Elder Financial Abuse in Victoria: Warning Signs and Legal Options

What to do now

Match the step to the urgency. Taking one or two of these steps today is usually better than waiting until the whole picture is clear.

• Immediate danger to anyone’s safety. Call 000.
• Money moving now, or continuing account access. The older person, or someone with clear legal authority to act for them, should contact the bank’s fraud, scam or vulnerable-customer team through official channels without delay.
• Conduct that may be criminal. Report to local police, or for non-urgent matters call the Police Assistance Line on 131 444.
• An attorney, authority or capacity problem. Obtain urgent legal advice and, where appropriate, consider a VCAT application.
• A property dealing appears imminent. Get urgent advice on a title search, whether any caveatable interest actually exists, and whether urgent court relief is available.
• Confidential elder-abuse support and advice. Seniors Rights Victoria, 1300 368 821.
• Guidance on authority and protective decisions. Office of the Public Advocate Advice Service, 1300 309 337.
• National referral. 1800 ELDERHelp, 1800 353 374, which redirects to the relevant state or territory service.

A treating doctor, hospital social worker or aged-care provider may be able to help with health, safety, support and sometimes evidence. They cannot resolve the legal or financial dispute, and asking them to take sides rarely helps.

What elder financial abuse means

Elder abuse is generally understood as harm caused to an older person by someone within a relationship of trust — a partner, adult child, other relative, attorney, carer, friend or neighbour. That trust element is what distinguishes it from a scam or theft by a stranger, which is ordinarily handled as fraud.

It may be intentional, or it may arise from poor judgement and a genuine misunderstanding of what an attorney or helper is permitted to do. It also rarely appears alone: financial pressure often sits alongside psychological or coercive conduct, social isolation, threats, physical harm or neglect. Common patterns include:

• using an older person’s account, card or internet banking for someone else’s benefit;
• pressure to lend, gift or guarantee money the older person cannot afford to lose;
• obtaining a transfer of property, a mortgage or a guarantee by pressure, misinformation or exploitation of dependence;
• using an enduring power of attorney outside its authority, or refusing to account for what has been done under it;
• pressure to change a will, a superannuation nomination or the ownership of assets; and
• controlling access to the older person, their mail, their phone or their advisers.

Protective, civil and criminal — keeping the categories apart

“Elder financial abuse” is a descriptive label rather than a single cause of action, and it is a mistake to treat it as only a civil or protective matter. Depending on the facts, the same conduct can engage several distinct legal frameworks at once:

• The social and protective description. Used by support services, health services, police and government to identify risk and offer help.
• Civil claims. Proceedings to set aside a transaction, recover property or money, or obtain equitable compensation.
• Attorney obligations and statutory offences. Breaches of the duties in the Powers of Attorney Act 2014 (Vic), VCAT remedies, and the offence in s 135 of dishonestly obtaining or using an enduring power of attorney to gain a financial advantage or cause loss.
• Family-violence remedies. Where the person responsible is a family member, economic abuse falls within the definition of family violence under the Family Violence Protection Act 2008 (Vic).
• Suspected criminal conduct. Conduct that may amount to theft (Crimes Act 1958 (Vic) s 74) or obtaining property or a financial advantage by deception (ss 81 and 82) is a matter for police, not for a family to determine.

These pathways have different purposes, decision-makers, standards of proof and outcomes. They frequently overlap, and running them in the wrong order — or running one while ignoring a limitation issue in another — is a common and expensive mistake.

Warning signs

No single sign proves anything. What matters is a pattern, especially one that develops quickly or coincides with a change in who is around the older person.

• unexplained withdrawals, transfers or new payees on accounts;
• a new signatory, authority or joint account holder added;
• a transfer of the family home into joint names, or to a relative, for little or no consideration;
• new guarantees, mortgages or loans that benefit someone else;
• bills, rates or care fees unpaid despite adequate resources;
• a sudden change to a will, an enduring power of attorney or a superannuation nomination, particularly in haste;
• an attorney who mixes the older person’s money with their own, keeps no records, or declines to account;
• one person controlling access to the older person, their mail, their phone or their long-standing advisers;
• reluctance to let the older person see their doctor, lawyer or accountant alone;
• the older person appearing anxious, isolated, confused about their own finances, or unwilling to discuss them; and
• missing documents, jewellery or other valuables.

Several of these together is a reason to ask questions and obtain advice. It is not a finding, and it should not be presented to the older person or to third parties as one.

Autonomy and decision-making capacity

The starting point is the older person’s own right to decide. Under s 5 of the Guardianship and Administration Act 2019 (Vic), an adult is presumed to have decision-making capacity unless there is evidence to the contrary, and capacity means being able to understand the relevant information, retain it, use or weigh it, and communicate a decision — with practicable support provided first.

• capacity is decision-specific: it is assessed for the particular decision, not globally;
• capacity is time-specific and may fluctuate, including within a single day;
• age, disability, a diagnosis such as dementia, dependence on a carer, or a decision others regard as unwise does not by itself establish incapacity; and
• support — plain language, a quiet setting, an interpreter, more time, a second appointment — must be considered before concluding that someone cannot decide.

The practical consequence matters. Where a capable older person disagrees with a concerned relative, the relative cannot ordinarily override the decision, obtain the older person’s private records, cancel transactions or instruct the older person’s lawyer merely because they are worried. Respectful contact, access to independent advice and the older person’s continuing connection to others are often the most protective things available.

An attorney’s duties under the Powers of Attorney Act

Most serious elder financial abuse concerns in Victoria involve an enduring power of attorney. The Powers of Attorney Act 2014 (Vic) sets out what an attorney must and must not do — and the duties are considerably more specific than a general instruction to act in the principal’s interests:

• Section 63 — general duties. Act honestly, diligently and in good faith; exercise reasonable skill and care; not use the position for profit; avoid acting where there is or may be a conflict of interest unless the transaction is authorised; and not disclose confidential information gained as attorney unless authorised. Record keeping and separation of property are dealt with separately, by ss 66 and 69.
• Section 21 — how powers are exercised. Act in the way least restrictive of the principal’s ability to decide and act, and give all practicable and appropriate effect to the principal’s will and preferences.
• Sections 64 and 65 — conflict transactions. An attorney must not enter a transaction in which their interests, or those of a relative, business associate or close friend, conflict with the principal’s, unless the transaction is authorised — by the instrument, by the principal while they have capacity for the matter, or by VCAT.
• Section 66 — records. Keep accurate records and accounts of dealings and transactions made under the power.
• Section 69 — separation of property. An attorney for financial matters must keep their own property separate from the principal’s property. The section excepts property the attorney and the principal own jointly, and property they acquire jointly in place of property they owned jointly.
• Section 67 — gifts. Gifts are permitted only on the statutory conditions: the gift must be reasonable having regard to all the circumstances, in particular the principal’s financial position, and it must be of a kind the section allows — broadly, a gift to a relative or close friend of a seasonal nature or on a special occasion, or a donation the principal made or would reasonably be expected to make. There is no free-standing entitlement to make “modest reasonable gifts” outside those conditions, and record-keeping obligations apply to gifts to the attorney or their relatives, friends or connected organisations.
• Sections 77 and 79 — compensation and timing. VCAT or the Supreme Court may order an attorney to compensate the principal for loss caused by contravening the Act, including after the principal’s death, in which case compensation is payable to the estate. An application for compensation under that Division must ordinarily be made within six months after the relevant death under s 79; where both the principal and the attorney have died, the period runs from the first of those deaths. VCAT or the Supreme Court may extend the period. That statutory time limit governs the compensation application only — it is not a general limitation period for other civil or equitable claims, which have their own timing rules.

Whether a particular payment was a permitted gift, an unauthorised conflict transaction or a legitimate expense is a factual question that depends on the instrument and the surrounding circumstances. The detailed treatment of attorney breaches, accounts and recovery is in our article on attorney abuse in Victoria; the appointment framework is in our powers of attorney Victoria guide.

Revocation, VCAT review and administration

A principal who has decision-making capacity for the matter may revoke an enduring power of attorney, using the statutory process. Section 50 requires the principal to take reasonable steps to inform the attorney of the revocation — and, where what is revoked is a particular appointment, the relevant attorneys and alternative attorneys. Failure to notify does not invalidate the revocation, but notice still matters in practice, because a third party may continue to act on the power until it knows the position. As a risk-control step, evidence of the revocation should be given promptly to the banks and other organisations known to hold the document or to have been relying on it. A land-registry step is relevant only where the power was registered or lodged, or is being used for a land transaction, and the applicable Land Use Victoria process should be checked in that situation. The mechanics are covered in our guide to revoking an enduring power of attorney, and an attorney who wishes to step down should read resigning as an attorney in Victoria.

Two very different VCAT pathways are often confused:

• Powers of Attorney Act review. VCAT may determine the validity of an enduring power, make orders about its scope and operation, examine transactions, and order accounts to be lodged, examined or audited (s 116). Its orders may revoke all or part of the power, revoke or suspend a particular attorney’s appointment, vary the power, or authorise or validate a conflict transaction (s 120).
• Guardianship and administration application. A separate application under the Guardianship and Administration Act 2019 (Vic) asking VCAT to appoint someone to make decisions. An administrator deals with specified financial matters; a guardian deals with specified personal matters.

Neither appointment follows automatically from suspicious conduct, a diagnosis or family disagreement. VCAT must be satisfied that the person lacks decision-making capacity for the relevant matters and that an order is necessary, and the Act requires the least restrictive approach, having regard to the person’s will and preferences and to whether informal support or an existing appointment already meets the need (ss 30 and 31). Our guide to guardianship and administration applications at VCAT covers the process, and going to VCAT explains what a hearing involves.

Who can act, and for whom

A surprising number of elder abuse matters stall on a threshold question: who is entitled to give instructions?

• an older person with capacity instructs their own lawyer, and that lawyer acts on their instructions, not a relative’s;
• an attorney cannot necessarily control litigation about their own disputed conduct, and should expect that conflict to be examined;
• an administrator may act only within the scope of the VCAT order, and may need directions or an extension of authority;
• concerned relatives may have standing to make some VCAT applications, but they do not automatically own or control the older person’s civil claims; and
• after death, the executor or administrator generally controls estate claims, subject to conflict, court directions and removal applications.

Getting this right early avoids costs being incurred by someone who has no authority to incur them.

Civil claims and remedies

Where a transaction has already occurred, the question is whether a recognised cause of action fits the facts. At a high level, the claims commonly considered are:

• Undue influence — actual influence proved on the evidence, or presumed from certain relationships of influence, subject to rebuttal;
• Unconscionable dealing — where one party was under a special disadvantage of which the other took unconscientious advantage;
• Breach of fiduciary duty — typically by an attorney or another person in a position of trust;
• Lack of authority — a transaction entered without power under the instrument or order;
• Misrepresentation or mistake — where the older person was misled about what they were signing or what it would achieve; and
• Resulting or constructive trust — asserting a beneficial interest in property or its proceeds.

The remedies range accordingly: rescission or setting a transaction aside, an account of what was received, equitable compensation, or tracing and proprietary relief against property or proceeds still identifiable. Which remedy is realistic depends on the cause of action, who can sue and who is liable, whether the property still exists, the rights of any purchaser or mortgagee who has since dealt with it, delay, and the quality of the evidence.

The absence of independent legal advice is relevant evidence — often important evidence — but it does not by itself make a transaction voidable. Nor can every improvident gift, family loan or property transfer be reversed. A capable adult is allowed to be generous.

Property, caveats and urgent protective relief

Property is frequently the largest asset and the most difficult to recover once it has moved. The available steps are narrower than people expect:

• Caveats. Section 89 of the Transfer of Land Act 1958 (Vic) allows a caveat to be lodged by a person claiming an estate or interest in the land. A family relationship, a suspicion of abuse or a prospective damages claim is not, by itself, a caveatable interest. Lodging a caveat without reasonable cause can expose the caveator to compensation under s 118, and to costs.
• Injunctions. An injunction restrains particular conduct — for example a further dealing with an identified property — and has its own legal tests, evidence requirements and undertakings.
• Freezing orders. A freezing order is not a general asset-protection order. It is directed at the risk that a prospective or existing judgment will go unsatisfied because assets have been dissipated, and it is granted on strict conditions.
• Practical steps. A title search will show current ownership and registered dealings, and advice should be taken on whether any properly available notification or alert option applies and whether urgent court relief is warranted.

The tests and procedure are set out in our articles on freezing orders in Victoria and urgent injunctions.

Banks, transactions and AFCA

A bank will not place a hold on an account simply because a family member says there is a dispute. It must consider its own customer’s instructions and authority, the account mandate, its privacy obligations, the evidence about the transactions, its fraud controls and its vulnerable-customer procedures. Useful, realistic steps are:

1. the older person, or a person with clear legal authority to act for them, contacts the bank’s fraud, scam or vulnerable-customer team promptly through official channels;
2. ask specifically what is available — an attempted recall of a recent transaction, a restriction or block, a change to account authorities, removal of a payee, or a reset of online credentials;
3. ask what the bank needs in order to act, and confirm the outcome in writing; and
4. if a complaint about the bank’s own conduct is not resolved through its internal complaints process, take it to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority.

Outcomes and any reimbursement are fact-dependent. No one can promise a freeze, a recall or repayment. AFCA considers complaints against financial firms, and has published guidance on how it approaches financial abuse of older people; it does not determine claims against an attorney or relative personally.

Family violence, police and suspected crime

Where the person responsible is a family member, economic abuse is expressly part of family violence under the Family Violence Protection Act 2008 (Vic). Section 6 covers coercive, deceptive or unreasonably controlling behaviour, without consent, that denies a family member economic or financial autonomy, or that withholds financial support needed for reasonable living expenses where the person is dependent. Depending on the evidence, that may support police action, a family violence safety notice, or an application for a family violence intervention order — see family violence intervention orders in Victoria.

Where the person responsible is a friend, carer, professional or another trusted person who is not a family member, a separate analysis is required. A personal safety intervention order is not an automatic substitute; it has its own eligibility requirements and is directed at prohibited behaviour between people who are not family members.

On police involvement: call 000 where anyone is in immediate danger; report suspected criminal conduct to local police or, for non-urgent matters, through the Police Assistance Line on 131 444. Not every concerning or unfair transaction is criminal, and the police decision whether to investigate or charge is theirs. Civil, VCAT, family-violence and criminal processes may all be engaged by the same facts, but they have different purposes and none of them substitutes for the others.

Evidence and privacy

Preserve what is already lawfully available to you, and take advice about obtaining anything else properly. Evidence gathered unlawfully can be inadmissible, can expose the person who gathered it to liability, and can overshadow an otherwise strong case.

What to preserve:

• contemporaneous factual notes of conversations and events, made close to the time and confined to what was said and seen;
• bank statements, transaction records and correspondence you are entitled to hold;
• title searches, transfer, mortgage and guarantee documents;
• appointment documents — enduring powers of attorney, supportive appointments, VCAT orders, and earlier versions;
• letters, emails and messages already in your own accounts, kept in their original form so dates and source information survive; and
• the names of people present at appointments, signings and relevant conversations.

What to avoid:

• accessing another person’s internet banking, email, phone, medical records, legal file or cloud account without authority;
• secretly changing passwords, account mandates or authorities;
• removing original documents from the older person’s home or from an adviser’s file without authority;
• recording or monitoring people unlawfully; and
• public accusations, or contacting third parties in a way that compromises the older person’s safety or the integrity of the evidence.

Medical evidence cannot simply be collected by a relative. Health information ordinarily requires the older person’s consent, authority held by a person appointed or appointed by order for that purpose, or a lawful process such as a subpoena or an order for production. The same is true of a solicitor’s file, where entitlement, privilege and confidentiality all need to be considered.

Wills, superannuation and claims after death

While a will-maker is alive, relatives have no general right to see the will, to challenge it or to control it. Concerns about testamentary capacity, knowledge and approval, suspicious circumstances and probate undue influence ordinarily become live only in probate litigation after death. Those questions are analysed in undue influence vs testamentary capacity and can a person with dementia make a valid will.

They are different from the lifetime issues dealt with here. A claim to recover a lifetime transfer, or a protective application while the older person is alive, does not depend on the validity of any will. A change to a superannuation death benefit nomination is different again: it requires analysis of the fund’s governing rules and superannuation law, and is generally dealt with by the trustee rather than a court in the first instance.

After death, the legal personal representative generally decides whether the estate pursues a lifetime claim. Conflict where the beneficiary of the transaction is also the executor, delay, the surviving evidence, limitation issues and the economics of the claim relative to the size of the estate all require advice before anything is commenced.

Limitation, delay and recovery risk

Early advice genuinely changes outcomes, for reasons that have little to do with urgency for its own sake:

• limitation periods may apply, and which one depends on the claim;
• delay, affirmation, acquiescence or laches may reduce or bar equitable relief;
• money may be spent and property transferred or mortgaged;
• a purchaser or secured creditor may acquire rights that defeat recovery;
• witnesses become unavailable and evidence about capacity at a past date deteriorates; and
• even a successful proceeding may not produce full recovery if there is nothing left to recover from.

There is no single limitation period covering every claim of this kind, and nothing in this article should be read as nominating one. One timing rule is specific and short: an application for compensation under the Powers of Attorney Act Division dealing with compensation must ordinarily be made within six months after the relevant death (s 79), running from the first death where both the principal and the attorney have died, although VCAT or the Supreme Court may extend that period. Other civil and equitable claims are governed by their own limitation and delay rules.

Is reporting mandatory?

There is no single, universal rule in Victoria requiring every relative or professional to report every suspected instance of elder financial abuse. Specific statutory, employment and professional obligations can apply in particular settings, and a professional in doubt should take advice about their own position rather than assume either that reporting is compulsory or that it is prohibited.

Aged care is the clearest example of a specific regime. Registered providers have obligations under the Commonwealth Serious Incident Response Scheme, and the reportable incident types include stealing or financial coercion by a staff member — for example a worker taking money or valuables, pressuring a resident to change a will, or misusing an authority to obtain a financial advantage. Those obligations apply to providers within the scheme’s statutory scope, across residential and home services, and the scheme does not reach purely private conduct outside it. Conduct by a family member does not fall within that particular staff-member stealing and financial-coercion category merely because the person is a relative. The same event may still require provider action, or may potentially fall within a different reportable-incident category, depending on what occurred and its connection with the delivery of care or services, so provider obligations have to be assessed under the current Aged Care Act 2024 (Cth) and the Aged Care Rules 2025 (Cth). Provider obligations and complaint routes are covered in our aged-care complaints guide.

Reducing the risk

Most of what prevents financial abuse is done well before anything goes wrong, and while the older person is making their own decisions:

• choose attorneys carefully, and appoint substitutes so a single person is not irreplaceable;
• consider whether joint, joint and several, or several appointment is appropriate, recognising the practical trade-off between oversight and workability;
• include clear conditions or limits in the instrument where they are genuinely useful;
• review appointment documents periodically, and after significant changes in health, relationships or assets;
• use transaction alerts, separate accounts for day-to-day spending, and secure, private online credentials;
• put gifts, loans, guarantees, family accommodation arrangements and assets-for-care arrangements in writing, with independent advice on each side; and
• obtain independent legal and financial advice before any property transfer, mortgage or guarantee.

Assets-for-care and family accommodation arrangements are a frequent source of later dispute; the detail is in our guide to granny flat agreements in Victoria.

If you have been accused

Allegations of financial abuse are sometimes mistaken, incomplete or the product of a family conflict that has little to do with the older person’s money. Being accused is not proof, and an assumption of guilt serves nobody — least of all the older person, whose actual wishes can be lost in the dispute. If you are an attorney or family member facing allegations:

• preserve every record, statement, receipt, instruction and item of correspondence;
• prepare a proper account of what was received and spent, and on whose authority;
• pause anything that is arguably a conflict transaction until the position is clear;
• do not make retaliatory transfers, change account arrangements, or send angry communications; and
• obtain your own independent legal advice rather than relying on the family’s adviser.

Related reading

• Attorney abuse in Victoria — attorney breaches, VCAT remedies and recovery.
• Revoking an enduring power of attorney — the revocation process and notification.
• Guardianship and administration applications at VCAT — how appointments are actually made.
• Reverse mortgages in Victoria — borrowing against the home in later life.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

• Powers of Attorney Act 2014 (Vic) — current in-force version, including attorney duties, conflict transactions, gifts, compensation and offences
• Guardianship and Administration Act 2019 (Vic) — decision-making capacity, general principles and VCAT appointments
• Family Violence Protection Act 2008 (Vic) — family violence and economic abuse
• Crimes Act 1958 (Vic) — theft and deception offences
• Transfer of Land Act 1958 (Vic) — caveats and compensation for a caveat lodged without reasonable cause
• VCAT — applying for orders about a power of attorney
• VCAT — applying to appoint a guardian or administrator
• Office of the Public Advocate — Advice Service, 1300 309 337
• Seniors Rights Victoria — helpline 1300 368 821
• 1800 ELDERHelp — 1800 353 374, national referral line
• Victoria Police — elder abuse
• Victoria Police — reporting options, including the Police Assistance Line on 131 444
• Australian Financial Complaints Authority — complaints about financial firms, including its approach to financial abuse of older people
• Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission — Serious Incident Response Scheme

How Parke Lawyers can help

These matters are rarely only legal, and they are never only about money. What usually helps first is a clear, private assessment of the position: who has authority, whether capacity is genuinely in question, what has actually happened to the money or property, and which of the available pathways is worth using.

Our powers of attorney and elder law and litigation and dispute resolution teams work together on:

• Older people — confidential advice on your own options, on revoking or varying an appointment, and on recovering money or property.
• Concerned relatives and friends — advice on authority, capacity, standing and whether a VCAT application is genuinely open.
• Attorneys — advice on duties, records and accounts, and on responding to a demand to account.
• People accused of misuse — independent advice on responding properly, accounting and defending a claim.
• Executors — advice on lifetime transactions discovered after death, conflicts and whether the estate should pursue a claim.
• Urgent matters — advice on property, title, injunctions and asset preservation where a dealing appears imminent.

Because the interests of the people involved often conflict, we can usually act for only one of them in a given matter. If that applies, we will say so at the outset and explain what it means.