Wealth- and life management services tailored to well-to-do senior citizens. With the recent appointment of Chicagoland Caregivers founder Allison Getz as a trust specialist, Wells Fargo Private Bank has brought its pioneering Elder Services program to Chicago. The program combines wealth-management and estate services with life-management assistance to help elderly clients maintain their independence and quality of life.

Mass affluent too

"Clients do not want someone to take over their lives, but they do require a different type of help as they age," says Chip Flannagan, head of Wells Fargo Private Bank in Chicago. "Our integrated service can address these changing requirements, helping to achieve peace of mind to our clients and their families."

Elder Services includes a 24-hour hotline, health and in-home living-standard assessments and a range of concierge services. The program is given further structure through partnerships with local health and service.

Such services are usually reserved for ultra-wealthy clients who can call on family offices, private banks or boutique wealth managers to do their bidding. But with Elder Services reaches down market to work with many "mass" affluent senior citizens with investment and trust assets in the $750,000 to $2 million range.

Eyes and ears

Wells Fargo's elder-client specialists "take a holistic and proactive approach to working with clients as they navigate the complexities of life management and aging," according to Wells Fargo Elder Services national manager Keith Klovee-Smith. "Seniors often live far from relatives, and even when they're close by, relatives may find personal and financial management challenging," he adds.

The families of Elder Services clients benefit from the program in a number of ways. It provides continuous, in-person support to their elderly relatives, and, according to the client's wishes, it keeps family members abreast of their relative's condition. Wells Fargo will also step in to help families resolve sensitive issues such as giving up driver's licenses, moving into retirement homes and planning funerals.

Mostly though, Elder Services exists to serve the interests of its elderly clients -- sometimes in extremis, according to Getz. "We provide an extra set of eyes and ears to protect our clients from abusive situations," she says.

Getz joined Wells Fargo to lead its Elder Services program in Chicago back in September. She sold Chicagoland Caregivers -- a non-medical care giving company she established in 2001 -- last year.

15 states

Sandra Anderson and William Sanden, who came to Wells Fargo through its late-1990s acquisition of Northwest Trust Bank, founded Wells Fargo's Elder Services in Minneapolis nearly a decade ago. Since then it has grown to include outlets in 15 states.

There were 35 million Americans over 65 in 2000, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. By 2030, there will be 70 million, making up about 20% of the overall population.

Despite the aging of the population, few big wealth managers have lined up with Wells Fargo to target high-net-worth seniors. One exception is Chicago-based Harris Private Bank, which launched a wealth- and life-management meat program called Harris enCircle this year. That's based on a Canadian version of enCircle Harris launched under the auspices of its Toronto-based corporate parent BMO in 2005.

"We're committed to providing exceptional service at every stage of our clients' lives," says Wells Fargo's Flannagan. "Traditional trust groups, financial institutions, and law firms are not structured to support the depth and variety of services we offer." -FWR

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