Bill Text: HI SB2314 | 2012 | Regular Session | Amended

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Bill Title: Financial Exploitation of Elder

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 8-0)

Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2012-03-08 - (H) Referred to HUS, JUD/CPC, referral sheet 41 [SB2314 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2012-SB2314-Amended.html

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STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2711

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 2314

       S.D. 2

 

 

 

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2012

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Judiciary and Labor, to which was referred S.B. No. 2314, S.D. 1, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE ELDERLY,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

 

     (1)  Establish the offense of financial and economic exploitation of a dependent elder and penalties;

 

     (2)  Define "elder" as any person sixty-two years of age or older;

 

     (3)  Create enhanced penalties for a person who is convicted of financial and economic exploitation of a dependent elder in the course of committing or attempting to commit a felony, and causes the death or inflicts serious or substantial bodily injury upon a minor, elder, or handicapped person;

 

     (4)  Require two signatures of unrelated persons as witnesses to the execution of a power of attorney for health care; and

 

     (5)  Require financial institutions to report suspected financial abuse to the appropriate police department immediately by telephone and by written report via electronic mail.

 

     Your Committee did not receive testimony on the measure.

 

     Your Committee finds that there have been an increasing number of cases involving financial exploitation of the elderly by caregivers, acquaintances, friends, and family members.  Financial crimes against the elderly can take many forms, and can be just as devastating as physical injuries, leaving victims isolated, vulnerable, and scared.  This measure addresses this growing problem by criminalizing the financial and economic exploitation of a dependent elder and requiring financial institutions to report suspected financial abuse cases to the police.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Streamlining and renaming the offense of financial and economic exploitation of a dependent elder and categorizing the offense into various degrees depending on the value of the property exploited;

 

     (2)  Changing the definition of "elder", as it applies in chapter 708 and section 412:3-114.5, Hawaii Revised Statutes, to mean any person who is sixty, rather than sixty-two, years of age or older;

 

     (3)  Deleting the provision that creates enhanced penalties for a person who is convicted of financial and economic exploitation of a dependent elder in the course of committing or attempting to commit a felony, and causes the death or inflicts serious or substantial bodily injury upon a minor, elder, or handicapped person;

 

     (4)  Deleting the provision that requires two signatures of unrelated persons as witnesses to the execution of a power of attorney for health care;

 

     (5)  Amending section 412:3-114.5, Hawaii Revised Statutes, to require reporting of suspected financial abuse of an elder to an appropriate law enforcement agency, rather than the appropriate police department; and

 

     (6)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary and Labor that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2314, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2314, S.D. 2.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary and Labor,

 

		____________________________ CLAYTON HEE, Chair