House Passes Senior Safe Act

The U.S. House of Representatives on Jan. 29 passed H.R. 2255 legislation, which includes the Senior Safe Act to help protect seniors from financial abuse, reports ThinkAdvisor . The Senior Safe Act "facilitates improved communication between insurance producers, life insurance companies, and regulators in the event of suspected financial exploitation of seniors," said American Council of Life Insurers CEO Dirk Kempthorne. "By encouraging the reporting of suspected fraud, the Senior Safe Act improves the ability of companies to work with regulators to protect seniors from losing their retirement savings." Investment Company Institute CEO Paul Schott Stevens noted the "vital legislation will establish a federal protection for financial institutions that act in good faith and with reasonable care to disclose the suspected exploitation of seniors to a regulator or law-enforcement agency. While many states already shield financial institutions from liability when they disclose suspected senior financial abuse, this bill will provide such protection to all financial institutions, including all mutual fund transfer agents."