Financial exploitation of older adults: the law’s 26 indicators

It is a detection law, not a punishment law: its job is to put the indicators in one place so whoever is nearby — a relative, a bank teller, a judge — can name what they are seeing. Article 4 makes that list serve to detect abuse in the financial-exploitation form as defined by other statutes: Act 121-2019, the Bill of Rights and Public Policy for Older Adults; Act 206-2008; the Penal Code; Rule 218 of Criminal Procedure; and any other law or regulation regulating or penalizing financial exploitation. The law applies to civil cases of financial exploitation of older adults and adults with disabilities in every civil, judicial and administrative forum where they are heard.

Older adults and adults with disabilities. The law sets no application procedure for the citizen: its direct addressees are institutions and forums. That said, the indicators are public and usable by anyone, and the protection order route is open — Article 6 treats it as the central remedy in these cases and clarifies who may grant it and without which requirements.

Information pending verification.

Information pending verification.

1. 1

   Step 1: Compare what you see against the list of twenty-six

   The list’s usefulness is that it turns a suspicion into a fact you can write down. Article 3’s general indicators include irregular or atypical withdrawals or debits from the accounts; withdrawals incompatible with the person’s economic means; the person not remembering transactions, claiming they did not authorize them, or showing confusion about balances; sudden changes in a will’s freely disposable share or in title to the residence or other property in favour of recently-met people or relatives; contradictory or questionable explanations; unauthorized electronic transactions; a mortgage lien whose proceeds are not reported in any account or are spent atypically; an atypical pattern in paying obligations; purchases inconsistent with their spending pattern; and sudden changes of insurance beneficiaries.

2. 2

   Step 2: Note the account-handling indicators too

   The list continues: sale of real estate at prices inconsistent with market reality; frivolous filing of incapacity petitions; improper handling of funds through transactions that are unauthorized or not exclusively for their benefit; unauthorized use of debit or credit cards; unauthorized electronic transfers; excessive charges for services or invoices for services rendered or not rendered; unauthorized internet fund transfers; document falsification; property transfers; denial of access to assets; unauthorized ATM or in-branch withdrawals; account closures without the older adult’s authorization; signatures on cheques in their place that do not match the signature on file; signing documents without their authorization; policy cancellations; and receiving money into an account that is not the older adult’s.

3. 3

   Step 3: Do not wait for a police complaint

   Article 6(a) says it so courts keep it in mind: obtaining a protection order does not require a complaint before the Puerto Rico Police Bureau as an indispensable requirement, since Act 121-2019 establishes that reports of financial exploitation and the other forms of abuse may be made before agencies such as the Family Department and OPPEA.

4. 4

   Step 4: Ask for the remedies the law names

   Article 6(b) recognizes the closeness that often exists between victim and perpetrator and this conduct’s devastating effect on the victim’s finances, and so says these remedies should be granted: prospective prohibition on handling the affected older adult’s finances, with due notice to the financial institutions concerned; restitution of the financial assets to the affected older adult; and the protection order remedies of Article 9 of Act 121-2019, along with any others the applicable laws and the courts deem necessary.

5. 5

   Step 5: Know you can go to the Municipal Courtroom

   Article 6(c) establishes that, under the Judiciary Act, the Municipal Courtrooms of the General Court of Justice shall hear every financial exploitation case brought to them and may grant the corresponding remedies, including protection orders. Only in cases within a Superior Courtroom’s exclusive jurisdiction will the Municipal Court certify the record and send it up, without that certification preventing it from handling what is within its jurisdiction. For many people that is the nearest courtroom and the one with the most accessible hours.

6. 6

   Step 6: If you work at a bank or credit union, reporting is protected

   The law ordered the Commissioner of Financial Institutions, the Public Corporation for the Supervision and Insurance of Cooperatives, and the Office of the Insurance Commissioner to establish regulations, protocols and prevention and detection processes including these indicators. And it adds a concrete protection: except where bad faith or malicious prosecution is shown, no tort liability may be imposed on anyone who in good faith provides information to those offices or to any law enforcement agency about fraudulent acts related to the financial exploitation of older adults, whether committed, being committed or about to be committed.

For the protection order and restitution, the Court of First Instance, including the Municipal Courtrooms, which under this law hear these cases and may grant the remedies. To report the abuse, the law itself recalls that Act 121-2019 allows doing so before agencies such as the Family Department and the Office of the Advocate for Older Adults (OPPEA). And if the affected person is an adult with a disability, since June 2026 the Bill of Rights for People with Disabilities also carries its own protection order, which expressly includes financial exploitation among its causes.

• Waiting to have a police complaint to seek the protection order: Article 6(a) says it is not an indispensable requirement.
• Describing the suspicion in general instead of writing down which of the twenty-six indicators are present, with dates.
• Going only to the Superior Courtroom without knowing Municipal Courtrooms hear these cases and may grant protection orders.
• Asking only for a stay-away order when the law says prospective prohibition on handling the finances and restitution of assets should also be granted.
• Filing a groundless incapacity petition: the law itself lists it as an indicator of exploitation.
• Not asking for a copy of the referral sheet, which must name every agency the case was sent to.
• Staying silent for fear of civil liability: reporting in good faith is protected absent bad faith or malicious prosecution.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Poder Judicial de Puerto Rico

  Poder Judicial

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov

• Judicial Branch of Puerto Rico

  Rama Judicial

  poderjudicial.pr