House Passes Financial Exploitation Prevention Act

The House passed late Monday H.R.500, the Financial Exploitation Prevention Act of 2023, legislation introduced by Rep. Ann Wagner, R-Mo., Chairwoman of the House Financial Services subcommittee on Capital Markets, that’s intended to protect seniors by implementing “a buffer between financial transactions if fraud is suspected.”

Eric Pan, president and CEO of the Investment Company Institute in Washington, said in a statement after the vote that the bill “would enable mutual funds and their transfer agents to better protect seniors by delaying the redemption of securities, if there is reasonable belief that financial exploitation has occurred.”

Mutual funds, Pan said, “are key to building financial security for the majority of households in the U.S., and around a third of those are seniors.”

The bipartisan bill “is an important step to protecting seniors and vulnerable adults from manipulation and elder fraud by enhancing safeguards around redemptions,” Pan said.

ICI encouraged swift passage by the Senate.

The Financial Exploitation Prevention Act, according to Wagner, “would give the financial industry better tools to address suspected financial exploitation and abuse of seniors and those with mental and physical disabilities.”

First, the bill requires the Securities and Exchange Commission to report to Congress on “recommendations for legislative and regulatory changes on how to combat financial exploitation of seniors and vulnerable adults.”

The legislation also permits “a registered open-end investment company or transfer agent for that company, including mutual funds, to better protect seniors by delaying the redemption period of any redeemable security if it was reasonably believed that such redemption was requested through the financial exploitation of a security holder who is a senior or an individual unable to protect their own interests,” Wagner explained.

Over the next 10-plus years, Wagner said, “10,000 Americans will turn 65 every day, with seniors making up 18% of the nation’s population by 2030.”

As more investors age into retirement, their risk of exploitation increases.

Currently, according to Wagner, about 1 in 5 older investors are defrauded, and those investors lose an estimated $2.9 billion annually in reported cases.