Services For Homebound Seniors Expand During Coronavirus Pandemic

WINNETKA, IL — A local small business that provides personally tailored assistance to seniors has offered to donate its services to help meet the needs of older residents during the statewide stay-at-home order issued in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Through April 30, Tight Ship Advisors will donate up to three hours of its home, health and lifestyle assistance services, including picking up and delivering groceries and prescriptions and helping with financial management.

The company has also partnered with the North Shore Senior Center in Northfield to handle requests the center's staff cannot fulfill remotely, meeting the basic needs of local senior citizens while allowing them to remain safe at home.

Leaving home, even for essential errands, can be dangerous for seniors. Public health officials and data confirm that older people who contract COVID-19, the disease caused by the new strain of coronavirus, are at a far greater risk of serious and potentially fatal complications.

Tight Ship Advisors founder and CEO Jill Dillingham, a North Shore native and Winnetka resident, told Patch she and her growing team of senior advisers were available to meet an unfilled need among many older members of the community.

"Not everybody has local family, not everybody has a neighbor to rely on," Dillingham said. "If there's a certified senior adviser that can help relieve an anxiety or a stress it's incredibly important they have access to that instead of putting themselves in physical peril by venturing out on their own to get it."

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Dillingham founded Tight Ship Advisors after spending time helping her husband's parents navigate their finances and health insurance in late 2017. Prior to that, she began her career as a consultant specializing in Medicare and managed care contracting, served as the first regional publisher for Patch when it was a division of AOL and later became vice president of sales of JWC Media.

At first, Dillingham recalled, she had no intention of turning Tight Ship, formerly known as Senior Checks & Balances, into a business.

"I just wanted to make sure my in-laws were safe and secure," she said.

Dillingham recalled some of the challenges her in-laws encountered, which she described as typical for older generations. "The red flags included everything from the taxes — they'd gotten two extensions — the landscaper was definitely overcharging them, there was a divide on how they had been paying their bill and managing their finances in the digital world we live in."

Word began to spread, Dillingham said, as accountants began to refer potential clients, and cocktail party conversations led to recommendations. Often, she said, families prefer a neutral outsider help resolve sometimes delicate planning matters.

By the end of January 2018, Dillingham had registered the business and become a certified senior adviser.

Currently, Tight Ship has 14 clients and two additional certified senior advisers, with two more in training. The certification takes about 100 hours of coursework and a four-hour exam. It includes the study of geriatrics, wealth management, estate planning, health care, Medicare, insurance matters and more, Dillingham said.

By helping fill the gaps in available service during the stay-at-home order, Dillingham hopes to relieve the burden on emergency personnel and keep them from having to field 911 calls from seniors who need groceries or prescriptions picked up but are afraid to leave their homes.

Those interested in booking a consultation may email info@tight-ship.com or call 773-457-1952 to receive up to three hours of bespoke services.

The extent of her clients' needs vary widely, Dillingham said. They range from just a couple of hours every month to track budgets and pay bills — sometimes spotting a forgotten recurring charge can wind up saving thousands — to clients who would like an adviser available up to five hours a week, serving as a house manager or executive assistant.

Advisers may coordinate with existing legal and financial advisers to help with taxes, estate planning, retirement accounts and charitable giving, while other times, Tight Ship may help those recently widowed gain financial independence.

"[They] might also be that wingman for [the] surviving spouse as they transition to the individual that is really managing the household and needing that extra layer of support," Dillingham said. "In a time that can be very emotionally fraught and very difficult, to give someone the ability — who may never have been the person in charge of bills and may never have been really familiar with the household cash flow — to empower them that they've got control over their environment is really a fantastic thing."