When Jeff Thibault learned that his client’s wife had received a diagnosis of stage IV melanoma—a form of skin cancer that has metastasized and is difficult to treat—he introduced the family to PinnacleCare, a Baltimore-based private health advisory service.
“The client was trying to find research, and they were doing a lot of it themselves,” says Thibault, a wealth advisor with Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management in Houston.
PinnacleCare not only worked with the family to find a facility doing the very latest research on the treatment of stage IV melanoma, the company also helped organize the day-to-day business of medical records, doctor visits, insurance coverage and the like. “It relieved a huge burden,” Thibault says.
PinnacleCare, along with other companies such as Los Angeles-based Private Health Management, is part of a growing trend in private health advisory services that can be helpful for financial advisors. Americans are living longer, even if those added years aren’t necessarily healthy ones, and people of means are willing to pay for help navigating a complex and expensive health-care system, especially when a catastrophic illness strikes and quick access to the best possible care becomes a priority.
“Financial advisors will often ask, why should we care? That’s health management not wealth management, and we do wealth management,” says Deanna Rodriguez, PinnacleCare’s executive vice president of sales. “And the answer is, whether it’s wealth management or not, the financial advisor is very often the one who gets the phone call.”
PinnacleCare specializes in locating—and getting expedited referrals to—top specialists and groundbreaking treatments. But it also offers around-the-clock medical advice and support anywhere in the world the client goes, medical records management and digitization, and the arrangement of in-home and elder-care services.
And while we may think of ultra-high-net-worth folks with family offices as the typical target for exclusive care, PinnacleCare also has relationships with large brokerages and wealth management firms. Morgan Stanley, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, UBS and Ayco (a comprehensive financial planning firm owned by Goldman Sachs), offer PinnacleCare’s services to their wealth management clients. All but Merrill Lynch also offer plans to their own employees.
PinnacleCare now has more than 3,000 clients with full annual memberships, which range in cost from roughly $10,000 to $30,000 depending on the level of care needed. The company also offers its brokerage clients à la carte services that run $5,000 a year or less.
While PinnacleCare’s annual memberships are costly, the company argues that it can actually save money in some cases by avoiding unnecessary procedures or ineffective treatments. In looking at 1,000 cases over a three-year period, it found 34% resulted in a change in diagnosis, treatment or course of care, and 2% avoided unnecessary surgery as a result of a PinnacleCare intervention.
Even if your clients don’t choose private health advisory services, there’s a decent chance those nearing retirement will come to you at some point with health-care-related questions, whether it’s concerning Medicare enrollment or the cost of care for an aging parent. A recent survey from PNC Financial Services found that 78% of respondents with more than $1 million in assets worried that health care would be expensive in retirement. The survey also found that more than a third of millionaires were worried about drug costs, 75% were concerned about out-of-pocket costs and half were fretful about insurance premiums.
Integrating Health Into Wealth Management
November 2, 2015
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