Contact:
Cheryl McCollum
Wisconsin Bankers Association
608/441-1216 or 608/516-9056
Annual Conference Focuses on Teaching Personal Finance Skills
MADISON — “Elder Financial Exploitation: What is Your Role?” is just one of the topics that 80 bank volunteers will learn about at the Wisconsin Bankers Association Consumer Education Conference on Monday, Oct. 24, at the Holiday Inn West, Madison.
Elder financial abuse occurs when a person misuses an older adult’s money or property. This commonly involves deception, diverting income, mismanaging funds, or taking money, property or possessions against an older person’s will.
Sixty percent of elder financial abuse cases involve family members and 22 percent of cases involve abuse of power-of-attorney authority, according to John Hendrick, project director at the Coalition of Wisconsin Aging Groups. Hendrick will speak at the conference from 2 to 2:45 p.m. Monday.
Other conference sessions will focus on hands-on activities that bank volunteers can use to teach children and teens about personal finance. At 11 a.m., Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions Secretary Lorrie Keating Heinemann will present a “Monster Mortgage” activity that she created to teach elementary school students about spending choices and saving.
Paul Wesselmann, founder of Madison’s Stone Soup Seminars and The Ripples Project, will lead “train-the-trainer” discussions at 9:30 a.m. on engaging participants and achieving training objectives, and at 3 p.m. on improving skills in motivation, marketing and PR.
In addition, the Wisconsin Bankers Association will honor 59 banks that met certain participation criteria and 26 individuals who gave 20 or more presentations in one year. In 2004-2005, nearly 700 Wisconsin bank volunteers taught more than 46,000 people of all ages about saving, budgeting, credit, identity theft, fraud and more.
“Educating children, teens and adults about personal finance not only benefits individuals, but our communities as a whole,” said Kurt R. Bauer, WBA president/CEO. “We commend these banks for carrying out a long-standing industry commitment to improving financial literacy.”
