Safe Banking for Seniors

Tracy :
Welcome to the Feeling is Mutual podcast. I'm your host, Tracy Bedeker, vice President of Marketing at First Federal Savings Bank. We are a community bank with a mutual charter. If you thought banking was boring, the feeling is mutual. But we're here to take the boring out of banking. In this podcast, we will bring our listeners real life stories and education on financial topics, and it's all going to be delivered in a quick, fun and interesting format. Hello everyone, and welcome to our podcast number 11, and we have a great one for you today. Today's topic is Safe Banking for Seniors, and here to discuss this very important topic is our very own Amy Hughes. Amy, why don't you just introduce yourself and tell us a little bit more.

Amy :
Hi, Tracy. I'm thrilled to be here today. My name is Amy and I am the compliance officer with First Federal. I've been here about 18 years, and I've worked in multiple departments around the bank, and I'm just very excited to talk with you today.

Tracy  :
Oh, well, we are excited to have you as well. So what do you do as a compliance officer?

Amy :
I'm just making sure that we have all our I's Dotted and our T's crossed. Really the biggest part of my job,

Tracy  :
 So you have been very busy out on the road. I know that you've been involved in doing some seminars.

Amy :
Yes. Over the last six weeks or so, we've been very busy. We've had six different seminars that we have had throughout our communities in our branch areas, and they've gone so well. They've been attended by a lot of people, and the information that we were able to get out was just wonderful.

Tracy  :
Wonderful. Well, leading into that, why don't you tell us a little bit more about these seminars. So what are you discussing with our customers and guests?

Amy :
The two topics that we really hit hard on throughout the seminars was choosing a financial caregiver and identifying and avoiding scams. So we felt that those were two really big important pieces of information for that age group to receive.

Tracy  :
Okay. Now the first one you said how to appoint a caregiver. What does more specifically, what does that mean?

Amy :
It is deciding whether or not you want a power of attorney who can act on your behalf and has fiduciary responsibilities, which means they have a legal responsibility to act in your best interest, whether not you want to put your accounts in a trust or have a joint owner. So just learning about the different methods that are out there to get your accounts set up to help you when it comes time for you maybe not to be able to handle all the day-to-day transactional.

Tracy  :
And I think so often a lot of us think automatically it's a family member or the most responsible child.

Amy :
It's whoever you feel comfortable with. It can be a friend, it can be a family member. It can even be an older adult agency who can step in and help you out. So it's just choosing who you feel is going to handle your financial information the way that you want it to be handled.

Tracy  :
And is there anything more specifically that we need to take into consideration before appointing a caregiver?

Amy :
You want to make sure that they're responsible and trustworthy and somebody who's going to act for you and in your best interest.

Tracy  :
Very interesting. Did you get a lot of questions regarding this?

Amy :
We did. They were really good questions. I have to say that all of our seminars were really interactive. Our attendees had great questions, they shared great stories. It was nice to have them be part of the conversation.

Tracy  :
Wonderful. Well, good for you, Amy. It sounds like you're really educating our customers and helping them make decisions, and that's very important that as a bank we get in front of that.

Amy :
Yes,

Tracy :
 And provide information to our customers. So what was the second portion of your presentation?

Amy :
It was identifying and avoiding scams.

Tracy  :
Oh, that's a big one.

Amy :
Yes. And the age group that these seminars were focused on were our seniors, and they're looking at people who are age 55 or older. They are 65% of all bank deposit balances today. So that is why this targeted group is such a high area.

Tracy :
And they do, they are primarily our biggest deposit holders.

Amy :
Yeah. So 10,000 baby boomers are retiring every day until 2030, and scammers are just looking for a way to take advantage of this demographic shift. So we just want to be there and help these customers. And some of the reasons that they might be more vulnerable is they might be isolated. They might think that somebody's trying to help them out. They have that sad story. There's just so many different scams that are out there anymore. And our best recommendation is never give out any of your information. Always call your bank if you have any questions. Never just run to a convenience store and buy a gift card and give that information out

Tracy  :
Or cash.

Amy :
Correct. If your bank is asking you questions, it's not because we're trying to be nosy, it's because we're trying to protect you. And we've seen these situations before. So we're going to ask you those questions, especially if there's some red flags for us.

Tracy  :
Exactly. And I know just from experience, there's little red flags that you can pick up on too. Is the customer a little more jittery? Is it an unusual transaction?

Amy :
Correct. Are they on their phone? Does it seem like somebody is telling them what to say?

Tracy :
And getting agitated to not only our bank, but all banks should do their best

Amy :
Yes,

Tracy  (06:09):
Provide that line of defense to our customer and asking them questions. And I think the more questions you ask, if it was truly on the up and up, they wouldn't be getting that agitated about it.

Amy :
Correct. And I think too, something important to remember is never to be embarrassed

Tracy  :
Mhm,

Amy :
Should It happen. Con artist jobs are to scam people. So if they've succeeded, that just means they've done their job very well. It doesn't mean that you've necessarily done something wrong. So it's important to know, even if you do fall victim, you still should report that information to your bank, to the police, to elder abuse services.

Tracy  :
mhm,

Amy :
because even if they may not be able to get that one con artist, it is important to get that information out there

Tracy  :
Exactly,

Amy :
so we know how people are being affected.

Tracy  :
Exactly. And I think you hit on an important point that I think it's human nature to be embarrassed at first. And I think our staff does a great job of you're not alone. This isn't the first time we've had this happen.

Amy :
Correct. Our staff is amazing when it comes to working with our customers.

Tracy  :
We're educated because we see that. So it's still going on. And I agree. I think we need to thwart it before they get to somebody else.

Amy :
Yes. And I think also, even though these seminars were for seniors, as the targeted age group, this information is beneficial to anyone any age with all the information that's out there, the phone calls you can get, the emails that you can receive. It's important that everybody is kind of aware of the different scams that are out there.

Tracy :
And Amy, where does one go to get this information? I mean, I know we have stuff on our website, but if you were to want to dig in a little bit deeper, where do we go?

Amy :
The ftc.gov is a great place because they maintain all the data for it. A B A, which is the American Bankers Association, who we were partnered with to provide the information is also a wonderful resource.

Tracy  :
Okay, and the first one was the F T C C C. Okay. So yes, I know they do a great job of keeping their websites up to date with a lot of great, valuable information. And of course, we always try to do our due diligence and posting this information, doing seminars and such. And we appreciate you getting this information out.

Amy :
 It was wonderful.

Tracy  :
I know you had a busy month, so you were on the road a lot.

Amy :
It was, but it was really fun to get out there and meet everybody and just go over this information, answer the questions that they had, and hopefully with the podcast being out, if customers have any more questions, they can feel free to go to their branch. We can get them some information that was provided during the seminars and help them with any questions or concerns that they have. And our branches can also go over the safety features that we can offer to our customers through the use of online banking and text alerts to make sure that they are as up to defense as possible with their accounts, with the services that we have to offer them at First Federal.

Tracy  :
Well, wonderful. A lot of great information, Amy. Well, we appreciate you and especially getting out this great information to all of our customers. I do encourage everyone to go pop on our website or do their own research through American Bankers Association aba.com or the ftc, is it.org

Amy :
Or.gov?

Tracy  :
Dot gov. Okay.

Amy :
And

Tracy  :
Read up on it and educate yourself as well.

Amy :
I agree.

Tracy  :
Because that's very important that one educates themselves in addition to being provided with the information.

Amy :
Yes. I very much agree. Thank you so much, Tracy.

Tracy  :
Well, Amy, we appreciate it and taking time to visit with us today, it is a very poignant and important topic that we want to provide not only to our customers, but to everybody. So we appreciate it. And as always, we'd like to thank all of our listeners for joining us on our podcast, safe Banking for Seniors. And do be sure to go on our website@www.fsbweb.com, and you can enjoy our podcast there or download us wherever you listen to your podcast. So again, thank you everyone, and thank you again, Amy. We appreciate your knowledge.

Amy :
Thanks, Tracy.