Senior Investors

Statistics show that investors in the United States are aging.  Securities firms may encounter particular issues and challenges working with senior investors, including how to recognize the signs of diminished capacity. As part of an ongoing effort among securities regulators to provide information and guidance to financial services firms regarding senior investors, FINRA has developed a training module to educate registered representatives on ways of identifying, working with, and responding to senior investors with potential diminished — or diminishing — decisional capacity. The training module entitled “Senior Investor Issues: Diminished Decisional Capacity” is available on FINRA’s website as an E-Learning Course.

The following related materials were made available at the time of the SEC’s Seniors Summit in September 2008, and may also be helpful to firms and registered representatives:

• Working with Seniors (prepared by Morgan Stanley)
   
• The Ten Commandments of Mental Capacity and the Law (prepared by Charles Sabatino)
   
• Diminished Capacity:  What Every Financial Services Professional Should Know (prepared by NAPSA)
   
• NASAA Model Rule on the Use of Senior-Specific Certification and Professional Designations
   
• A Financial Professional’s Guide to Working With Older Clients (prepared by AARP and the Financial Planning Asssociation)
   
• Most Common Older Investment Scams
   
• Department of Labor Fact Sheet: Proposed Regulation Improving Fiduciary Disclosures to Workers in Participant-Directed Individual Account Plans
   
• Taking the Mystery Out of Retirement Planning

http://www.sec.gov/divisions/marketreg/seniorinvestors.htm