Transcripts For WJLA On The Money 20160710

Americans are financially exploited by sophisticated scammers, care givers and even family members. Most cases of Elder Financial Abuse are never reported. But not this time. The doctor just said it is okay. It is not cancer. We didnt find anything bad. And i just said, you have no idea what i have just been through. Carla vividly remembers making the shocking discovery. She was in an iowa hospital room waiting for the outcome of her moms surgery when she sound out her 82yearold when she found out her 82yearold mothers financial status was in help. I hoped her friends would call to found out how she was doing and that is when i intercepted phone calls. From a Las Vegas Based Nutritional Supplement company wanting to know how her mom liked the new bills. I acted as if i was her. Number on her mothers credit card. The First Credit Card Company that ed there was 19,000 charged and pulled the Discover Card out and called that number and there was 21,000 charged. And several thousand dollars charged on a third card. The grand total. She spent 44,000. 44,000 for thousands of pills. That allegedly addressed a variety of Health Issues from dry eyes to memory loss. She said there was just about 500 that she okayed on a credit card. And so she didnt remember doing it. As power of attorney with Legal Authority over her parents finances, carla was able to get most of the credit card charges reversed. The Iowa Attorney general investigated the case and claims they did it to numerous people throughout the country. It was a part of a telemarketing fraud. Reporter in response to the investigation, leading Health Source paid back the remainder of the charges to carlas but Law Enforcement Officials Say millions of Older Americans are still at risk of various degrees of financial abuse. They are more at home. They are a little more lonely. Some of their powers are a little bit diminished so there really is a concentration by many fraud artists very disproportionately against elderly. In response to the Iowa Attorney general investigation, a representative of leading Health Source wrote in a letter the company was aware that she had power of attorney over her parents finances when her mother purchased the products and if they had been notified, they would be put on a list of customers not to call. The business answering the phone number has a different name now but the person we spoke to said the companies were related but declined to answer any questions about the case and our request to speak to a top representative from leading Health Source has not been answered. Joining me now with are liz lowy, General Council and Senior Vice President forever safe a company that offers account monitoring and consolidation and jane press bran from aarp. Such an important topic. It is estimated that 36 million is lost every year to seniors who have been the victims of financial abuse. Why does this go underreported or unreported in many cases. It is such a shame. But people are feeling embarrassed when they become victimized. One of the things i like to tell people, is dont feel embarrassed. If it you report it, you are helping somebody else. Be an advocate when something happens to you, take charge of the situation. Liz, when you were a manhattan d. A. , you prosecuted many of these cases. What are the common themes that occur during these cases . Why do they seem to happen so frequently . Do you think it is a growing problem. It is definitely a growing problem. Epidemic and i think there are a lot of reasons why older adults are targeted. As jean said, there is some embarrassment, a lot of the exploiters are family members and so no one wants to turn in a family member. Unfortunately, a lot of older victims suffer from some degree of Cognitive Impairment and nobody called my unit to say, hi, im 85 and think i suffer from predementia and im noticing irregular transactions on my account and that is why it is a growing problem and definitely a trend. It is scary to know the exploiters are family members. And some are posing as family members. What are the common types of fraud that you have heard of or that you have seen. One related to family members, fraudster will call up the grandparents and saying im stuck in jail or there is an emergency, and that happens all too often, unfortunately. Liz, what do you think are the most common frauds that youve seen and that you prosecuted . Internal Revenue Service is a big on that is a common one now. The irs scam is very big. Seniors are often targeted and called with someone purporting to be from the irs and claiming all sorts of things, claiming there is a problem with taxes or maybe there is going to be an additional refund. There are variations on a theme. But the important thing to know is that the irs never calls you. They will send you a letter in the mail if they want to contact you. That is correct. And medicaid doesnt call to verify information. And get your date of birth and social security. So what can they do to protect themselves, jean. The first thing to do is just stop and really protect your information like your crown jewels. If it the irs is calling you, dont give them any information. Walk away. Check it o give any information out. And as a family member, as the daughter of someone who is about to celebrate a milestone birthday, i hope she doesnt mind me saying 80 years old, what should i be doing. I think the most important thing you could do and jean alluded to this is to have the conversation with your parents and have it early. Dont have it when there are signs of possible Cognitive Impairment. It is so important to get involved. That is the main point. It is. Liz and jean, thank you very much. From ever safe and jean from aarp. Thank you. Thanks, sharon. Now here is a look at what is making news as we head into a new week on the money. A hiring surge led the jobs report for the month of june. The economy created 287,000 jobs. Way ahead of the 180,000 that analysts expected. It is the biggest increase in payrolls in eight months. But with more people looking for work, the Unemployment Rate rose to 4. 9 . Up from 4. 7 last month. Concerns resurfaces in the holiday shortened weekend but despite volatility all indexes regained levels from before Great Britain voted. Stocks climbed higher on tuesday. The ferd ral reserve left Interest Rates unchanged. They said uncertainty about the labor market and the economy played into the decision. It occurred before the brexit vote. And you wont need your walmart at the checkout. The largest retailer is rolling out its walmart pay system. Walmart shopper can connect a debit or credit card to the walmart app and pay by smartphone. When you are looking for a job, you are checking out the salary and the benefits, the the Company Culture and whether it is all a good fit. But now there is one more thing to consider and if you have Student Loans, this is something you want to here. Kayla has more. Jennifer hanson an hr noticing something worrisome among employees last year. We really heard from both our managers and associated that student debt was a significant impediment to their ability to move forward in life. Whether it was buying their first home or getting married or for one person even dating. Ore over the next few months fidelity put together a plan, giving employees up to 10,000 apiece with very few strings attach attached. Ha haven h six months. Robert is one of 6,000 employees that took them up on it. Saddled with dead. That put me up to 50,000 worth of debt. He was paying more toward that than toward his mortgage and that doesnt koufrnt his wifes count as his wifes student loan. This is now a priority. A 401 k is nice but i could tell you, ive accumulated a lot of student debt and this one is really important to me. There is Student Loan Debt than Credit Card Debt in the u. S. This years graduating class owes nearly 30,000 on average. Experts say for job applicants these benefits may be a deciding factor. If the salary is close to comparable, maybe 1,000. 2,000, 5,000 apart. Go with the Company Offering to help you pay off that Student Loan Debt. It is differentiator. For now only 4 of u. S. Companies have programs but that is growing. For the garland family, they will seek Financial Freedom a year sooner than they expected. For the last five years, we have been with this 1,300 a month paying off our past and now with the extra money and the ability to pay it down sooner, we could start thinking about our future. Now these are formal programs to help chip away at Student Loans in this country. And they are still few and far between but most companies have said if you are an employee and struggling with stud talk to one of your bosses or an adviser, Personalized Solutions might be available. That is such a great point. And the financial future and securing that is the key through 401 k contributions or paying down the student debt, the companies are doing a gret benefit for the employees. Thank you, kayla. Up next, were on the money. Kids are expensive but with the right planning and smart money moves, being a parent doesnt have to be a financial burden. Tips for mom to be financially savvy and moves they could teach their own kids. And later if money is tight for a summer getaway, there is money to found close to home. But staycations arent what they used to be. And as we go to break, a look at how the stock market ended the week. I think i was always passionate about people and that got me started in business. My nike is michael and im the owner of seymours. The most important thing in my life is seymours but the crew is my family too. We offer three meals and a bootcamp and including offering afl aflac. They have extra coverage. Making people happy is our number one priority. Thank you is what we say. But we mean so much more. We mean how can we help . We mean what can we do . We mean, its our turn to do our part, to serve you. For all youve done to whether you have a newborn at home or your kids are grown up, we have tips all moms could use to become more financially savvy and in doing so you may be able to help your kids become money experts too. Joining us from washington, d. C. Is kimberly palmer, author of smart mom, rich mom. Thanks for joining us today. Thanks for having me. And you have two kids and i have two kids they are expensive. What steps could you take to prepare for the financial challenges of having children. The most important thing you could start to do as soon as you know you are expecting is to save money. Create a nest egg for two of the biggest costs, the first is the lost income. Most americans in this country dont have a paid Maternity Leave so we have to pay for that ourselves so planning ahead and setting money aside to fund that is important. And then the second big one is childcare cost. The other thing that a lot of new moms forget is to take advantage of all of the Workplace Benefits available either through your work place or your partners workplace. Women actually end up leaving hundreds of dollars a year on the table because we forget to do things like sign up for flex spending accounts and that could let you pay on a pretax basis for your new mom expenses, things like childcare costs, Health Care Costs which tend to go up as well. And the other thing i recommend is connecting with other new parents because you could save money by trading gently used clothes and big ticket items like strollers. There are as lot of costs a lot of costs raising teens. I have a 14 and 11yearold and our kids are now at this age where we havent done the things that you mentioned early on. How could we make up for the money mistakes along the way. I think it is all about connecting to whatever they care about at the time. 3yearold now is explaining to him, we cant have everything we want because we are saving for other big things that are important like family vacation. So talking to them on that level. With my 6yearold, now i could have her sit next to me as i pay bills and walk through how we could cut costs with water and teenagers, which i havent experienced yet, but it is about connecting to what their caring about. So whether it is saving for a car or saving for sleepaway camp but whatever a reality is for them, help them understand how we save and plan for them and that kind of lesson will stick with them into young adulthood too. And one of the parts of the book that struck me when you talk about the money letter your mom wrote to you and your sisters and something you encourage all parents to do to write to their children. What did it say in that money letter and what did it talk about and what should parents write to their own kids. This was such a powerful thing that my mom did for me when i was in my early 20s. She wrote a letter to my mistakes. So i think by sharing mistakes that weve made as parents, kids relate to that and hopefully it helps them avoid them. The other thing to talk about in the letter is your values. What is important to you with money. Maybe it is saving for education. Saving for college. And then also what did you do right. So are there things with your money that you are proud of that helped you buy maybe the house that your family lives in today, walking through that and sharing stories, that could really stick with kids and go with them even after they leave home. Thanks so much for joining us, kim. Great book. Thank you. Up next, were on the money. If you are looking to stay local, how to have a great vacation by acting lightning a tourist in your like a tourist in your own town. And the gym so sure you will get fit, the membership c what super poligrip does for me is it keeps the food out. Before those little pieces would get in between my dentures and my gum and it was uncomfortable. Just a few dabs is clinically proven to 4 by 4 those who jump start the weekend. The ones who want to see it all. Hear it all. And feel it all. All summer long. Jeep renegade its how we live 4 by 4 summer. If you are taking some time off this summer but you dont want the cost and the hassle of traveling, you could make it a staycation. But a staycation doesnt mean you have to stay home. Jill gonzalez is an analyst at the personal finance website wallet hub and thanks for joining us. Thanks for having me. Wallet hub just ranked the best and worst cities for staycation and several of the cities are in florida close to the theme parks and the beaches and they are in the top ten and Salt Lake City and min number eight, what criteria did you use for the rankings. We looked at 28 different metrics and measured them across the 150 largest u. S. Cities. And those included things like costs, the rest and relaxation factor, and entertainment and finally some recreation alleral activities. New york and los angeles near the bottom of the list, among the worst cities for staycations. Why is that. Absolutely. So costs are so much of the factor of a staycation. That is why your probably doing that in the first place. So big cities like l. A. And like new york are just not going to be walletfriendly at all. Now if you decide to take a staycation, what are the tips that you make sure you take advantage of the time off and you dont waste your time off. Because it is just a staycation and it could be laid back doesnt mean it has to be and does not mean you should wing it. That is going to cost you more money, on expensive lastminute probably have to deal with cranky family members. So sour Living Social and groupon about a month or so beforehand. You could usually find either Amusement Park tickets or show tickets from 40 to 70 off and dont try to cram too much into one day. That makes it feel even more like work. Very good point. And speaking of work, dont check your email and smartphone, right . Make you are you are leavi your away message on for work and dont check your email and get a maid service to clean up up so you are not doing household chores too. Thanks. Sure. Up next, a look at the news at the week ahead. And fitness could come with a price but at one place if you dont lose the weight, you gain back the cash. Ill write you a check to ge get let out of your membership. You listen. You listen, you laugh, you worry. You do whatever it takes to take care of your family. And when it is time to plan for your familys future, were here for you. Were legal zoom. And for over 10 years weve helped families just like yours with wills and living trusts. So when you are ready, start with us, doing the right thing has never been easier. Legal zoom. Legal help is here. Thank you is what we say. But we mean so much more. We mean how can we help . We mean what can we do . We mean its our turn to do our part, to serve you. For all youve done to serve us. Just a few dabs is clinically proven to seal out more food particles. Super poligrip is part of my life now. For more on our show and our guests go to our and follow us on twitter at on the money. Here are the stories coming up that may impact your money this week. Earnings season kicks off and we hear reports from 11 S P Companies and jp in Major League Baseball will play in san diego. Thursday we get a read on inflation when the final read price index comes out. On friday we see how the consumer is doing with the Consumer Price index for june. And how the retailers fared for the retail report for june. And happy birthday twitter. The social media giant turned 10 years old. Very few things in life come with a moneyback guarantee but you could add to that tiny list a gym membership. One entrepreneur is trying out a new Business Model. Andrea day has more. Reporter it is an all too familiar problem. Pricey gym memberships that go unused when people dont see results. And now one man has decided to guarantee your fitness or your money back. If you look at other industries, people are held professionally accountable for what they do. And this is like the one industry where it is like, if you dont get the results that youve paid for, for some reason this fitness guru decided to put an end to the blame game coming up with a new Business Model at his new gym halevy life. We guarantee fitness results and they were given their money back and let out of their gym membership obligation. The Program Takes five membership when you begin. We look at fat mass, lean mass, strength and flexibility and cardio pulmonary fitness and if you havent improved in three out of the five areas in 90 days ill write you a check to get your money back. Joanna chang decided to give it a try. I dont think ive ever seen another gym have that guarantee. If it doesnt work out, you get your money back. So far jeff has refunded a whopping zero. I havent given anybody their money back. Raising the bar on what may soon be a industry standard. Prices dont come it is 6,000 annually for a guaranteed result. It seems like many will begin to pay. Im andrea day for on the money. If you think 6,000 is a lot a money but memberships could run as high as 30,000 per year. That is the show for today. Im sharon epperson. Becky is back next week. Thanks so much for joining us. Next week, if you are not happy with your companys 401 k , steps to get it and your Retirement Savings back on track. Each week keep it here. We are on the money. Have a great one and well see you next weekend. Good morning, america. Breaking overnight, protesters take to the streets in cities across the country over the fatal shootings of two black men by police. City police, youre under arrest. Dont fight me. Dont fight me. Dont fight me. Im under arrest, yall. Dozens have been arrested shutting down highways. Police using smoke bombs. The efforts to keep the peace. Tensions and tears in dallas. The new scare at police headquarters. S. W. A. T. Teams mobilized. Its a very tense scene right now. As were learning more about the gunman who killed five police officers. Was he planning an even bigger attack . And the images striking a chord. Officers heading back to work with hugs and kisses. Scare in the air. A delta flight from atlanta to denver diverted landing in tulsa. Stretchers brought in to c