FINRA, SEC, and NASAA recently announced a new presentation intended to assist securities firms in detecting, preventing, and reporting financial exploitation of seniors pursuant to the Senior Safe Act, Section 303 of the “Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act,” which was signed into law on May 24, 2018, as well as the state training requirements for certain firms and financial institutions relating to senior investor protection. 

The Senior Safe Act protects “covered financial institutions,” including investment advisers, broker-dealers, and transfer agents, and their eligible employees, affiliated persons, and associated persons from liability in any civil or administrative proceeding for reporting a case of potential exploitation of a senior citizen to a covered agency.  The immunity established by the Act is provided on the condition that employees receive training on how to identify and report exploitative activity against seniors before making a report.  Further, reports of suspected exploitation must be made “in good faith” and “with reasonable care.” 

The presentation is available on FINRA’s website at https://www.finra.org/rules-guidance/key-topics/senior-investors/elder-abuse-prevention-training, and we suggest all our securities firm clients use this presentation to assist them in implementing the Senior Safe Act training requirements.  While this training by itself is not sufficient to satisfy the Senior Safe Act training requirements, this resource should be helpful to firms when creating a training specific to their organizations, procedures, and employees’ roles.