Three years ago, Bob and Sandy Curtis moved into an upscale continuing care retirement community in Port Washington, N.Y., where they believed they had found the best elder care solution.
In exchange for a steep entrance fee of about $840,000, funded by the sale of their Long Island house, they would receive care for the rest of their lives at Harborside. They choose a contract that set stable monthly fees at around $6,000 for both of them and would refund half the entrance fee to their estate after their deaths.
“This was the final chapter,” Mr. Curtis, 88, said. “That was the deal I made.”
C.C.R.C.s, or life plan communities, offer levels of increasing care on one campus, from independent and assisted living to nursing homes and memory care, and are primarily nonprofit.
LeadingAge reports that there are over 1,900 C.C.R.C.s accommodating approximately 900,000 Americans. Different communities offer various levels of refunds, operate as rentals without buy-in fees, or function as hybrids.