Death and taxes are inevitable -- therefore funeral directors and accountants prosper. Aging happens. When it does, seniors often need help downsizing and relocating.

Traditionally, a daughter tends to the details.

Working daughters, scattered sons, shattered nuclear families leave many seniors overwhelmed.

Businesses that fulfill a need succeed.

Entrepreneur meets humanitarian in Beverly Swenor, an active, fit great-grandmother who, with partner Susan Key, operates Senior's Relocation Service.

They are the "daughters" -- with one trade-off: Payment is rendered but family dynamics do not hinder the process.

Swenor is trained in sales and marketing, not social services. But she is a caring person who enjoys helping others. And her husband is in the moving business. And her partner's husband owns a cleaning service.

And, as Swenor noticed, the Sandhills has many retirees and at least nine retirement living facilities.

"Many of our residents come from other places," says Elizabeth Ragsdale, a spokesperson for Fox Hollow Senior Living, in Pinehurst. "Their families aren't here."

The stars were aligned.

Several years ago, Swenor got a call from her husband who was moving a senior. He needed help packing, and his customer needed a tag sale. Swenor and Key pitched in. They sorted, cleaned, arranged and priced the items. They advertised and staffed the sale.

Within a week clutter became cash. Swenor takes 25 percent but notes that proceeds are higher with a professional who recognizes value, is wary of "pickers" and "dealers" and will consult an appraiser when pricing antiques.

"It just came to me there might be other seniors in the area who need help packing and unpacking, with change of address (paperwork), arranging for TV and telephone hook-ups when they move into assisted living," she says.

Because people and circumstances drive the business, Swenor has a few rules. She will accompany a client to the bank but won't participate in transactions. She will complete a move from a beloved home to an assisted living apartment but will not take the responsibility of moving a confused client back into his or her home, which many seniors retain.

But she will arrange for tending its yard.

"Beverly listens to their needs and accommodates them," Ragsdale says. "She makes a friendship out of it."

And a one-stop business.

Swenor visits the house, assesses contents, discusses what should be taken and what disposed of, draws a floor plan of the new residence, measures furniture and places it accordingly. She composes a schedule, provides boxes, packs and unpacks, ferries belongings to Goodwill or resale shops, hangs pictures, hauls to the dump, and sets up a kitchen for about $20 per hour. If the client chooses, Swenor's husband will do the moving and Keys will clean up afterward better than any daughter.

The concept is far from original. The National Association of Senior Move Managers, founded in 2002, has affiliates nationwide, 13 in North Carolina -- several in the Raleigh-Apex area.

The caution, for a woman of Swenor's nature, is becoming too involved. She aims for a short-term personal relationship.

"People can become dependent," she says. "They cling to things. Ninety-five percent have a relative some-place who helps."

This can be good or bad, Swenor says.

"I've seen some sad cases with relatives," she says. "But it's not my place to step in. I'm just the facilitator."

Complications are to be expected.

"Beverly helped my elderly aunt move from her home into a senior residence several years ago," says Pinehurst resident Ann Cameron.

"We thought my aunt would be so happy."

When the arrangement didn't work out, Swenor moved belongings back into the house, which had not been sold.

"She put things back exactly where they were, even hanging the pictures in the right place," Cameron said.

Soon Cameron's aunt was admitted to a nursing home and Swenor moved the necessities there.

"This meant everything to someone who is in personal turmoil," Cameron said. "My aunt was a challenge, but Beverly is comfortable with seniors."

When the occasion arises, Swenor will participate in arranging an estate sale or disposing of a deceased person's belongings.

Occasionally, she turns down a job: houses that are "a dirty mess" or crammed with random stuff.

Otherwise, although a senior herself, Beverly Swenor is the perfect "daughter."

Contact Deborah Salomon at debsalomon@hotmail.com.