Humphrey continues to talk about senior citizens, their finances BY SUE WEBBER CONTRIBUTING WRITER Fresh off an 18-month stint as assistant director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) in Washington, D.C., Hubert H. (Skip) Humphrey still is caught up in the well-being of older Americans. A resident of Golden Valley, Humphrey formerly was a state senator from 1973-83, Minnesota’s Attorney General from 1983-99, and a candidate for governor of Minnesota in 1998. A senior fellow at the University of Minnesota, Humphrey was president of the Minnesota chapter of AARP and is a member of the board of the national AARP. He is the son of the late Hubert H. Humphrey, who was mayor of Minneapolis (1945-48), U.S. senator from Minnesota (1949-64) and U.S. vice president (196569). Now serving as senior liaison officer for CFPB and an ally for the Elder Justice Coalition, Skip Humphrey continues to travel and meet with consumers, policy makers, and public and private agencies to talk about senior citizens and their finances. His work has left him with several firm convictions regarding the welfare of senior citizens. “To protect yourself against fraud and scams, you need to know that if something seems too good to be true, it probably is,” Humphrey said. He suggests that if senior citizens have questions, they should think seriously about consulting the state Attorney General’s Office. “People who have worked their whole lives should have their homes, their pensions and their Social Security,” he said. “That should not be stolen from then because they are generous or unwilling to ask hard questions.” When it comes to financial planning, Humphrey suggests that senior citizens
work with a good financial planner and ask the hard questions, such as how the planner is paid. “You should understand that when you’re asking someone to help you with your finances, you need to make sure that person understands the responsibility they are taking on,” Humphrey said. “A caregiver, close friend or family member needs to understand they are taking on a fiduciary responsibility. It’s not their money; it’s your money.” Quite frequently, he said, a relative decides to help mom or an aunt by taking them shopping and getting them to medical appointments. “And then they begin to rationalize that since mom said they’d eventually have her money, it’s OK to begin using it now,” he said. “It’s not OK to do that. Other times, it becomes purposeful fraud. It’s one of the problems seniors have visited on them by friends and family members. If people are hired to help you sustain yourself, find out what they’re doing and why they’re doing it. Watch out for fraudsters.” He notes that some seniors have diminished capacity for handling complex financial transactions. “The financial marketplace is much more complex and diverse than it once was,” He said. “It’s really challenging for some people ages 50 to 90. The CFPB website has a page where older Americans can tell their stories and report their problems, Humphrey said. “People become embarrassed that they were ripped off, but if they do talk about it, it gives courage to so many others,” he said. Reporting problems online also helps CFPB, he said, and it becomes a place to ask questions and get good answers. “The bureau is learning from the questions seniors ask and from their research,” Humphrey said. Now that he’s back in Minnesota,
Hubert H. (Skip) Humphrey Humphrey said he’s looking forward to working with organizations here on ways to maintain energy and levels of involvement as people age. “People are living longer now,” he said. “When so many men were still smoking, their life expectancy was between 67 and 71 years. Now that so many aren’t smoking and are eating better and exercising, they have a whole second life ahead of them. They need to find ways of dealing with that.” Many seniors continue to work because they need the extra income, but also for the social and business engage-
ment, Humphrey said. “If our generation gets it right, we will set an example for the next generation who will live well into their 90s,” he said. “It’s a real challenge to our country and to the world that people are living longer and we must find ways to ensure that they live a good and robust life of 20 or 30 more years once they reach the age of 65. We need to continue working on how to age well and how to share that with the generations coming up.” Information: consumerfinance.gov, or aarp.org