Appeal Tribune Wednesday, May 17, 2017 3B
Proposed bills target elder abusers
WHITNEY M WOODWORTH
STATESMAN JOURNAL
In the United States, an estimated $2.6
billion is lost every year due to elder fi-
nancial abuse and exploitation.
And according to the Department of
Human Services, the number of seniors
targeted by financial abusers is on the
rise.
Two proposed bills that would help
bankers and investment advisors fight
back against financial abusers are gain-
ing traction in the Oregon Legislature.
Senate Bill 95 passed 19-9 in the Sen-
ate and is headed toward the House. If
passed, investment advisers and bro-
kers would be required to report sus-
pected financial exploitation to state of-
ficials.
Another proposal, House Bill 2622,
would give bank and credit union profes-
sionals the ability to refuse certain fi-
nancial transactions if they reasonably
believe a vulnerable person is being ex-
ploited. After the bill passed 56-3 in the
Oregon House, it was sent to the Senate
Committee on the Judiciary, which
heard public testimony about the pro-
posal May 9.
“Statistics show elder financial ex-
ploitation is increasing every year,” said
Betsy Steinberg, vice president of Sa-
lem’s Pioneer Trust Bank and member of
the Oregon Elder Abuse Work Group.
Each year, more than 50,000 Orego-
nians turn 65. The number of allegations
of senior financial abuse reported to
Oregon Adult Protective Services
jumped from 3,789 in 2014 to 4,533 in
2015; victims suffered an average loss of
about $25,000.
Despite not being mandatory report-
ers, bankers are top reporters of senior
GETTY IMAGES
An estimated $2.6 billion is lost every year due to elder financial abuse and exploitation.
financial exploitation, Steinberg said.
She’s dealt firsthand with financial el-
der abuse. Just two weeks earlier, a
banker at her office reported suspicious
activity to her. A customer of the bank, a
woman in her 80s, was contacted by a
scammer pretending to be Publishers
Clearing House and promising a $20,000
prize. The scammer requested the wom-
en transfer money to cover taxes, but the
banker thought the account looked sus-
picious.
Steinberg looked further into the ac-
count and confirmed it was a scam.
Oregon banks have long been a model
system for financial institutions across
the nation, said Tim Martinez, lobbyist
for the Oregon Bankers Association. The
association worked with the Attorney
General’s office and Oregon DHS to cre-
ate elder abuse training for bankers that
is used on a national level.
Unfortunately, Steinberg added, the
financial exploitation cases are still com-
plex, hard to detect and difficult to inves-
tigate.
“One of the biggest challenges we
have as bankers is safeguarding those
person’s assets while we’re conducting
our investigation,” she said.
Passports
Continued from Page 2B
ported?’” Ramirez said. “When these
families have mixed immigration status-
es, we’ve heard this time and time
again.”
Ramirez said many of these kids, who
are roughly 17 years old and seniors in
high school on the cusp of graduation,
are trying to apply for passports in prep-
aration.
Andrea Williams, executive director
of immigrant rights organization Causa
Oregon, said getting a passport is one of
the easiest steps a family can take to pre-
pare for a family crisis, like a parent or
guardian getting deported.
She said Causa provides a family pre-
paredness plan that provides recom-
mendations for immigrant families to be
prepared for emergency situations and
includes getting U.S. passports for
American-born members of the family,
gathering government records like So-
cial Security numbers and birth certifi-
cates, and delegating parental or guard-
ian powers.
“There is a heightened fear in the
community since the election,” Williams
said.
Williams said children of immigrant
parents should get a passport, regard-
less if their parents are undocumented
or not.
LAUREN E HERNANDEZ/STATESMAN JOURNAL
Passport applications have surged in the Mid-Willamette Valley since President Donald Trump’s
election, according to officials.
“It’s sad that people to prove that
they’re a U.S. citizen in this environment
and live in that kind of fear but it’s real,”
Williams said.
William’s points to the detainment of
Saul Loeza, a Woodburn resident who
was detained by ICE on February 9 while
he was driving to work at a nursery. Loe-
za is an undocumented immigrant from
Mexico and had been living in the United
States for roughly 30 years.
While Loeza sits in ICE custody in the
agency’s Tacoma Northwest Detention
Center, his family is scrambling for mon-
ey for rent and attorney fees, as he was
the primary provider for his children
and wife.
“Deportation is expensive so if you’re
going to defend yourself, the bail to get
out of Tacoma could be upward of
The bill would allow bankers to refuse
transactions, disbursements of funds,
change of ownership or instructions giv-
en by agent under the power of attorney
for up to 15 days. Legitimate transac-
tions would still be allowed during this
time.
“We are the frontline of this abuse,”
Steinberg said. “This would be a very im-
portant tool for helping us to combat it.”
Arthur Towers, political director for
the Oregon Trial Lawyers Association,
spoke in opposition to the HB 2622. He
said the proposed bill should be strength-
ened by requiring financial institutions
to notify DHS or the Department of Con-
sumer and Business Services if they sus-
pect financial abuse.
“(Association members) are particu-
larly concerned with the rise in elder
abuse, both financial and physical,” he
said, adding that mandatory reporting
would strengthen protections for elderly
consumers.
He pointed to SB 95, which requires
investment advisors and brokers to re-
port, and urged the committee to take
similar actions with HB 2622.
Steinberg expressed concern that re-
quiring bankers to be mandatory report-
ers would inundate the system with un-
necessary reporting. Keeping reporting
voluntary would allow them to focus of
the serious, pressing cases, she said.
The committee adjourned without
taking action on the proposed bill. Chair
Sen. Floyd Prozanski, D-Eugene, said the
committee would continue to discuss the
bill and possible amendments.
For questions, comments and news
tips, email reporter Whitney Woodworth
at
wmwoodwort@statesmanjournal.
com, call 503-399-6884 or follow on Twit-
ter @wmwoodworth.
$20,000, which may need to be accessible
within days,” Williams said.
Lynn Yut, a business development
specialist with the Portland region of
United States Postal Service, said its of-
fices have also observed the heightened
demand for passports.
“There has been a huge uprise in the
request for passports especially since
the election,” Yut said. “As a result,
we’re expanding our availability be-
cause of the need.”
Customers who apply for a passport
through USPS must first make an ap-
pointment, which was a policy imple-
mented last fall, according to USPS cor-
porate communications representative
Peter Hass.
“Appointments ensure customers
avoid long wait times, which has resulted
in positive feedback,” Hass said.
In the event that a customer does not
show up for their appointment, walk-in
customers may be assisted if time al-
lows. Yut said USPS does not have a limit
for the number of passport applicants in
a day, but the passport acceptance hours
are only from 9 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. Monday
through Friday.
The main Salem USPS Office located
at 1050 25th St SE will host a passport
event of its own on Saturday, May 20. The
passport fair will run from 8:30 a.m. and
last to 4:30 p.m. The Marion County
Clerk’s Office located at 555 Court Street
NE, 2nd Floor will operate extended
hours on Election Day, Tuesday, May 16
from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
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