For the second time in a week, a major financial institution has launched a program aimed at making life easier for older clients.
First Union Corp. unveiled a Family Trust program that offers a range of unusual services for trust clients, from setting up nursing home care and home repairs to helping with medical insurance claims and paying bills.
That's in addition to standard investment management, estate planning, and trust services.
"It's really a packaging of services so you don't have to go to 30 places," said Donald McMullen, executive vice president and head of First Union's capital management group. "This is a way of taking day-in, day-out services and intertwining them with financials."
The soup-to-nuts approach to serving elderly clients is getting more notice as financial institutions look for both greater fee income and more ways to reach an aging population.
Last week, Merrill Lynch & Co. announced its Retirement Management Service, offering medical-bill management, long-term-care insurance, a pharmacy discount card, a Visa Gold Card, and other products and services. Merrill, which targeted middle-market clients, will charge an annual fee of $500.
First Union declined to disclose the fees for Family Trust, saying they could vary greatly depending on the services used. But Mr. McMullen did say the program would largely be for clients with $300,000 or more of trust assets.
Charlotte, N.C.-based First Union has already been offering services of this kind on a less formal basis. Much of the demand has come from mature clients whose traditional helpers-children and grandchildren-live in other regions of the country.
"What I like about this is they're really dealing with life events," said banking consultant Michael Sullivan, a principal at 50-plus Communication Consulting in Charlotte. "That's how you build (banking) relationships, through this holistic approach. There's apt to be some duplicating of this in the business."
To control costs, First Union will limit the number of contractors it uses-for example, hiring one shuttle company to drive clients to doctors' appointments.
The driving force in the First Union and Merrill Lynch programs is demographics. The population is living longer, creating more of a strain on families, and the nation's 77 million baby boomers are starting to turn 50, supplying a captive future market for the financial services industry.
"We're looking for something not for six months from now but three, four, and 10 years from now," said Mr. McMullen.
