Duke Neuroscientist Joins Carefull as Research Fellow to Further Advance Carefull’s Financial Protection Platform for Older Adults and Caregivers

Today we announced that Gregory Samanez-Larkin, Ph.D., has joined Carefull as Research Fellow, a scientific leadership role focused on accelerating the application of new behavioral and cognitive science directly into the development of Carefull’s technology. Read the full release below or on Businesswire.

Samanez-Larkin is a Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Duke University and Professor of Marketing at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. For over two decades, his research has examined how motivation, cognition, and the brain influence financial decision-making across the lifespan, with particular focus on aging, financial risk, and vulnerability. 

“Financial vulnerability rarely begins with a single transaction,” said Max Goldman, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Carefull. “Changes in behavior, judgment, relationships, and life circumstances can emerge long before a traditional fraud system recognizes a problem. Greg brings decades of scientific research into how people make decisions across their lifespan, and he is working side by side with our team to translate that science into a smarter way to identify and respond to emerging financial risk. Our work with Greg is the first to implement and operationalize these insights so they can make a difference in people’s lives on a day-to-day basis. As Research Fellow, Greg works directly with Carefull’s product, data science, and engineering teams to translate research across psychology, behavioral economics, neuroscience, and consumer finance into practical applications within GreyMatter, Carefull’s AI-powered intelligence engine for understanding behavioral and financial risk.”

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“My role is essentially to serve as a periscope into the scientific world,”  said Samanez-Larkin, Research Fellow at Carefull. “There is an enormous body of research that can teach us how people make financial decisions and evaluate risk. What is exciting about Carefull is that we can take the most relevant findings and translate them into products and services that can make a difference in people’s lives today.”

“Greg has consistently brought thoughtful insights, data-driven perspectives, and a deep commitment to protecting older adults,” said Ronald Long, a longtime leader in efforts to combat elder financial exploitation. “His addition to Carefull's team is a significant win for the company and for the broader effort to combat elder financial abuse. I have long believed that fintech companies are uniquely positioned to help solve this challenge, and Greg's leadership will help move that vision closer to reality.” 

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From Detecting Events to Understanding People

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Bringing Samanez-Larkin to the team is part of Carefull’s ongoing effort to fundamentally change the pace at which cognitive and behavioral science is applied to older adult financial risk.

Changes in spending, transaction patterns, or financial routines can occur alongside significant life events such as the death of a spouse, relocation, retirement, or other periods of heightened financial and emotional stress. Understanding those changes in context can create opportunities to identify vulnerability sooner and provide support before a mistake, a scam, or other financial event results in significant harm.

“A tremendous amount of effort over the last 10 or 20 years has focused on catching a scam or fraud after it has happened,” Samanez-Larkin said. “But by then, there can already be enormous financial loss. Carefull has shifted to prevention and earlier awareness. We are building models that help us identify changes before they spiral into catastrophic financial and social outcomes.”

This work is rapidly contributing to new areas of signal discovery within GreyMatter. “I believe we are finding signals that no one else has right now,” said Samanez-Larkin. “When you combine scientific expertise with Carefull’s data science and engineering expertise, we are discovering patterns that don’t emerge from a straightforward read of transactions. That combination of disciplines is incredibly powerful.”

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The Psychology Beyond the Transaction

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The challenge of protecting people financially, particularly as they age, is fundamentally human. Financial decisions are closely connected to independence, identity, judgment, family relationships, and an individual’s sense of purpose. 

“Financial decisions touch people’s sense of independence, purpose, and meaning.,” said Samanez-Larkin. “There is a tremendous opportunity to help, and that is exactly what we are doing by focusing on a solution that provides support without creating fear, resistance, or damaging relationships. So much of navigating money management is navigating the psychology beyond the finances.”

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Samanez-Larkin will continue working across Carefull’s teams to advance the behavioral science behind GreyMatter, identify new signals of financial vulnerability and push the boundaries of how scientific research can be translated into real-world financial protection. This work means Carefull can catch fraud and scams earlier, protect more families, and intervene faster, all before small warning signs become significant financial harm.

“This is a really rare opportunity for me because I get to be deeply involved in developing the products to protect people,” said Samanez-Larkin. “I’m able to think critically across the entire process with the team and then evaluate in real time whether what we are building is actually working the way we intended. As a scientist, that is exactly how I want to work.”

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About Gregory Samanez-Larkin, Ph.D.

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Gregory Samanez-Larkin is Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Duke University and Professor of Marketing at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. He is also a faculty member in Duke’s Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, and Senior Fellow in the Duke Aging Center.

His research examines how motivation, emotion and cognition influence decision-making and health behavior across the lifespan, integrating methods and ideas from cognitive neuroscience, psychology, behavioral economics and consumer finance.

Samanez-Larkin earned his M.A. and Ph.D. from Stanford University and completed postdoctoral training at Vanderbilt University. In 2019, he received the Society for Neuroeconomics Early Career Award for his contributions to understanding the neuroscience of decision-making in aging. Over the past 20 years his research has been supported by over 20 million dollars in federal research funding from the National Institutes of Health. Samanez-Larkin has also worked extensively on questions surrounding investment fraud and financial vulnerability. His research has included FINRA Investor Education Foundation-supported work examining individual differences associated with susceptibility to investment fraud and comparing brain function in investment fraud victims with age-matched controls.

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