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Which States Have the Best Protections Against Elder Abuse?

The United States Census Bureau predicts that the nation’s population of older adults nationwide will have doubled from 49.2 million in 2016 to 94.7 million in 2060.

As the population grows as well as ages, elder abuse remains a significant concern. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, 10 percent of older adults experience some form of abuse each year. In addition to physical harm, elder abuse can also encompass financial exploitation, neglect, and emotional abuse.

Elder abuse can lead to a number of negative outcomes, per the World Health Organization. Older adults who experience abuse are more likely to suffer depression, physical injuries, cognitive decline, and premature death.

To raise awareness of this issue, WalletHub evaluated elder abuse protections in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The list for 2024 identifies the best and worst states for residents aged 65 and older. Overall scores take into consideration more than a dozen different metrics for each state and D.C. These include total counts of elder abuse complaints, funds spent on prevention, and the number of elder care organizations.

Here are the key findings from WalletHub’s research:

3 States With the Best Protections for Older Adults in 2024

Wisconsin, Massachusetts, and Ohio rank as the top three states with the best protections for older adults. The highest-ranking state was Wisconsin.

1. Wisconsin

The Badger State has the best elder abuse prevention and assistance in the country, according to WalletHub. Many state programs and nonprofit organizations there are serving older adults, including the following:

• Wisconsin Aging Advocacy Network (WAAN) is a network of organizations advocating for older adults.

• Individuals can report elder abuse to the Wisconsin Elder Abuse Hotline by phone or through its online reporting tool.

The state invests highly in elder abuse prevention programs – three times more per older resident than the national average.

Wisconsin also implemented legislation to protect aging adults from financial exploitation. One law allows prosecutors to freeze the funds and assets of people accused of financially exploiting an older person.

Elder abuse shelters offer protection for Wisconsin seniors. Only 21 other states have shelters for victims of elder abuse.

2. Massachusetts

Following Wisconsin, Massachusetts ranks as the second-best state for elder protection. It also spends the most of any state on protections against abuse of older adults. (Wisconsin spends the third-highest amount of any state.)

Massachusetts law protects victims of elder abuse through its mandatory abuse reporting law and elder protective service program. Per Mass.gov, mandated reporters, which include health care professionals, health aides, and social workers, must inform their local protective services agency when they see signs of elder abuse.

The state has low rates of home-care elder abuse, neglect, and exploitation. Since 2020, it has had the second-lowest complaint rate.

Compared with Wisconsin and other states, Massachusetts has yet to invest as much in its long-term care ombudsman program. These kinds of state programs advocate for residents in long-term care centers. 

3. Ohio

After Wisconsin and Massachusetts, Ohio ranks third overall in WalletHub’s list for 2024.

Ohio has made significant investments in its long-term care ombudsman program. There are opportunities for residents to volunteer with the program. The Ohio Department of Aging reports that volunteers visit nursing homes and assisted living facilities, inform residents of their rights, and report observations of abuse.

Like Massachusetts, Ohio has mandatory reporting laws. Educational programs also educate the public about elder abuse.

Unfortunately, Ohio has a high financial fraud rate. It is the 10th-highest among the 50 states and D.C., which suggests that Ohio needs to take additional steps to protect elders from financial exploitation.

The Worst Places for Older Adults

According to WalletHub, the three states with the lowest overall score in protecting elders are Montana, Utah, and California. California also ties for the highest number of elder abuse complaints per 100,000 older residents, after Nevada and South Carolina.

Four states tie for the lowest amount of spending on protections for this population: Louisiana, Georgia, Maine, and Montana.

Other Highlights

The states with the best-quality nursing homes, meanwhile, include Hawaii, Alaska, and North Dakota. Louisiana comes in last on this measure for 2024.

The District of Columbia boasts the highest total long-term care ombudsman program funding per senior, tied with Alaska. Each of these locations spends 15 times more than the state with the lowest spending in this area, Tennessee.

Spotting Elder Abuse

WalletHub also provides recommendations for identifying elder abuse. The following could indicate abuse:

• Abnormal bank or credit card activity

• New “friends,” who could be scammers

• Irregular posts or recent connections with strangers on social media

• Updates to legal documents, such as new will beneficiaries or agents under a power of attorney

• Behavior changes, including sadness and fearfulness

• Worsening personal care conditions

Where does your state rank for 2024 according to WalletHub? Check out the full list, from best to worst, of states’ elder abuse protections.

Work With Your Elder Law Attorney

Contact your attorney if you suspect abuse, neglect, or financial exploitation. They can help protect the rights of victims of elder abuse.

Notarizing Documents for Seniors With a Dementia Diagnosis

An Alzheimer’s or dementia diagnosis can be a challenging journey for the person and family alike. When the diagnosis occurs, a ticking clock begins on the timeline for getting proper and sound notarizations done for crucial legal documents.

What Does It Mean to Get a Document Notarized?

According to the National Notary Association, having a document notarized is a process that ensures the document is authentic. The Notary serves as an impartial screener who confirms the identity, willingness, and awareness of the person signing the document.

There are vital issues and implications to be aware of when having documents notarized for individuals with dementia.

Notarizing for a Person With Dementia: A Legal Gray Area

Having documents notarized for seniors with dementia leads to some legal gray areas. There are no laws that prohibit having documents notarized for individuals with cognitive impairments. However, the role of a Notary Public extends beyond the procedural formalities.

Notarizing documents for anyone who is cognitively impaired also comes with a dramatically increased risk for both fraud and elder abuse. This is an issue that Notaries are highly aware of and protect against.

Notaries must assess whether their document signers understand and are aware of the nature of the documents, their contents, and their details. They also must verify the signer’s identity.

Notaries must screen each signer to ensure they are signing the document willingly. The signer cannot be under the pressure or direction of any third party.

The Notary will refuse to notarize a document if they find that any of these conditions fail to meet the standard.

It’s critical for families to act ethically and responsibly in notarizing important documents for their aging loved ones with dementia. If your loved one is facing a dementia diagnosis, establish legal clarity as soon as possible to avoid uncertainties later.

How to Prep When Having Documents Notarized

The following tips will help you prepare:

• Make sure the Notary visits the signer at a time when they are cognitively aware.
• Arrange for the signer to meet privately with the Notary.
• Confirm what type of notarization you need on specific legal documents. If you need anything clarified, check with your attorney or the document recipient.
• Ensure the signer is prepared to present their identification. They also must be able to sign the document, if necessary, as well as the Notary’s record book. Some states also require a fingerprint impression.
• Ensure there are no blank spaces or dates on the documents. To combat fraud, a Notary will refuse to notarize if required entries are blank.

Legal Documents to Have Notarized for Dementia Diagnosis

Certain legal documents, more commonly notarized for seniors, serve the person’s wishes and protect them from undue influence. Those documents include the following:

Power of Attorney (General vs. Durable)

A power of attorney grants authority to a trusted individual to make financial and legal decisions on behalf of someone else. A general power of attorney is effective immediately. In contrast, a durable power of attorney remains in effect even if the signer becomes unable to handle their affairs.

Health Care Power of Attorney

This document designates a representative to make medical decisions when the individual is unable to do so. You may also hear it referred to as a health care proxy. Notarizing it ensures that all parties will respect the signer’s health care preferences.

Living Will

A living will outlines end-of-life medical preferences. Having it notarized provides assurance that medical choices align with the signer’s wishes.

Guardianship/Conservatorship

In cases where dementia has advanced significantly, establishing a legal guardian or conservator for your loved one. In securing notarized documents, you can ensure that the guardian responsibly manages your loved one’s financial and personal affairs.

Will or Trust

Notarizing a will or trust guarantees the proper distribution of assets after your loved one’s passing, minimizing potential disputes.

HIPAA Release Form

A HIPAA release form grants specific individuals access to the signer’s medical information, aiding health care decisions.

Financial Account Designations

You may also want to ensure that all parties will handle your loved one’s financial matters according to their preferences. To do this, you can work with a Notary to notarize designations on your loved one’s financial accounts.

Act Before It’s Too Late

The absence of specific laws surrounding notarial acts and dementia highlights the importance of being proactive. Waiting until the last moment to have something notarized may lead to legal difficulties or disputes.

As soon as you receive confirmation of your loved one’s dementia diagnosis, initiate the process of having key legal documents notarized. It’s essential you do this while your loved one can still articulate their wishes. This way, you can help protect them while reducing potential family conflicts.

Positive Death

Many different people and groups in the U.S. are beginning to seek ways to turn death into a positive experience, that focuses on the person involved.

Death has typically been something of a taboo subject in our culture. We all know that it will eventually happen to us, but we do not typically like to think about it. Even those people who have strong religious beliefs that they will go to a much better place after they pass away, do not like to dwell too much on their own deaths.

It is a scary subject for us, since none of us can be absolutely certain what death will be like and what will happen afterwards. A side effect is that elderly people and the terminally ill do not often have people to help them deal with the process. A new movement is trying to change that, as The New York Times reports in "The Positive Death Movement Comes to Life."

The movement is not completely cohesive. It is just various people and groups trying to make the subject of death less taboo and to focus on the personal needs of the dying. In some places, it has taken the form of "death cafes," where anyone interested can come together and talk about the subject. Other people are working on ways for hospice patients to receive personal attention in the same way a midwife helps those giving birth.

One reason why many people do not get estate plans, is they do not want to think about their own death. If this new movement is successful and does result in more people getting estate plans, that will be a very good thing for many families.

Reference: New York Times (June 22, 2018) "The Positive Death Movement Comes to Life."

Stay Issued in California Doctor-Assisted Suicide Case

A California Appeals Court has issued a stay order against a lower court's ruling that had declared the state's doctor-assisted suicide law unconstitutional.

Several states have passed laws allowing doctors to assist terminally ill patients who want to commit suicide. Whenever these laws are passed, there is always some controversy.  However, it has not been nearly as what has occurred since California passed its law allowing the practice.

California has seen groups consisting of both doctors and religious-affiliated people fight hard against the law. In May of 2018, the law’s opponents won a major victory, when a district court judge declared that the law violated the state's constitution.

However, it was not a complete victory. This is because the judge did not rule on the merits of doctor-assisted suicide. Instead, the judge declared the manner in which the law had been passed as unconstitutional. That partial victory is now in doubt, as an appeals court issued an immediate stay of the lower court's order, as KVOA reports in "Court reinstates doctor-assisted suicide in California."

The California law is being closely monitored by interest groups on both sides of the debate over doctor-assisted suicide.

Interest groups are also following the law, because it included several provisions mandating that the state collect data about how the law was working and to issue regular reports about it. Both sides hope what the data reveals will be helpful for them, as other states consider similar laws.

Reference: KVOA (June 16, 2018) "Court reinstates doctor-assisted suicide in California."

The AARP Takes on Student Loans

An organization whose purpose is to promote the interests of older Americans might seem unlikely to be worried too much about student loan debt, but the AARP sees the issue as a growing part of its missio

Many Americans decide to go to college, after being in the workforce for some time, even decades. Colleges are typically for younger people.

That means most student loans are taken out relatively early in a person's lifetime. If everything goes well the debtor graduates, finds a job and pays off the loans. However, everything does not always go well and that is increasingly the case for many Americans.

It's a becoming a big enough problem that even the American Association of Retired Persons is starting to worry about it, as Politico reports in "Why the AARP is worried about student loans."

The AARP has two basic issues with the current student loan situation. The first is that an increasing number of elder Americans have defaulted on their loans. As a result, their Social Security benefits are being garnished. The organization is trying to get a law passed to end the garnishment of Social Security benefits.

More generally, the AARP is worried that the increasing amount of debt graduates are carrying is making it difficult for them to save for retirement. Americans generally do not save enough for their retirements. If the student loan situation gets worse in a few decades, elder Americans could be even more unprepared to retire.

It is not as clear currently what can be done about this second problem.

Reference: Politico (June 7, 2018) "Why the AARP is worried about student loans."

California's Assisted Death Law Struck Down

In 2015 California passed what many people considered to be a groundbreaking physician-assisted death law. A court has now overturned it.

Advocates and detractors of physician-assisted suicide have been paying close attention to the state of California. A law passed there in 2015 to allow the practice, was thought to be a good opportunity to see how it would work in a large state population, especially since the law contained important provisions concerning record keeping and reporting.

Regular reports on how the law was being used, were also supposed to be issued by the state. While the law is very popular with citizens according to polling data, many doctors were not as impressed and a group of them sued in 2016 to stop the law.

Recently, a judge in California ruled in favor of the doctors and struck down the law as the Sacramento Bee reports in "California assisted death law overturned in court."

The doctors argued that the law did not adequately define terminal illness, for it to be clear which patients were eligible for physician assistance. The law also exempted people who helped patients with death from liability. The doctors complained that the law was not passed by the legislature following the appropriate procedure. The judge agreed with these claims.

The law’s supporters point out that the ruling was not about the legality of physician-assisted death itself and California has subsequently filed an appeal of the court's ruling.

Reference: Sacramento Bee (May 15, 2018) "California assisted death law overturned in court."

Plan Ahead to Be a Caregiver

Americans are increasingly acting as the primary caregivers for their elderly parents. This is something that they should make plans for ahead of time.

If you know you were going to have increased expenses in the future, you would be wise to plan ahead for how you will meet those expenses. This is something people do all the time. Someone who would like to buy a house, plans ahead to save the money needed for a down payment.

One future expense many Americans will face is the cost of acting as the primary caregivers for their elderly parents. Older Americans are living longer than ever before, and nursing homes continue to get more expensive. Being the caregiver for an elderly parent is also increasingly common. Americans need to plan for how they will meet the future caregiving expenses, as Kiplinger's Personal Finance discusses in "Why Families Need a Plan for Caregiving."

Beyond just having another mouth to feed, caregiving can often come with other expenses, such as helping an elderly parent pay for expensive co-pays for medicine and expensive insurance deductibles. Other expenses can come from making sure that a home is a safe environment for an elderly person who needs caregiving. People should also speak with an elder law attorney to find out what programs might be available for their parents.

It is not possible to know ahead of time, how much money you might need to help an elderly parent or even if you will have to be a caregiver at all. Nevertheless, you can get a better idea of what might be coming up, by talking to your parents ahead of time and making plans.

Reference: Kiplinger's Personal Finance (May 9, 2018) "Why Families Need a Plan for Caregiving."

 

Where to Move in Retirement

If you move to another state when you retire, there could be more options. Many older Americans are choosing other states to live in during their retirement years.

Traditionally, when Americans move after they retire, they choose to go to a state with a warm climate. Arizona and Florida are popular options. They have both developed the infrastructure and industries for elderly Americans to live comfortably and to get the services they need.

However, more and more retired people are choosing to move to other states. One trend is for people to move closer to their adult children, as The New York Times reports in "The New Retirement: Near the Kids."

One reason for the trend is that people are more likely to move further away from their hometowns when they grow up, than ever before. Young people today often find they need to move to far away cities for job opportunities in their chosen fields.

As much as parents would like to be closer to their children and grandchildren, they often cannot move closer since they have jobs of their own. That all changes when the parents retire.

A positive result of this trend is that it helps to combat the growing incidence of elderly Americans who are lonely and isolated.

There are many options for moving when you are retired. One thing to keep in mind if you do want to move closer to your children, is that living in large cities is usually more expensive than living elsewhere. Plan accordingly, before you move.

Reference: New York Times (May 4, 2018) "The New Retirement: Near the Kids."

Love Is Not Just for the Young

It is common for elderly people to fall in love and want to get married. As part of the process, they need to make more plans than younger couples.

A common image of the elderly is to see them as past the years to fall in love. Could seniors meet someone new, fall in love and get married? In movies and on TV, elderly people who do fall in love are typically played off for laughs or presented as being under the spell of someone much younger who wants their money.

In real life, it is not unusual for an elderly man and an elderly woman to meet each other, fall in love and get married. Sometimes couples meet in the nursing homes where they live. The only difference between young couples and elderly couples is that the elderly may need to do more planning before they get remarried, as Wealth Management explains in "Never Too Old for Love."

The main thing every elderly couple getting married needs is to understand, is that every state has default rules for how spouses must be treated in an estate plan and in medical decision-making. This means that any current estate plans need to be reviewed and changed to account for what the couple would like to do with their estates. Advanced medical directives and powers of attorney might also need changing as well.

Elderly people can and do fall in love with each other and get married just like anyone else. Life does not end when people reach a certain age.  However, everyone who does get married later in life, needs to make sure that they do the appropriate planning.

Reference: Wealth Management (May 1, 2018) "Never Too Old for Love."

Living Well in Retirement

Americans can expect to live longer after retiring than previous generations.  However, whether they will live better, is an open question that depends on individual choices.

At first glance, Cecilia Chiang might seem like an exception. In some ways she is. The 98-year-old woman who retired in 1991, after a long and successful career in the restaurant industry, continues to be active both in her personal life and professionally consulting for other restaurant owners.

People who can still do that at her age, are now exceptions now.  However, they do not have to be that exceptional in the future, as Americans continue to live longer after formally retiring. To be like Chiang requires some planning, as Market Watch discusses in "5 tips to live in retirement like this famous 98-year-old."

Here are some things to consider:

• It is best to delay retirement until you are debt-free, if possible. When you no longer have income from full-time employment, you do not want to be using savings to pay debt.
• Have a plan for what you want to do when you retire. Do not just stop working and then wonder what to do with your time. Decide what you will do with your time and then stop working.
• Get advice from good advisors. Not everyone needs a financial advisor. However, those who don’t know for sure, should consult one. It is also a good idea to speak to an attorney about estate planning and end-of-life care legal documents.
• Figure out what your expenses are going to be. Make sure that you can afford them, before retiring.
• Consider working in a lesser capacity, such as consulting, or working in the gig economy. This will not only keep you active, it will also give you some extra income.

Reference: Market Watch (May 1, 2018) "5 tips to live in retirement like this famous 98-year-old."