In many cases of financial exploitation, the exploited person’s capacity to make decisions is the core issue that must be assessed. Therefore, it is essential for investigators to have effective instruments for measuring a person’s capacity to make independent financial decisions, but one challenge is the lack of tools to detect deficits in financial capability. This session introduces a new screening scale for financial decision-making capacity.
In many cases of financial exploitation, the exploited person’s capacity to make decisions is the core issue that must be assessed. Therefore, it is essential for investigators to have effective instruments for measuring a person’s capacity to make independent financial decisions, but one challenge is the lack of tools to detect deficits in financial capability. This session introduces a new screening scale for financial decision-making capacity. The Lichtenberg Financial Decision Screening Scale (LFDSS) is a brief, 10-item screening scale designed to assess a vulnerable adult’s decisional ability at the point in time when the adult is making a significant financial decision. In this webinar, we will review instructions for administering the LFDSS, review screening questions and scoring, and discuss case studies using the scale. (Materials: slide presentation)