> </td><br /> <td width="105"><br /> <p><strong>Refereed or Invited?</strong></p><br /> </td><br /> <td width="203"><br /> <p><strong>Presenters</strong></p><br /> </td><br /> </tr><br /> <tr><br /> <td width="218"><br /> <p>When it&rsquo;s Family: Entitlement and Elder Financial Exploitation</p><br /> </td><br /> <td width="188"><br /> <p>Minnesota World Elder Abuse Awareness Day</p><br /> </td><br /> <td width="173"><br /> <p>June 15, 2016</p><br /> </td><br /> <td width="105"><br /> <p>Invited</p><br /> </td><br /> <td width="203"><br /> <p>Marlene Stum</p><br /> </td><br /> </tr><br /> <tr><br /> <td width="218"><br /> <p>When it's Family: Barriers to Reporting Elder Financial Exploitation</p><br /> </td><br /> <td width="188"><br /> <p>Minnesota World Elder Abuse Awareness Day</p><br /> </td><br /> <td width="173"><br /> <p>June 15, 2016</p><br /> </td><br /> <td width="105"><br /> <p>Invited</p><br /> </td><br /> <td width="203"><br /> <p>Marlene Stum, Marit Peterson</p><br /> </td><br /> </tr><br /> <tr><br /> <td width="218"><br /> <p>Family Consequences of Elder Financial Exploitation by Relatives with Powers of Attorney</p><br /> </td><br /> <td width="188"><br /> <p>107^th Annual Conference &amp; Expo, Bellevue, WA, 6 people attended</p><br /> </td><br /> <td width="173"><br /> <p>June 24, 2016</p><br /> </td><br /> <td width="105"><br /> <p>Refereed</p><br /> </td><br /> <td width="203"><br /> <p>Virginia Vincenti</p><br /> </td><br /> </tr><br /> </tbody><br /> </table><br /> <p><strong>&nbsp;</strong></p><br /> <table width="885"><br /> <tbody><br /> <tr><br /> <td width="218"><br /> <p><strong>Webinar Title</strong></p><br /> </td><br /> <td width="188"><br /> <p><strong>Organization</strong></p><br /> </td><br /> <td width="173"><br /> <p><strong>Date Presented</strong></p><br /> </td><br /> <td width="105"><br /> <p><strong>Refereed/Invited</strong></p><br /> </td><br /> <td width="203"><br /> <p><strong>Presenters</strong></p><br /> </td><br /> </tr><br /> <tr><br /> <td width="218"><br /> <p>Could you be Contributing to Elder Financial Exploitation? A Preliminary Look at Professionals&rsquo; Attitudes and Actions</p><br /> </td><br /> <td width="188"><br /> <p>American Association of Daily Money Managers, about 25 attended</p><br /> </td><br /> <td width="173"><br /> <p>July 26, 2016</p><br /> </td><br /> <td width="105"><br /> <p>Invited</p><br /> </td><br /> <td width="203"><br /> <p>Axton Betz-Hamilton &amp; Cory Bolkan</p><br /> </td><br /> </tr><br /> <tr><br /> <td width="218"><br /> <p>What Financial Coaches Need to Know about Family Financial Exploitation</p><br /> </td><br /> <td width="188"><br /> <p>Association for Financial Counseling and Planning Education (AFCPE), 60 attended</p><br /> </td><br /> <td width="173"><br /> <p>July 28, 2016</p><br /> </td><br /> <td width="105"><br /> <p>Invited</p><br /> </td><br /> <td width="203"><br /> <p>Axton Betz-Hamilton, Marlene Stum, Don Rudisuhle</p><br /> </td><br /> </tr><br /> </tbody><br /> </table><br /> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Objective 1</span>: Understand the participants lived experiences (knowledge and feelings) related to elder financial exploitation.</p><br /> <p>We have revised our interview protocol twice and substantially revised the survey and recreated it in Qualtrics that can be imported into NVivo 11 so that we can integrate and analyze the data. In the next data collection phase, the survey will be the first step in data collection with those participants who meet our criteria for participants whose family experienced both successful and exploitative POA periods of elder dependency and are willing to provide more in-depth accounts of their experiences with elder financial exploitation and lack of exploitation by family POA agents. This means that our survey participants are likely to have a broader range of experiences. In spite of focusing our research on risk factors for elder financial exploitation within families, we are still coding interviews for participants&rsquo; experiences before, during and after the exploitation.</p><br /> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Objective 2</span>: Identify factors in the victims/perpetrators family system that participants consider to be significant antecedents to the Power of Attorney elder financial exploitation in their family.</p><br /> <p>We have revised the survey using Qualtrics which can be imported into NVivo for analysis and have also revised the interview protocol so it will allow participants to expand what they have reported in the survey. We also obtained a grant from the Social Justice Research Center to pilot test the survey so that we can compare risk factors in family with EFE to protective factors in families who have not experienced EFE from a family POA agent. Both the survey and the interview protocol are more structured now than the earlier versions.</p><br /> <p>We are likely at some point later to broaden our criteria for participation in our research beyond the use of powers of attorney as a means of exploitation. The survey tracks multiple decision-making agreements in addition to POA and our coding of interview data tracks multiple decision-making agreements which could provide clarity on elder financial exploitation by family members.</p><br /> <p>New with this phase of the project, we will be recruiting family-member participants whose families have successfully moved through their elders&rsquo; dependency period without experiencing exploitation by a family-member POA agent. Comparison of factors between the two groups of families could further clarify factors that increase risk and protective factors that reduce risk. We are, however, concerned that successful families may be more difficult to recruit. So far families who have experienced exploitation have indicated that participation in this research, although somewhat painful to relive, also eases their pain by contributing to prevention for others by sharing their own experiences.</p><br /> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Objective 3</span>: Gain insights into the victims&rsquo; and perpetrators&rsquo; family experiences that could assist professionals in facilitating healing of emotional and relationship wounds within families.</p><br /> <p>Our focus has changed from this objective to prevention as a means of increasing the impact of this research. However, we hope that our findings will help to prevent or stop EFE at earlier stages because families and professionals will be educated about the risk and protective factors. Thus, this research will reduce or prevent damage to families as a whole. The interviews because of their depth may reveal insights that will address this objective as we collect more data.</p><br /> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Objective 4</span>: Identify the range and scope of family experiences related to foundational antecedents, exploitation situations, and impact and meaning of the elder financial exploitation that could contribute to prevention and effective redress.</p><br /> <p>We will need to continue collecting data and analyzing it to be able to identify what seem like a range and scope of family experiences.</p><br /> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Objective 5</span>: Refine and/or expand the Conceptual Model of Elder Financial Exploitation by Rabiner, OKeeffe, and Brown, 2004.</p><br /> <p>We gained and understand into the family dynamics, values, and relationships that will expand the conceptual model of Rabiner et al. This next phase of this research will provide much more insight that will allow us to add detail to the Rabiner, OKeeffe, and Brown model. By incorporating Jackson &amp; Hafemeister (2011) and Acierno&rsquo;s (2009) research findings on risk factors into our survey and interview protocol we will be able to compare our results and/or add to theirs.</p><br /> <p>Acierno, R., Hernandez-Tejada, M., Muzzy, W., &amp; Steve, K. (2009, March). National elderly mistreatment study. National Institute of Justice. (Document No. 226456).</p><br /> <p>Jackson, S.L., &amp; Hafemeiser, T.L. (2011). Risk factors associated with elder abuse: The importance of differentiating by type of elder maltreatment. Violence and Victims 26(6): 738-757.</p><br /> <p>Rabiner, D. J., O'Keeffe, J., &amp; Brown, D. (2004). A conceptual framework of financial exploitation of older persons. Journal of Elder Abuse &amp; Neglect, 16 (2), 53-73. doi: 10.1300/J084v16n02_05</p><br /> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Objective 6</span>: Refine the current research design and identify future studies that could contribute to prevention and more effective redress of familial elder financial exploitation.</p><br /> <p>Further analysis of research already collected has contributed to more focus in our next phase on data collection on identification of risk <strong>and</strong> protective factors for EFE within families.</p><br /> <p>We realized this past year that we needed to simplify our coding by combining some very specific codes into broader codes. In so doing we have reduced the levels of coding from 6 to 2. This year we have worked diligently to learn more features of the powerful NVivo analytical software which allows us to do much more sophisticated analysis than we were able to do without this software. It allows us to calculate inter-rater reliability, and integrate analysis of our quantitative and qualitative data. We are still learning.</p><br /> <p>The five new team members bring with them much needed expertise: statistical expertise, Gerontological and mixed methods expertise, Extension experience, and grant writing expertise. Also having a project assistant has also increased our productivity. We have submitted a grant proposal to the Retirement Research Foundation for $111k which will help expand our productivity in part by buying time for key investigators on the team.</p><br /> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Objective 7</span>: Create a means of measuring the prevalence of elder financial abuse by family members who have had Powers of Attorney.</p><br /> <p>This objective is not doable until states have a common database and collect the same data that can be compiled. Even then, the secrecy surrounding this &ldquo;family problem&rdquo; makes is extremely difficult to measure prevalence. More important is the potential for this research to identify risk factors that can be addressed proactively in addressing family problems and in making better planning decisions for later life to avoid the risks of elder financial exploitation. Once these are identified, dissemination of this information is a key component of prevention.</p><br /> <p>(2016-2017 Plans): (Objective 1 &amp; 4): Continue grant writing as needed. (Objectives 1-5): Continue the in-depth interviews and conduct surveys of family members of exploited elders and those who have had successful experiences with family POA agents. We will continue to submit manuscripts on the findings and share findings with academic and lay audiences. We will use the analysis done for presentations to contribute to manuscript development. (Objectives 1-6): We have added five additional researchers this past year for this multi-state project which will increase our productivity. (Objectives 4, 5, &amp; 6): We will also continue grant writing as needed.</p>

Publications

<table width="885"><br /> <tbody><br /> <tr><br /> <td width="165"><br /> <p>Researchers Study Elder Financial Exploitation</p><br /> </td><br /> <td width="210"><br /> <p><em>Reflections</em>: College of Agriculture &amp; Natural Resources Research Report, U. of WY</p><br /> </td><br /> <td width="130"><br /> <p>2015</p><br /> </td><br /> <td width="154"><br /> <p>No</p><br /> </td><br /> <td width="225"><br /> <p>Virginia Vincenti</p><br /> </td><br /> </tr><br /> <tr><br /> <td width="165"><br /> <p>Risk Factors within Families Associated with Elder Financial Exploitation by Relatives with Powers of Attorney</p><br /> </td><br /> <td width="210"><br /> <p><em>Journal of Family and Consumer Sciences</em></p><br /> </td><br /> <td width="130"><br /> <p>2016- in revision</p><br /> </td><br /> <td width="154"><br /> <p>Yes</p><br /> </td><br /> <td width="225"><br /> <p>Axton Betz-Hamilton, Virginia Vincenti, Cynthia Jasper</p><br /> </td><br /> </tr><br /> </tbody><br /> </table><br /> <p>&nbsp;</p>

Impact Statements

1. 2. This research has great potential for a positive preventative effect on families. From the data we have already analyzed, it seems clear that dissemination of the findings would help professionals working with elders and their families better prepare for the elders’ dependency late in life and raise their awareness of the pervasiveness of elder financial exploitation by trusted relatives and hopefully reduce the secrecy around this problem that facilitates it. In the future we need to share the findings with professionals who work with individuals and family financial planning for end of life such as lawyers, organizations (e.g. AARP, senior centers, and service clubs) that have older members who could benefit from our findings and financial planners who also work with people planning for a possible period of dependency and for transferring assets upon their deaths.

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