ELDERLY Australians are effectively being robbed by family members in a "casual larceny" that sees bank accounts established to provide for the twilight years instead raided to pay for school fees and home renovations.
A NSW parliamentary inquiry into elder abuse has heard financial abuse is rife, and there is little recourse in NSW for victims who have handed power of attorney to loved ones who do the wrong thing.
Sue Field, 67, an adjunct fellow in elder law at Western Sydney University, blames "inheritance impatience", and says it is a more widespread cause of abuse than the deliberate con man.
"We can see the 90-year-old in the gutter because they have been ripped off, but that's not our family. But it is our family borrowing the $10,000 in Sydney to renovate the toilet," she told the inquiry. Ms Field said appointing a family member as attorney "often causes disharmony, particularly if one person, not through malevolent means, is misusing money".
She has chosen not to appoint her own adult children as her attorney.
"When they asked why, I said, 'You can't look after your own money, why would I think you could look after mine?'"
The inquiry heard that all other states and territories have statutory liability for errant attorneys to compensate a victim for losses.
But in NSW, the only option is legal action for fraud, which an elderly person is unlikely to take, because it is "expensive, lengthy and stressful". The risk of losing contact with grandchildren is another reason few victims take action.
"As we age, we don't have time on our side," said Ms Field, who has called for better training for family members who take on the responsibility of an elderly person's financial affairs.
The inquiry is examining proposals for attorneys to lodge yearly accounts, and the establishment of a register of powers of attorney, to provide some basic oversight of the estate management of the booming number of elderly Australians.
But the focus on financial abuse of the aged comes as the Baird government makes significant cuts to the NSW Public Trustee and Guardian, which has prepared wills and appointed attorneys for over 100 years.
Branches will be reduced from 19 to 10, including the closure of Penrith, Chatswood, Burwood and Liverpool. Online and phone services will fill the gap.
The Public Trustee had been used by people who didn't want to appoint a family member, or had failed to appoint anyone. The new agency will encourage NSW residents to select a private financial manager and to pre-prepare their wills.
Ms Field told the inquiry that most people couldn't afford to go to a lawyer when making a power of attorney.
"I firmly believe that a statutory body such as the Public Trustee and Guardian should do this as a service without cost," she said.
In Queensland, anyone can go to the Public Trustee and get a will done and appoint an executor, she said.
A spokesman for Attorney General Gabrielle Upton said the Public Trustee and Guardian reforms would improve service.
"People eligible for a full Centrelink benefit will continue to be able to make documents like wills, powers of attorney or enduring guardianships for free with NSWTG," he said.
Sydey Morning Herald
