Advisers regularly spot elder financial abuse. Who helps them act?

The warning sign can arrive in the first five minutes. An elderly woman with real wealth sits quietly in the meeting room. Her adult son does the talking: mum wants this, mum wants that.

For Sydney financial adviser Nick Donnelly of Plenary Wealth, that is the moment to step in.

“The older person’s my client, not you,” he tells the son, and asks him to let her speak. “This isn’t about you.”

It is a scene advisers across Australia will recognise. One in six Australians aged 65 and over living in the community reported abuse in the year before an Australian Institute of Family Studies national survey, and 2.1 per cent reported financial abuse.

The grey zone

Financial abuse of older people is greyer than signs of physical abuse, says Financial Advice Association Australia (FAAA) chief executive Sarah Abood.

She says advisers, like financial counsellors, lawyers and accountants, are often on the frontline. But their long relationship with a client often includes the client’s power of attorney, which she says can be part of the problem.

A typical case is an attorney who asks an adviser to invest more aggressively than the client’s risk profile allows, hand over money or help arrange a loan.

“It’s not always clear cut that behaviour that they’re being asked to facilitate is against the law,” Abood tells Professional Planner.

Assyat David director at  Aged Care Steps, which trains advisers, says many cases are not malicious but are still elder abuse. An attorney may not understand the duty, such as gifting $10,000 because it helps the parent’s social security entitlements.

“You can’t give away mum’s money, regardless of what you think the benefits are” David says.

Another cause is “inheritance impatience” – the attorney expects to inherit anyway and sees no reason to wait. Donnelly describes the same pattern of children who keep asking for money.

The adviser’s duty is the same, irrespective of the form abuse takes, or who is committing it.

“Their duty of care is always to the person going into care,” David says. It is the rule Donnelly applies in the meeting room.

What helps now

David urges advisers to hold a planning conversation with the client and the attorney before capacity is lost. It can record the client’s wishes for the home and other assets, and explain the attorney’s duties. It is not legally binding, she says, but it lets everyone discuss options while the client can still represent themselves.

Appointing more than one attorney can add checks. The same principle runs through Donnelly’s family trust recommendations: no child could act alone. But David cautions that appointing multiple attorneys can also bring conflict, or allow a dominant personality to prevail.

She wants every licensee to have an elder abuse policy, and advisers to consult their compliance manager when they suspect abuse. Abood says the FAAA is considering similar tools, though licensees often prefer a broader vulnerable clients policy.

The FAAA also wants joint training with other peak bodies, ideally funded by the government.

Nowhere to report

Policies and training can help advisers respond within their practices. Where to report suspected abuse is less clear.

“There actually isn’t a body to report financial abuse to, at least not nationally,” Abood says. Advisers also have no obligation to report.

Some argue suspected abuse is a suspicious matter for the financial intelligence agency AUSTRAC, but tipping-off rules stop an adviser telling anyone. Abood calls the position unclear.

The government’s October 2026 response to a parliamentary inquiry into financial abuse leaves guidance and sanctions to professional bodies. Its draft Privacy Act changes, released on 31 August 2026, would broaden an exception from “misconduct of a serious nature” to “wrongdoing of a serious ’nature”, including misuse of an enduring power of attorney. Abood could not say whether that covers advisers.

David says reporting only works if someone can act on what is reported. . The government, she says, “needs to make sure that they’ve got the resources and the ability to actually investigate it.” Privacy rules must also let investigators know the person’s name and the circumstances, she says, or the scheme is pointless.

Without a route, advisers often leave. Abood says members who cannot satisfy both the client and the attorney “just exit the relationship, and unfortunately, that doesn’t help the victim of that behaviour”. Donnelly accepts a family may simply leave.

One change

Asked what one thing she would change, Abood says “support”. She wants a central body that brings together the knowledge and the resources.

“It would make such a difference if there was a number that you could call and you could have a conversation with someone who’s aware of the issues and can point you in the right direction,” she says.

She proposes the same body could take reports and track trends. Advisers, counsellors and lawyers work mostly in small businesses, she says, so no one sees the whole picture.

For Donnelly, that support already comes from a lawyer who is also an elder abuse expert, reflecting the crossover between legal and financial issues. It is the kind of expertise Abood wants available to everyone, whilst David’s priority is education: helping clients and attorneys understand the attorneys’ duties, and training advisers themselves.

“We have a duty, legislated duty, to prioritise the interests of our clients,” Abood says. “And if we see something like this going on, we do need to do something about it.”