Private Bankers Now Do Shopping, Travel, Repairs

“Need a last-minute private jet from Paris to New York? Or someone to manage your Hamptons property? Your money manager says she will have someone take care of it.

 

Banks and money managers are increasingly positioning themselves as one-stop shops for the richest families around the globe. With the great wealth transfer projected to top $100 trillion in the coming years, firms are adding bells and whistles in a bid to keep assets when their clients turn over the reins to their children, and to woo the next generation of clients.

 

These services are often packaged with other family-office services, with firms handling everything from paying clients' bills to helping with estate planning and prenuptial agreements. Money managers tap in-house resources, or outsource to other vendors. And fees vary from one-time charges to hourly rates, said Chayce Horton, associate director of wealth management at research firm Cerulli Associates. Some lump them in with fees they charge for asset management.

 

"It could be dog walking, or chopping down a tree for them," Horton said. "You don't really say no to these sorts of families."

 

The number of firms offering concierge services has swelled. Almost half of wealth managers working with high-net-worth individuals offered the services last year, up from 35% in 2024, according to Cerulli. Bankers and money managers said that wealthy families are increasingly approaching their firms with questions not just about how and where to invest, but also about how to manage their lifestyles.

 

"Families over the past decade are really putting more and more of an emphasis on advisers who care about the full family," said Ashley Agnew, a behavioral scientist at financial services firm Edward Jones.

 

Edward Jones recently launched its private client service, personalized offerings for those with more than $10 million. But even in her prior role as a wealth manager at Centerpoint Advisors, she said she was the first call for clients who were looking to get a vintage watch fixed, needed help watering the plants or, yes, even needed help for the family pooch's health ailments.

 

We were "the emergency contact for five dogs," Agnew said.

 

At some wealth managers, family-governance experts help the wealthy plan "Succession"-style retreats to Bozeman, Mont., and navigate thorny money discussions. Some also have started connecting their clients with property managers who can maintain multiple homes, keeping the humidor filled with cigars or stocking the fridge before clients arrive.

 

"The last thing you want to do is fly to Miami and go to the grocery store immediately," said Daniel Griffith, director of wealth strategy at Huntington Bank, who works with the Columbus, Ohio-based regional bank's high-net-worth clients.

 

Others connect clients with concierge medical providers, allowing them to have a doctor to text or ring at any hour.

 

The core business for wealth managers remains advising clients on how to invest their money. Concierge-style services typically aren't significant drivers of revenue when offered in-house, but can help attract and retain clients.

 

J.P. Morgan Private Bank unveiled in September Lifestyle Services, a platform connecting clients with vendors focused on everything from staffing homes and paying bills to valuing art and figuring out clients' private-aviation needs.

 

That is on top of an in-house team of tax-and-estate lawyers, family-governance specialists and even a marriage adviser who advises on prenuptial agreements and divorces.

 

William Sinclair, global co-head of the family office practice there, said clients who use the lifestyle platform get discounts from certain vendors. For example, they might secure fewer blackout dates or more hours in the sky than if they go through the vendor directly.

 

"Even billionaires love a discount," said Sinclair, who estimates that the private bank works with more than half of U.S. billionaires.

 

Clients also have flocked to the luxury trip-planning firm on the private bank's lifestyle services offering.

 

Valerie Wilson Travel, the luxury travel planning firm JPMorgan Chase bought in 2022, has planned trips for private-bank clients including a 2.5-week vacation in Ireland and Scotland for multiple generations of a family that included golf at St. Andrews and a "falconry experience" in the Irish Midlands.

 

It also planned an African safari for a family of five that featured treks to view gorillas in their natural habitat.

 

A single vacation to Ibiza during the summer can easily top $100,000 or even $250,000, said Jaclyn Sienna India, founder of Sienna Charles, a lifestyle and travel concierge agency.

 

An $800,000 annual vacation budget isn't out of the norm, and an oceanfront villa alone in St. Barts around the holidays could top that for two weeks.

 

Markus Habbel, who runs Bain & Company's wealth and asset-management practice, compares concierge services -- which a family office dedicated to serving a single, ultrawealthy family could be expected to provide -- to the experience offered by luxury apparel companies that cultivate loyalty.

 

"These services go beyond just the immediate product and service. There's some emotional value," he said.” [1]

 

1. Private Bankers Now Do Shopping, Travel, Repairs. Banerji, Gunjan; Chung, Juliet.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 18 Mar 2026: A1.