2026 Annual Frank L. LeFever Spring Conference
Live, Online ¨ 5/7/26 ¨ 6-8 pm EDT
Cents and Sensibility:
Financial Decision Making in Older Adults
Duke Han, PhD, ABPP-CN
Financial Decision Making in Older Age
Daniel Marson, PhD, JD
Declining Financial Capacity in Older Adults:
Clinical, Legal and Policy Aspects
REGISTRATION
Members: $50, which includes attendance & 2 CE credits*
Student Members: FREE
Non-members: $100, which includes attendance & 2 CE credits*
*New York Neuropsychology Group is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychologists #PSY-0107. New York Neuropsychology Group is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. NYNG maintains responsibility for this program and its content. CE credits will be awarded to paid registrants who attend the majority of the conference.
Duke Han, PhD, ABPP-CN
Financial Decision Making in Older Age
Abstract: Older adults face many critical decisions regarding financial matters which could have a profound impact upon independence and wellbeing. Poor financial decision making in older age can have far-reaching consequences for family members, caretakers, and communities. Relatedly, scam, fraud, and financial exploitation of older adults is a devastating and widespread societal problem resulting in billions of dollars lost annually. Relevant for the practicing clinical neuropsychologist, assessment of financial decision making has become an increasingly common reason for referral, and it has become clear that many standard neuropsychological tools and approaches are insufficient to adequately address this. There are multiple reasons why certain older adults may become poorer decision makers and consequently more vulnerable to scam, fraud, and financial exploitation. Age-associated pathological changes in the brain are well documented, suggesting the suboptimal functioning of specific neural systems may contribute to declining cognition and poorer decision making in older age. Medical conditions, psychological symptoms, and interpersonal relationship dynamics may also interact to impact decision making in older age. Notably, recent work has implicated poor financial decision making as a potential early marker of Alzheimer’s Disease and related dementias (AD/ADRD). Understanding impaired financial decision making in older age is therefore an important public health imperative with significant clinical and public policy implications; however, the causal factors, contextual circumstances, and assessment considerations of impaired financial decision making in older age are poorly understood. This program will: (1) provide an overview of research to date on financial decision making in older age, which spans neuropsychological, neuroimaging, behavioral economics, demography, qualitative, cognitive neuroscience, and other empirical approaches; (2) discuss limits of existing neuropsychological approaches to assess financial decision making in older age; (3) highlight the significance of cross-cultural and other contextual factors as important assessment considerations; and (4) review currently available clinical tools and model approaches to the assessment of financial decision making in older age.
Dr. Han is a Diplomate of the American Board of Professional Psychology in Clinical Neuropsychology; a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, the National Academy of Neuropsychology, and the International Neuropsychological Society; and a tenured Professor of Psychology, Family Medicine, Neurology, and Gerontology at the University of Southern California. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology with a specialization in Neuroscience from Duke University, and his PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of Massachusetts Boston. He received training in clinical neuropsychology and experimental neuroimaging through various programs of Harvard Medical School's Brigham and Women's Hospital. He continued his clinical neuropsychology and neuroimaging activities during his clinical internship and postdoctoral fellowship years at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) and the San Diego VA Healthcare System. He maintains an active research collaboration with the Rush Alzheimer's Disease Center (RADC) in Chicago where he was formerly a tenured faculty member.
Dr. Han is interested in factors that impact cognition and decision making in aging. He also has special interests in leveraging novel empirical approaches to better understand these factors. In addition to directing his own extramurally-funded research lab, he serves as the Co-Leader of the Research and Education Core for the USC Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC), Co-Director of the Scientific Research Network in Decision Neuroscience of Aging (SRNDNA), Co-Director of the Open Measurement Network Initiative for Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias (OMNI ADRD), and the Editor-In-Chief of The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences. He was the recipient of the prestigious Paul B. Beeson fellowship, which is considered the premiere career development award of the National Institute on Aging (NIA), and has been actively involved in the peer-review of aging and Alzheimer’s Disease research grants, including serving as the Chair of the NIA Clinical and Translational Research of Aging review committee (NIA-T) and the Neuroscience of Aging review committee (NIA-N). Dr. Han is a founding governance member of the Global Council on Brain Health, an international independent science collaborative convened by AARP that is tasked with offering the aging public the best advice about brain health. He is also a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI), and was a member of the American Psychological Association (APA) Presidential Task Force on Neuropsychological Test Norming in Diverse Populations. Dr. Han has served as an oral examiner for the board certification process for the American Board of Clinical Neuropsychology (ABCN), and was a former Co-Chair of the Dementia Special Interest Group (SIG) of the International Neuropsychological Society (INS). He currently holds multiple service or mentorship roles in the International Neuropsychological Society (INS), the National Academy of Neuropsychology (NAN), the American Academy of Clinical Neuropsychology (AACN), the Society for Clinical Neuropsychology (Division 40) of the APA, and the Asian Neuropsychological Association (ANA). His work has been featured in multiple media outlets, including CNN, Reuters, CBS, PBS, Forbes, Fox Business News, and U.S. News and World Report.
Learning Objectives:
- 1. Demonstrate an understanding of the research to date on financial decision making in older age.
- 2. Understand the limits of existing neuropsychological approaches and the importance of contextual factors for assessing financial decision making in older age.
- 3. Develop a personalized clinical approach to the assessment of financial decision making in older age informed by decision science.
DEI: Racial and cultural considerations will be a primary aim of the presentation. Some work presented will specifically focus on older African Americans.
Financial disclosures:none
References:
- 1. Fenton, L.*, Salminen, L.E., Lim, A.C., Weissberger, G.H., Nguyen, A.L., Axelrod, J., Noriega-Makarskyy, D.*, Yassine, H., Mosqueda, L., & Han, S.D. (2024). Lower entorhinal cortex thickness is associated with greater financial exploitation vulnerability in cognitively unimpaired older adults. Cerebral Cortex, 34(9), bhae360.
- 2. Han, S.D., Boyle, P.A., James, B.D., Yu, L., Barnes, L.L., & Bennett, D.A. (2016). Discrepancies between cognition and decision making in older adults. Aging Clinical and Experimental Research, 28(1), 99–108.
- 3. Han, S.D., Boyle, P.A., Yu, L., Arfanakis, K., James, B.D., Fleischman, D.A., & Bennett, D.A. (2016). Grey matter correlates of susceptibility to scams in community-dwelling older adults. Brain Imaging and Behavior, 10(2), 524–532.
- 4. Lichtenberg, P.A., Paulson, D.*, & Han, S.D. (2020). Examining health and wealth correlates of perceived financial vulnerability: A normative study. Innovation in Aging, 4(4), igaa039.
- 5. Weissberger, G.H., Samek, A., Mosqueda, L., Nguyen, A.L., Lim, A.C.*, Fenton, L.*, & Han, S.D. (2022). Increased financial altruism is associated with Alzheimer's Disease neurocognitive profile in older adults. Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, 88(3), 995–1005.
Daniel Marson, PhD, JD
Declining Financial Capacity in Older Adults:
Clinical, Legal and Policy Aspects
Abstract: Financial capacity, which comprises both financial performance and decision-making skills, represents a set of functional abilities critical to independence in everyday life. Due primarily to normal cognitive aging and cognitive disorders of aging, older adults experience declining financial abilities that place them at risk for poor financial decisions and exploitation by others. These events can have tragic and devastating personal as well as legal consequences for older persons and their families. This lecture highlights the risks to financial capacity that occur in later life, and discusses possible early warning signs of decline that can alert older persons and their family members to take needed protective steps. In addition, the lecture identifies and discusses important financial legal competencies associated with declining financial capacity in the elderly. The lecture also discusses approaches to protecting financially vulnerable elderly. Attendees will depart with an appreciation of the importance of financial capacity in the elderly, and of related clinical, legal and policy aspects.
Dr. Marson is a retired clinical neuropsychologist, attorney, and Emeritus Professor in the Department of Neurology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). He directed the Department’s Division of Neuropsychology (1995-2016) and the UAB Alzheimer’s Disease Center (2005-2015). Dr. Marson graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Carleton College (1976), earned his JD at the University of Chicago Law School (1981) and his PhD in clinical psychology (geropsychology and neuropsychology specializations) at Northwestern University (1990). Dr. Marson has lectured nationally regarding competency and other medical-legal and ethical issues in dementia and other neurocognitive disorders. He has published over 150 scientific papers, handbooks, and book chapters on these topics. His work on financial capacity in older adults has appeared in the New York Times, USA Today, BBC, Kiplinger Report, Barron’s and NPR. Nationally Dr. Marson is a past president and fellow of the National Academy of Neuropsychology (NAN), and served on the Commission on Law and Aging of the American Bar Association. Dr. Marson plays the diatonic harmonica and is a lover of blues, jazz, and folk music.
Learning Objectives:
- 1. Describe how financial capacity in the elderly comprises both financial performance skills and financial decisional abilities
- 2. Discuss how declining financial capacity in the elderly is primarily related to normal cognitive aging and to cognitive disorders of aging.
- 3. Identify four important financial legal competencies: capacity to manage one’s financial affairs, testamentary capacity, contractual capacity, and donative capacity
- 4. Discuss approaches to protecting financially vulnerable elderly.
DEI: My talk will include stories about men and women experiencing declining financial capacity. It will not address research data and findings concerning issues of diversity and inclusion.
Financial disclosure: Financial Cognition Assessments LLC, Financial Capacity Instrument (FCI-9)-FCI-Short Form
References:
- 1. Marson, D. (2016). Conceptual models and guidelines for clinical assessment of financial capacity. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology. 31 (6): 541-553.
- 2. Gerstenecker A, Hoagey DA, Marson DC, Kennedy KM. (2017). White matter degradation is associated with reduced financial capacity in mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease. Journal of Alzheimer's disease. Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease. 2017; 60(2):537-547. NIHMSID: NIHMS909955. PubMed [journal]PMID: 28826185 PMCID: PMC5642279.
- 3. Martin, R., Gerstenecker, A., Triebel, K., Falola, M., Cutter, G., Marson, D. (2018). Declining financial capacity in patients with mild cognitive impairment: A six year longitudinal study. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology. doi.org/10.1093/arclin/acy030, published online 31 March 2018; 34(2), 152-161.
- 4. Gerstenecker, A., Martin, R., Triebel, K., & Marson, D. (2019). Anosognosia of financial ability in mild cognitive impairment. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 34 (8), 1200-1207.
- 5. Vassilaki, M., Aakre, J. Kremers, W., Mielke, M., Geda, Y., Machulda, M., Knopman,
D., Vemuri, P., Lowe, V., Jack, C., Roberson, E., Gerstenecker, A., Martin, R., Kennedy, R., Marson, D., and Petersen, R. (2022). Association of performance on the Financial Capacity Instrument–Short Form with brain amyloid load and cortical thickness in older adults. Neurology: Clinical Practice. First published February 8
.jpeg)