Financial exploitation of older adults is often quiet. A new “friend” is added to a bank account, a caregiver starts paying bills and the checks get larger, a relative holding a power of attorney begins treating a parent’s savings as a family fund, or a deed is signed at the kitchen table without anyone else knowing. Holmes Law helps families as a Washington elder financial exploitation attorney, explaining how Washington’s Abuse of Vulnerable Adults Act works, what civil remedies may be available, how to seek a vulnerable adult protection order, and how to put safeguards in place before something goes wrong.
Washington has one of the more developed statutory frameworks in the country for protecting vulnerable adults. Chapter 74.34 RCW defines abuse, neglect, abandonment, and financial exploitation; sets mandatory reporting duties; authorizes financial institutions to pause suspicious transactions; and provides a civil cause of action with attorney fees in some settings. Washington’s inheritance law, chapter 11.84 RCW, can bar a financial abuser from inheriting from the victim. Michael Holmes is admitted in Washington and works with clients statewide by phone and video. This page is general information, not legal advice. If someone is in immediate danger, call 911.
Who Is a “Vulnerable Adult” in Washington
RCW 74.34.020 defines a vulnerable adult to include a person 60 years of age or older who has the functional, mental, or physical inability to care for himself or herself. Age alone is not enough; the person must also have some inability to provide self-care. The definition also includes, regardless of age:
- A person subject to a guardianship or protective arrangement.
- A person with a developmental disability.
- A person admitted to a long-term care facility such as a nursing home, assisted living facility, or adult family home.
- A person receiving services from a home health, hospice, or home care agency, or from an individual provider.
This definition matters because it controls who can receive Adult Protective Services, who can obtain a vulnerable adult protection order, and who is protected by the civil and inheritance remedies discussed below.
What Counts as Financial Exploitation
Washington defines financial exploitation as the illegal or improper use, control over, or withholding of the property, income, resources, or trust funds of the vulnerable adult by any person or entity for any person’s or entity’s profit or advantage other than the vulnerable adult’s. The statute gives examples that fall into three broad categories:
- Using deception, intimidation, or undue influence to obtain or use the vulnerable adult’s property for someone else’s benefit.
- Breaching a fiduciary duty, such as misusing a power of attorney, trust, or guardianship, resulting in unauthorized appropriation or use of the adult’s property.
- Obtaining or using the vulnerable adult’s property without lawful authority when the person knows or clearly should know the adult lacks the capacity to consent.
Common Washington scenarios include agents under powers of attorney who make “gifts” to themselves without express authority, caregivers who receive large loans or checks, new joint account holders, changes to beneficiary designations or transfer on death deeds late in life, and romance and investment scams that isolate the victim from family.
Adult Protective Services and Reporting
Adult Protective Services (APS) is part of the Aging and Long-Term Support Administration of the Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS). APS investigates reports of abandonment, abuse, financial exploitation, neglect, and self-neglect involving vulnerable adults living in their own homes, and DSHS also investigates complaints involving licensed facilities. Reports can be made to DSHS through its End Harm hotline (1-866-ENDHARM) or online.
Mandated reporters
Under RCW 74.34.035, mandated reporters must report immediately when they have reasonable cause to believe that abandonment, abuse, financial exploitation, or neglect of a vulnerable adult has occurred. Mandated reporters include DSHS employees, law enforcement officers, social workers, professional school personnel, individual providers, facility operators and employees, employees of social service, welfare, mental health, adult day, home health, home care, and hospice agencies, coroners and medical examiners, Christian Science practitioners, and licensed health care providers. Some situations, including suspected sexual assault and many physical assaults, must also be reported to law enforcement.
Financial institutions
Employees of banks and credit unions are not on Washington’s mandated reporter list; they are permissive reporters who may report in good faith. However, RCW 74.34.215 gives financial institutions a significant tool. If a financial institution reasonably believes financial exploitation of a vulnerable adult may have occurred, may have been attempted, or is being attempted, it may refuse a disbursement from the adult’s account, from an account on which the adult is a beneficiary, or from an account of the suspected perpetrator. When it does, it must make reasonable efforts to notify the people authorized on the account and report the incident to Adult Protective Services and local law enforcement.
The refusal is temporary. It expires after a short statutory period (a longer period applies to transactions involving securities) or sooner if the institution determines the disbursement will not result in exploitation, unless a court extends it. Financial institutions acting in good faith are immune from liability for these decisions, and they are not required to refuse any transaction. Families who suspect exploitation should contact the bank’s fraud or elder protection unit promptly, because this pause may be the most effective way to stop funds from leaving.
Civil Remedies in Washington
The statutory cause of action
RCW 74.34.200 gives a vulnerable adult who has been subjected to abandonment, abuse, financial exploitation, or neglect while residing in a facility, or while receiving care from a home health, hospice, or home care agency or an individual provider, a cause of action for damages. A prevailing plaintiff may recover actual damages and the costs of suit, including a reasonable attorney fee, which the statute defines to include costs such as guardian and guardian ad litem fees and expert witness fees. The statute encourages informal resolution through the provider, the long-term care ombuds, or licensing, but those steps are not a prerequisite.
This statutory claim is tied to care settings. Where the exploitation happened outside those settings, for example by a relative with no caregiving role, other claims usually apply.
Other civil claims
Depending on the facts, a Washington exploitation case may include claims for conversion, fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, unjust enrichment, and rescission of a deed or contract procured by undue influence. Where a trust, estate, or nonprobate asset is involved, the Trust and Estate Dispute Resolution Act, chapter 11.96A RCW, provides a procedure for resolving the dispute in superior court. Where an agent under a power of attorney is involved, RCW 11.125.160 allows specified persons to petition the court to construe the power of attorney or review the agent’s conduct and grant appropriate relief.
Undue influence
Washington courts recognize a presumption of undue influence when the person who benefits had a confidential or fiduciary relationship with the older adult, actively participated in procuring the will or transaction, and received an unusually or unnaturally large benefit, a framework that dates to Dean v. Jordan, 194 Wash. 661 (1938). Other factors include the older adult’s health and mental condition, the nature of the relationship, the opportunity to exert influence, and the naturalness of the result. Once the presumption arises, the beneficiary must come forward with evidence to rebut it. These principles apply both to wills and to lifetime transfers.
Limitations periods
Civil claims are subject to statutes of limitations that vary by claim. Many Washington tort and fraud claims carry a three-year limitations period under RCW 4.16.080, with fraud claims generally running from discovery. Contract, trust, and probate claims have their own periods, and some estate-related challenges have much shorter deadlines. Because the clock may already be running, anyone who suspects exploitation should get advice promptly rather than waiting for the older adult’s death.
Vulnerable Adult Protection Orders
Since 2022, Washington’s civil protection orders, including vulnerable adult protection orders, have been governed by chapter 7.105 RCW. A petition can be filed by the vulnerable adult or by an interested person on the adult’s behalf, alleging abandonment, abuse, financial exploitation, or neglect, or the threat of it. The court can issue a temporary order quickly and a full order after a hearing. Relief can include restraining the respondent from contact, excluding the respondent from the adult’s home, requiring an accounting, prohibiting the transfer of the adult’s property, and other relief the court finds necessary.
When the vulnerable adult has capacity and objects to the petition, the court must take that objection seriously, and the adult’s own wishes play a central role. A protection order is also not a substitute for a guardianship or conservatorship if the adult needs ongoing help managing finances; the WA incapacity and powers of attorney page discusses those tools and less restrictive alternatives.
Criminal Law
Financial exploitation is also a crime. Washington prosecutes it under the general theft, fraud, forgery, and identity theft statutes, and the sentencing reform act allows an exceptional sentence when the defendant knew or should have known the victim was particularly vulnerable. Chapter 9A.42 RCW criminalizes mistreatment and abandonment of a dependent person, a term that includes frail elders and vulnerable adults and residents of nursing homes and adult family homes. A criminal case can lead to restitution, but restitution is often slow and incomplete, so a civil strategy is usually pursued in parallel.
Washington’s “Abuser” Inheritance Bar
Washington extended its slayer statute to financial abusers. Under chapter 11.84 RCW, an “abuser” is any person who participates, either as a principal or an accessory before the fact, in the willful and unlawful financial exploitation of a vulnerable adult. An abuser can be prevented from acquiring property or receiving benefits as a result of the victim’s death, whether under a will, by intestacy, or through nonprobate transfers, subject to the procedures and exceptions in the chapter. This remedy can be decisive when a caregiver or relative who exploited an older adult is also named in the will or as a beneficiary.
Preventing Exploitation Before It Happens
- Choose agents and trustees carefully, and consider naming co-agents or requiring periodic accountings to a third person.
- Limit gifting authority in powers of attorney to specific purposes and amounts.
- Use a revocable trust with a professional or co-trustee for larger estates.
- Register a trusted contact person with banks and brokerage firms.
- Keep estate planning documents current, and be wary of last-minute changes made while the older adult is isolated. See Washington wills and Washington trusts.
- Review long-term care facility and caregiver arrangements in writing, as discussed on the WA long-term care page.
How a Washington Elder Financial Exploitation Attorney Approaches a Case
Every situation is different, but the first steps usually look similar:
- Protect what is left. Contact the bank or brokerage firm about a hold under RCW 74.34.215, change online passwords, and freeze credit if identity theft is suspected.
- Report. A report to APS and, where appropriate, to law enforcement creates a record and can trigger an investigation. A report to APS about an agent is also one of the statutory grounds for a third party to refuse a power of attorney.
- Gather records. Bank and credit card statements, deeds, powers of attorney, trust documents, beneficiary designations, and caregiver agreements will tell the story. Under RCW 11.125.160, certain people may ask a court to order an agent to account.
- Assess capacity and authority. Whether the older adult had capacity when a document was signed, and whether the agent had express authority for a gift or transfer, often decides the case.
- Choose the forum. A vulnerable adult protection order, a TEDRA petition, a guardianship or conservatorship proceeding, or a civil lawsuit may each fit different facts, and sometimes more than one is needed.
Holmes Law works with families to evaluate the facts, explain the realistic options, and coordinate with APS, law enforcement, and financial institutions. Where litigation is required, Michael Holmes will explain the scope of representation, the likely costs, and whether co-counsel should be involved.
Warning signs families should not ignore
- Sudden changes to a will, trust, beneficiary designation, or deed, especially in favor of a new friend or caregiver.
- Unpaid bills or utility shutoff notices despite adequate income.
- New signers on accounts, new credit cards, or unexplained ATM withdrawals.
- A caregiver or relative who restricts visits or phone calls, or insists on being present for every conversation.
- Gifts or loans the older adult cannot explain or does not remember.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is everyone over 60 a “vulnerable adult” in Washington?
No. The age-based category covers people 60 or older who also have a functional, mental, or physical inability to care for themselves. Other categories, such as facility residents or people receiving home care, do not depend on age.
Are banks required to report elder financial exploitation in Washington?
Financial institution employees are permissive reporters, not mandated reporters, under chapter 74.34 RCW. If a bank refuses a disbursement because it suspects exploitation under RCW 74.34.215, it must report the incident to APS and local law enforcement.
Can I get money back from a relative who drained my parent’s accounts?
Possibly. Depending on the facts, claims may include breach of fiduciary duty, conversion, fraud, and undue influence, and Washington’s abuser statute may bar the relative from inheriting. Recovery depends on proof and on whether the person has assets to collect.
Who can file for a vulnerable adult protection order?
The vulnerable adult or an interested person on the adult’s behalf, under chapter 7.105 RCW. The adult’s own wishes carry significant weight.
How long do we have to act?
It depends on the claim, and many Washington claims carry three-year limitations periods. Some deadlines are shorter. Act promptly once you suspect a problem.
Speak With a Washington Elder Financial Exploitation Attorney
If you believe a parent, spouse, or other vulnerable adult is being exploited, Holmes Law can help you understand the options and protect what remains. See the Washington elder law hub for related topics, or contact Holmes Law to speak with Michael Holmes.