Unofficial Proxies: How Close Others Help Older Adults with Banking

Abstract

We present results of a survey (n=42) investigating how close others (family members, friends, or other community members) assist older adults with banking tasks in Canada. We asked what types of banking tasks they help with and what modalities they used. Our results show many close others help older adults by leveraging online banking, and this is especially true when the close other is an older adult themselves. We also found that close others who help older adults via online banking often know the online banking credentials for the older adults they assist, which presents privacy and security issues and could open the door to financial exploitation. Our results demonstrate the need for the design of online banking mechanisms that more explicitly acknowledge the nuanced and temporally changing role of close others in helping older adults with banking.