The Canadian Bar Association
By Sara Haider
October 23rd, 2023
Silent Epidemic: The Alarming Rise of Elder Abuse and Urgent Need for Estate Law Reform
This paper aims to highlight the issue of elder abuse and its impact on the financial safety of elders, specifically in the areas of power of attorneys, intervivos gifts, and will planning. It is imperative to better protect elders from financial abuse.
While various forms of elder abuse are common, the most daunting challenge is posed by financial abuse.
Although a universal definition of the term elder abuse does not exist, Health Canada has defined elder abuse as “the physical, psychosocial or financial mistreatment of a senior”. Financial abuse is the most common abuse (62.5%), with verbal and physical abuse second most common (35% and 12.5% respectively) followed by neglect (10%). Not only is this the most common type of abuse it is also the aspect of abuse that the law has attempted to monitor and protect with tools such as power of attorneys, capacity tests, OPGT etc.
These issues have also caused a large amount of estate litigation. That is why this paper will largely focus on financial abuse with elders.
Elder abuse is already impacting thousands of seniors and is expected to continue to grow. The Ontario Human Rights Commission reports that approximately 4% or 60,000 of elders experience some form of elder abuse. This is especially important as we are seeing baby boomers reach the ages of 60-70 years old. According to World Health Organization, the global population of people aged 60 years and older will more than double, from 900 million in 2015 to about 2 billion in 2050.
It is concerning that the legal system is currently struggling to handle the rates of elder abuse that we are seeing.
If this issue is not addressed, it is likely that the problem will only get worse as the elderly population continues to grow. The trend we are seeing is a funnelling effect, very little elder abuse is reported, and once there it is either the tools are not meeting the needs of the elders, or the concerns are being discarded altogether. Change is needed in this field within societal focus on this issue and within the law.
