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Publish Date: April 26, 2024
Financial exploitation is a growing problem, especially among older Americans. Did you know, the average victim loses $120,000?!* As Your Hometown Bank, helping protect your hard-earned assets is a top priority.
“We know our customers don’t always understand the complexity of banking transactions, but the fraudsters do!” said Eric Shelley, Development Officer on the eXperience Team at Fidelity Bank & Trust. “This is why we’ve empowered our staff with training initiatives, such as AARP’s BankSafe Program and Dementia Friendly Iowa, to provide tools and resources for our employees to feel confident as they assist our customers.”
Prevention of financial exploitation is critical to Fidelity Bank & Trust’s mission to serve customers and safeguard their assets. We are proud to report over 80% of our staff are trained with AARP’s BankSafe Program and Dementia Friendly Iowa.
Learn more about the impact of these training initiatives:
AARP BANKSAFE
The BankSafe Program focuses on preventing financial exploitation, empowering caregivers, helping those with dementia, and making banking tools/environments easier to access. Their training platform allows employees to navigate through real life scenarios, learn how to spot red flags, master proven intervention strategies and test their knowledge so they can build their skills and confidence through practice.
Research shows significant benefits when employees are trained how to spot and prevent financial exploitation. With AARP’s BankSafe training, they report 4-times greater employee confidence in recognizing, preventing, and reporting cases of financial exploitation.* They also report BankSafe-trained employees save 16-times more money from exploitation.*
DEMENTIA FRIENDLY IOWA
According to the Alzheimer’s Association, more than six-million people nationwide are living with dementia. 80% of this population live in the community rather than in assisted living or nursing homes.** Those with dementia are vulnerable to financial exploitation, but should be able to bank, shop, eat and seek services like the rest of us. Dementia Friendly Iowa focuses on simple ways you can assist people who live with dementia to allow them to thrive in the community, including ways to avoid financial exploitation.
Fidelity obtained their status as a Dementia Friendly Iowa (DFI) business by training nearly 200 employees in a live session with a DFI coordinator. In addition, Eric Shelley completed supplemental training to become a Dementia Champion. In this role, he trains staff on the initiative internally, and he assists in developing business practices that keep people with dementia in mind.
Are you concerned that you or someone you care about may be a victim of financial exploitation? Don’t be silent. Contact us, your local authorities, or use the National Adult Protective Services Association to find help in your area.