NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Whether he is heli-skiing in British Columbia or scuba diving off the coast of Costa Rica, if wealth manager Steve Lockshin starts to feel ill, he knows whom to call - Ellen Maidman-Tanner, his health advisor.

Maidman-Tanner will mobilize a team of experts to connect Lockshin with a qualified local physician, transmit his medical records wherever required, conference in U.S. specialists and supply translators. And, if needed, send a jet to bring him home. Fortunately for Lockshin, though, this is all theory. He hasn't had the misfortune of falling ill.

"It's important to me to be able to get care regardless of where I may be in the world, should a problem arise," says Lockshin, who is chairman and chief executive of Lydian Wealth Management in Rockville, Md., a boutique firm with around $7.5 billion in assets under management.

Last year, Lockshin became a member of PinnacleCare, a Baltimore-based company that helps clients navigate health-care systems. Now he's testing out the service on some of his top clients.

Lockshin is not alone. He is one of a small but growing number of advisors who are connecting clients with health-care services, such as concierge doctors, private staffing companies that provide tailor-made medical care and health- advocacy companies. There's still not a whole load of choice out there, though the number of firms operating in the sector is growing, experts say. MD2 ( pronounced "MD squared"), MDVIP, Health Advocate Inc. and Healthnet Foundation are among those organizations operating in this diverse space.

PinnacleCare, for example, assigns each member an advocacy team that gathers medical records, researches treatments, vets doctors and schedules appointments at institutions around the globe (PinnacleCare doesn't provide medical services. There are no financial arrangements between the firm and the doctors or institutions). According to the company's chairman, Bruce Spector, membership jumped 60% last year to more than 2,300 individuals.

PinnacleCare was founded five years ago by John Hutchins, the creator of the international VIP patient programs at Johns Hopkins and Cleveland Clinic hospitals. Most clients are referred to the company by boutique wealth- management firms or by family offices, which are small companies built solely to manage the fortunes of super-rich families.

Betsy Akers, director of Somet, an Atlanta company that caters to the daily health-care and lifestyle needs of families with aging parents, says the firm plans shortly to open offices in Greenwich, Conn.; Manhattan; and Naples and Palm Beach, Fla., in response to growing demand nationwide. Somet, which began operating in Atlanta around a year ago, receives most of its clients through referrals from the trust and estate departments of law firms as well as wealth managers. Akers began her career on Wall Street in international corporate finance.

Helping the wealthy look after their health needs is the latest example of how financial advisors are seeking to become involved in their clients' lives in ways that go beyond just managing their financial investments, experts say. Advisors already are counseling families on philanthropy, educating their children about money and providing personal security in a bid to woo clients in a crowded marketplace. In addition, as clients age, providing services that engage the entire family is an important means of building loyalty among future generations.

"It's one more tool in their toolbox," says Somet's Akers.

According to Akers, one of the biggest stress factors in the life of adult children is caring for aging parents. Often family members feel guilty because they are too busy looking after their children or running the family business to be there for their parents 24 hours a day. Families are also becoming more geographically dispersed, making it harder for children to check up on their parents, who often wish to stay in their own homes. Somet's services range from providing around-the-clock private nursing care, to making sure clients take their medicines, to keeping them socially active by taking them out to lunch. Employees are briefed on clients' medical histories.

"The chauffeur needs to know if you've had heart bypass surgery. If you are sweating in the back of the limo, then you might need to go to the hospital rather than the club for lunch," says Akers.

Lydian's Lockshin, meanwhile, says the ability to offer access to informed medical referrals anywhere in the world is likely to be of value to his clients because they tend to travel frequently and have multiple homes in the U.S. and overseas. While wealthy families are well connected and often have links to local medical institutions, their contacts are unlikely to stretch around the globe, he says.

Advisors at Northern Trust Corp. (NTRS) are also connecting clients with PinnacleCare. Steve Appell, director of sales and marketing for Northern Trust Wealth Management Group, says the company has helped it educate advisors and their clients about various health matters. For example, a recent seminar focused on the travel risks associated with bird flu.

Northern Trust provides wealth management and advisory services to rich individuals, families and family offices, including more than a fifth of the people listed in Forbes magazine's 400 Richest Americans.

Membership fees vary substantially depending on the services offered. Annual memberships at Somet start at $25,000 for 200 hours of service, including access to a registered nurse. PinnacleCare, meanwhile, has seven types of membership. These include programs focused on promoting wellness to intense advocacy and coordination for clients who have been given a critical diagnosis. Annual family memberships cost from $2,500 to upwards of $50,000 for the most complicated cases. Clients also pay a one-time set-up fee. PinnacleCare doesn't provide clinical services; it facilitates access to institutions. Members settle their own medical bills.

Scott Holcomb, the spokesman for Johns Hopkins Medicine International, estimates the hospital receives a couple of hundred patient referrals from advocacy companies each year, a small number compared to the thousands of patients who pass through the institution's doors each year.

He says the hospital doesn't give preferential treatment to patients who are referred by advocates (i.e., a patient can't bump another patient with the same medical need down the list.) However, because of their connections and familiarity with how medical institutions work, advocates are likely to be able to pinpoint the most appropriate doctor and make appointments more rapidly than would usually be the case through the admissions office.

"Regardless of the patient's socio-economic status, it is very important to Johns Hopkins to treat people as quickly as possible with the most appropriate treatment," says Holcomb.

(Victoria Knight writes about business issues facing financial advisors.)

-By Victoria Knight, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-5293; victoria.knight@dowjones.com