Elizabeth Clubb’s father, once a political science professor at Syracuse University, had been one of the most social human beings she knew. But when he developed Parkinson’s disease in the mid-2000s, the former students, neighbors, family and friends who came over for the monthly dinner gatherings came to his assistance.
Clubb oversaw his finances while her sisters who worked as physicians took care of his health. A caregiver was also hired to handle his day-to-day needs.
A few years into his diagnosis, Clubb suspected someone hacked his bank account when she noticed exact figures of $100, $200, $300 withdrawn. When the bank confirmed it wasn't hackers, she flew to Syracuse and discovered what it was.
In one month, her father wrote up to 35 checks to any charity who called his home (Many were scams that target older adults). People would knock on his door claiming he owed money for favors such as mowing his lawn. During this time, possessions were stolen by people asking to use his restroom.
After her father passed away in 2016, Clubb looked deeper into elder abuse. Three years later, Clubb sought to protect other families in the same way she had protected her own. Her first company, Curated Lyfe, had become unscalable. But elderly fraud was a glaring problem, and she wanted to be the one to solve it.
The biggest consequence leading to the problem, as she saw it, was a lack of connection and competence for families that hurdle through taking care of aging loved ones. This was the inspiration for myFloc, a money management platform for older adults that connects with their family, friends and caregivers.
MyFloc creates a new account with connected debit cards that allows a person’s loved ones to view transactions, control spending, set notifications or make purchases on their behalf.
MyFloc hopes to solve elder abuse
There are over 8 million cases of elder abuse in the U.S. per year, with collective losses surpassing $113 billion, according to computer security firm Comparitech. Arrests against elder abuse in Georgia have increased more than four-fold since 2010, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Fox 5 Atlanta reported.
Reports are drastically underreported, Clubb said. Victims can be too embarrassed to report in fear of having agency taken away from them, close family members are often doing the abuse and government agencies haven’t created a reliable method to measure its scope.
MyFloc was co-founded by Jason Thomas, a former senior vice president at both Bank of America Corp. and Northern Trust Corp., who had also seen the damage caused by elderly fraud.
Four years ago, Thomas’ aunt began to have early-onset dementia. She lived hours away, so he bought her an American Express card and hired caregivers. He saw additional charges of a thousand dollars. He learned the caregivers were using the funds to purchase their own groceries and gas.
Looking in the marketplace for a product that provided transparency and instant notification, he joined Clubb to launch myFloc which his elderly mother is now using.
“I left a 20+ plus career in legal and wealth management so I’ve taken a big risk, although I don’t look at it as a risk,” said Thomas. “It's an opportunity to solve a problem I see increasing on a daily basis.”
MyFloc's growth plans
In the spring, myFloc's platform launched into pilot mode. It has around 100 active accounts using its software and has partnered with a national nonprofit that looks to offer its services to its members. It has raised $2 million from private investors with anticipation to close another $1.5 million by year-end. It has three full-time employees with an office space in Georgia Tech’s Advanced Technology Development Center.
Clubb declined to identify the investors or the nonprofit.
Getting to that point relied on the trust of others. In 2020, the company was accepted into Visa Inc.’s Fintech Fast Track Program. That led it to partner with financial service company NetSpend as a program manager to enable myFloc’s software.
During Covid-19, its team worked with community organizations to test its software demo and get feedback on what people needed. One feature that restricted purchases in stores based on location was easily dismissed from participants.
By the end of next year, Clubb says she expects myFloc to reach 5,000 user accounts; up to 10 full-time employees; up to 10 partnerships with nonprofits, senior living companies, healthcare-related companies and financial service companies; and raise another round of capital. It was named one of Atlanta Inno's Startups to Watch in 2022.
“[MyFloc] is about changing the dialogue around what it means to get older,” said Clubb. “We believe in our deep core in creating a world we want to live in that celebrates and empowers aging.”
A previous version of this article incorrectly capitalized myFloc and misstated that gatherings at Elizabeth Clubb's father's house stopped once he developed Parkinson's. These errors have since been corrected.
