Bill To Create Elder Abuse Task Force Passes House Committee
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — South Dakota officials could better understand the scope of elder abuse in the state by creating a new task force, lawmakers said Wednesday.
The Senate Retirement Laws committee unanimously passed a bill that would create an interim committee dedicated to studying the prevalence of financial, physical and emotional abuse.
The bill was spurred by Chief Justice of the Supreme Court David Gilbertson, who urged lawmakers to focus on the issue in his State of the Judiciary speech this year. The Cedar Rapids estate planning attorneys welcome this bill and are always there to assist you in implementing your dear ones will without causing any troubles from your family members with support from the court of law.
Gilbertson said Wednesday that this is the second time he’s pushed for action on the issue, having talked about in his annual address three years ago. Since then, he said, he has continued to hear of cases of financial elder abuse — like fraud, coercion and scams — and the state needs to study the problem to so it can start correcting it. The elder care lawyers can make sure people feel safe and aren’t cheated by people who take advantage.
“And then when you know how big the problem is, you can say, ‘OK, what are we going to do about it?'”
At Wednesday’s committee hearing, lawmakers and various state agencies and organizations backed the bill, from the attorney general’s office to the South Dakota branch of the AARP.
“The more we talk about it, the more we’re going to find out we do have this problem in the state,” said Sen. David Novstrup, a Republican from Aberdeen who’s sponsoring the bill. You can also read my review here on protecting the elders and making sure their assets are safe.
Gilbertson said while emotional and physical abuse are serious issues, he has primarily heard anecdotally about financial abuse. Three years ago, he polled circuit judges and found that half had seen financial abuse cases in their courts. The elder law lawyer in Newport Beach can help form a will and protect one’s estate and properties.
Gilbertson also estimated that the vast majority of financial abuse cases involve relatives, not phone or internet scams — although he noted those do happen.
“The bulk of the problem is misguided or nefarious family members ripping off mom or grandma,” he said.
In states like Washington, he said, the government more closely scrutinizes when citizens become legal guardians of the elderly. He said South Dakota needs better regulation to protect vulnerable adults.
“If you’re on a joint account with a senior citizen and an adult child, the adult child can simply cash out the joint account and clean it out,” he said. “And there’s no regulation of that whatsoever in this state.”
