Many local businesses are seeing the potential for profit from serving the area”™s graying population. Their services range from home-health aid and geriatric management to financial and legal planning.
Businesses catering to seniors are expected to grow even more in coming years as baby boomers begin to reach their golden years.
Beginning this year and continuing for next two decades, more than 10,000 baby boomers on average will reach the age of 65 every single day.
Bob Cole, co-owner of Bronxville-based Cole Communications, points out that locally, one in five residents ”“ 20 percent of Westchester”™s population ”“ is already over the age of 60.
“Most demographic experts are forecasting that figure will start approaching 25 percent by the middle of the century,” he said. And that”™s a lot of people with a lot of money to spend, the marketing expert said.
Legal help for the elderly
Elder law is a growing area of business for local attorneys. Patricia Micek is an attorney in Larchmont who began practicing in the elder law area many years ago after a personally difficult event when her own mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer”™s. She said she found some other elder law attorneys to be too narrowly focused and wanted to offer a more rounded, personal approach to help guide not only the elderly but their entire family.
“I took my mother to an elder lawyer and he basically focused only on the documents that were needed,” Micek recalled. “But he had no information on what”™s available out there to help seniors.”
She said she makes her legal practice more “family-friendly,” offering information on such things as adult day-care services, which is also a booming area, as well as home-health agencies, assisted-living facilities, caretaker support services and nursing homes.
“I”™ve probably been to just about every nursing home in the county, looking at what facilities they offer,” Micek said.
On legal issues, she advised that it”™s critically important for everyone, but especially for seniors, to have a current health care proxy and power of attorney in place.
Otherwise, a guardianship proceeding will be needed if the senior becomes incapacitated either mentally or physically. The proceeding can cost up to $10,000. She also recommends that in addition to having a proper will, seniors may want to move their assets into irrevocable trusts, to shelter their money from having to go to the nursing home.
Helping seniors meet financial goals
Many local financial firms are also working to meet the needs of retiring seniors. Experts say a lot of seniors are concerned that they are going to run out of money in retirement. It”™s important for seasoned financial experts to reach out to them and show them that with careful planning, they can enjoy their retirement.
Mitch Ostrove, CEO of White Plains-based Ostrove Group Inc., is a financial services veteran who”™s been in the business for more than 40 years. “We like to sit down with those seniors and define their goals, their desires. We offer all forms of products and different investments to try to manage their money securely and safely that will yield income to them and at the same time perhaps grow and keep pace with inflation.”
He said that people 55 and older usually have little idea how long the assets they have will last once they retire. This has been especially true in the wake of the 2008 credit crisis.
“So many people counted on the value of their homes continuing to go up and monies in various retirement plans, which didn”™t. Perhaps they also had money in the stock market and all of a sudden those values were down by as much as 50 percent,” he said. “That”™s why a lot of people who had planned to retire in 2008 or 2009 are continuing to work.”
Geriatric care manager: a family surrogate
Anne Pagano in Yonkers is a geriatric care manager who helps seniors manage their daily lives. Pagano, who is also a licensed clinical social worker, said professional geriatric care managers assist seniors and their families to navigate a complex and fragmented array of services.
For about $125 to $150 per hour, an experienced, certified geriatric care manager can help obtain appropriate resources and services to optimize health, safety and well-being.
“A certified care manager can be an invaluable resource, especially when adult children are dealing with complex care and have their own busy schedules or are managing from a distance,” said Pagano who also teaches gerontology at Fordham Graduate School of Social Work at the Westchester campus. “Often a geriatric care manager operates as a family surrogate in lieu of a family member being present.”
And for seniors who want a little help with mounds of financial paperwork, they can turn to daily money managers. Robert Mayetta is a partner at White Plains-based Smart Daily Administrators. He said the business volume for the elderly market is increasing. His firm charges around $70 an hour and about 70 percent of his clients are seniors.
“For the elderly it could be helping them with managing their insurance submissions for long-term care or helping them with medical spending. In essence, we are here to make sure everything is filed,” said Mayetta in explaining his work. “There are a lot of seniors who need this type of assistance and they don”™t even know there is this industry in place.”
