Program helps elderly navigate complex challenges tied to aging population. Harris Private Bank is out with a service called Harris enCircle to help well-to-do senior citizens and their families cope with the financial-planning aspects of old age.

"As Americans live longer, their needs and challenges are greater, not only for themselves, but for their adult children and caregivers as well," says Terry Jenkins, president of Chicago-based Harris Private Bank. "Harris enCircle provides a breadth of critical services including personalized bill paying, tax return coordination, investment management and coordination of health-care-management services."

Another boom

People age 85 and over make up the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. population, and about 12% of the overall population is 65 or older -- and it's likely to double in size to about 47 million by 2030. according to the National Institute on Aging.

"The stress that is caused to these individuals and their families in trying to coordinate financial matters and health care is overwhelming," says Deborah Korompilas, head of trust and estate services at Harris Private Bank.

Meanwhile average life expectancy is on the rise thanks to higher levels of personal fitness and improving medical care. In 1955 the average retirement age for Americans was 68 and average life expectancy was 72. Now the average retirement age is 62 and the average life expectancy has jumped to 80. More starkly, a 65-year-old man has a 25% chance of seeing his ninety-second birthday; a 65-year-old woman is as likely to live past 94.

Precursors Harris enCircle boils down to a set of high-touch services to help senior citizens with things like meeting deadlines and avoiding financial errors. It can also mean things like helping clients sort through assets held in myriad accounts and advising them on the benefits of using trust vehicles to make bequests rather than parceling out assets willy-nilly while still alive.

The program is backed by an advisory board of experts on geriatrics and elder care.

enCircle is offered to senior clients looking for help managing their own financial affairs and to adult children, whether they're active caregivers or not.

BMO Harris Private Banking, the high-net-worth unit of Toronto-based BMO, Harris' corporate parent, launched a Canadian version of enCircle in 2005. San Francisco-based Wells Fargo has been operating Elder Services, a similar program for U.S. clients, for the past 11 years. -FWR

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