If you are looking for help caring for an older family member, you might try giving your banker a call.
That might not seem like an obvious move. But private banks and trust companies say that they increasingly are helping older clients—or parents of younger clients—sort out medical bills, hire in-home care or even manage the sale of a home. Sometimes the bank charges an additional fee for such services; in other cases, they are included in the asset-management or trust fees families already pay.
Wells Fargo has expanded its private-bank Elder Services program—designed to provide comprehensive help to older clients and their caregivers—into 30 new regions across the country this year, bringing its total reach to 67 markets. Merrill Lynch’s family-office group—part of its private bank aimed at its wealthiest clients—started a “Stand Ready” initiative this year that helps clients organize all the details of their lives in case they suddenly become incapacitated. Bessemer Trust has expanded its focus on its “health advisory” services in recent years. Northern Trust has beefed up its training in the family dynamics involved in long-distance caregiving.
Atlanta-based Broadspire Care Management, which contracts with bank trust departments and wealth-management firms to provide geriatric-care management, says it has seen referrals rise 10% to 12% a year for the past three years.
Of course, banks and trust companies aren’t doing this solely out of the goodness of their hearts. Providing extra services targeted at the elderly and their family caregivers can bump up the asset-management fees that clients pay each year. The draw of the services may even persuade a few clients to move assets to an institution to meet its minimum deposit requirements—which can range from $1 million to $10 million or more—for accessing such help. Wells Fargo’s Elder Services program, for example, charges up to 2% a year in total fees on a $1 million minimum. (Customers whose assets dip below that level can stay in the program, however, and clients with trusts, many of whom already pay 1.25% a year, simply pay 2% total.)
No related posts.
Comments
No Responses to “Beyond Estate Planning: Bankers Tackle Elder Care”