A collaboration between adult protective services and forensic accounting examiners to investigate complex financial exploitation: formative evaluation findings

• Published in: Journal of elder abuse & neglect Vol. 36; no. 3; pp. 310 - 327
• Main Authors: Burnett, Jason, Wasik, Sophia, Cash, Doug, Olson, Jason, Medina, Angela, Pena, Danielle, Hiner, Julia A., Cannell, M. Brad
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Taylor & Francis Ltd 01.06.2024
• Subjects: Accounting; Aged; Client satisfaction; Collaboration; Elder Abuse; Exploitation; Female; Humans; Male; Financial exploitation; Forensic accounting services; Elder mistreatment; Adult protective services; Multidisciplinary teams
• ISSN: 0894-6566; 1540-4129; 1540-4129
• DOI: 10.1080/08946566.2024.2315084

Financial exploitation (FE) is one of the most common reports to Adult Protective Services (APS) and the cases are often complex. Consequently, APS caseworkers report FE investigations to be among the most difficult while simultaneously reporting low confidence in productive outcomes for these investigations. This necessitates finding ways to support APS FE investigations. This paper describes the structure, process, and formative findings of a collaboration between forensic accounting examiners and APS workers to investigate complex cases of FE. Among the 77 FE cases completed, forensic examiners reviewed multiple years of financial records which included over 101,000 transactions, totaling over $213,000,000.00 in finances, and identified over $8,000,000 in questionable activity. Scores on the 8-item Client Satisfaction Questionnaire were high indicating high program satisfaction by APS workers, subject matter experts, and forensic examiners. These findings support the feasibility and acceptability of forensic accounting and APS collaborations to investigate complex cases of FE.