October 2022 Money Smart Newsletter

In This Issue

October Monthly Message from the FDIC
FDIC’s Newest Resource: The Reality Fair Toolkit
CFPB Releases Report on Elder Financial Exploitation Recovery
Latest FDIC Consumer News Edition

October Monthly Message from the FDIC

National Disability Employment Awareness (NDEAM) is observed in October every year. According to the Department of Labor (DOL) “It celebrates the contributions of America’s workers with disabilities past and present and showcases supportive, inclusive employment policies and practices.” Every year the DOL announces a theme to help facilitate event planning. This year’s theme is “Disability: Part of the Equity Equation.”

If you are planning on teaching Money Smart sessions that will include people with disabilities, please consider utilizing the following resources:

Guide to Presenting Money Smart for Adults – Includes practical tips for planning, marketing, and delivering training. It also includes information to make training accessible and welcoming for everyone.
Disability-Related Topics – A PDF document that can help you become familiar with topics in the curriculum that may be of particular interest to individuals with disabilities.
Scenarios for Financial Inclusion Supplement for Instructors/Trainers – Provides four scenarios featuring individuals with disabilities thinking about financial decisions.
How Money Smart Are You? is a suite of 14 games and related resources about everyday financial topics, including materials for individuals with disabilities and their caretakers to consider as they manage their finances. This resource includes information on managing you debt, building for your future and more. Check this page for additional topics covered in the program.

FDIC’s Newest Resource: The Reality Fair Toolkit

The FDIC has created The Guide to Organizing Reality Fairs. A reality fair is a simulation of adult financial life, which provides youth with a simulated experience for making real world financial decisions and managing money. Participants experience what it is like to have an account at a financial institution, decide how to use their money, obtain a loan, manage debt, and more.

The guide is a comprehensive resource for organizing a three-hour reality fair for youth. It includes checklists, timelines, and sample communications for planning a successful fair. The guide also includes resources that support the fair itself, such as participant profiles and booth worksheets.

For youth, a reality fair can be an eye-opening, exciting, and fun way to build financial knowledge and skills. Each year, banks lead reality fairs nationwide. They are often held in partnership with youth-serving organizations and schools.

CFPB Releases Report on Elder Financial Exploitation Recovery

Elder financial exploitation (EFE) robs millions of older adults of their money and property. It can happen to any older adult, and it can happen regardless of whether the person stealing the money is a stranger or a close contact. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has released new findings of a study that describes how older adults recover from financial exploitation.

The report, Recovery from elder financial exploitation: a framework for policy and research (www.consumerfinance.gov), outlines the stages of recovery from elder financial exploitation and addresses why some older adults are more likely to get their money back than others. The report also identifies areas of work in policy, research, and practices that can help us better understand how to improve the likelihood of recovery, including:

Greater consumer protections on common payment methods used to defraud older adults;
How to empower older adults and caregivers to recognize EFE and to know their rights for pursuing recovery of fraud losses; and
More public awareness of successful prosecutions of EFE resulting in financial recovery.

Read the report to learn more about fraud prevention and reporting resources (www.consumerfinance.gov) that you can share in your community.

Learn more about the CFPB and FDIC’s enhanced version of Money Smart for Older Americans

Latest FDIC Consumer News Edition

The October 2022 edition of the FDIC Consumer News is titled “Would You Like Some Financial Privacy?” and provides tips to help maintain your financial privacy. Read it here.