Should we take a placeholder CCRC home?

[lem1955]

My spouse is 76. I am 67. We do not have long term care insurance. We have decided to move to a CCRC but not immediately. We have been thinking 2025 or 2026. Our estate planner is encouraging us to take a smaller placeholder unit at the CCRC in order to secure the long-term care benefits sooner rather than later. We have the money to do so but we are not fat-FIRE. It could put a crimp in our plans to travel over the next few years. On the other hand - the CCRC is close to the airport, major hospital, theater, restaurants, on paved road (as opposed to our dirt -mud in spring-road). We would get to know the community which could make the transition easier. We are both in good health now, but the future is not guaranteed. For $ comparison: The unit would cost about $255K w/monthly fees of ~$6,400. Our estate planner says if one of us ended up in a nursing home for years, we would have to pay $1.5M before his medicaid planning provisions kick in. Have any of you made the decision to maintain two homes in order to lock in long-term care? What would you do?

 

[ncbill]

Check their refund policy...my grandparents went through two prior CCRCs and a small house in-between before settling on the CCRC where grandfather and grandmother spent the rest (10 and 20 years respectively) of their lives.

In other words, your first choices may well not be your last.

 

[MrsHaloFIRE]

I would do the math on the prices of maintining current home plus small ccrc. Then compare to a perhaps just a larger ccrc. If youre going to be on the hook anyway for the fees regardless of unit size, you respect your planner's opinion, you dont have FATfire budget, might lean towards going ahead and moving. At those ages health can pivot on a dime. Miss a step on vacation and your world changes due to escalating medical intervention. I would prob move into a larger unit, sell current house, and travel like a beast. Depending on math.

 

[pb4uski]

WADR, this sounds like a solution in search of a problem to me.

If and when the time comes, your retirement income and $1.5m can cover off a lot of assisted living, in-home or nursing home care in your area.

I would pass on it unless your need for a CCRC is near term.

 

[Bamaman]

My spouse is 76. I am 67. We do not have long term care insurance. We have decided to move to a CCRC but not immediately. We have been thinking 2025 or 2026. Our estate planner is encouraging us to take a smaller placeholder unit at the CCRC in order to secure the long-term care. The unit would cost about $255K w/monthly fees of ~$6,400. Our estate planner says if one of us ended up in a nursing home for years, we would have to pay $1.5M before his medicaid planning provisions kick in. Have any of you made the decision to maintain two homes in order to lock in long-term care? What would you do?

You must live in a HCOL place. We put my mother in a CCRC for $170,000 "deposit", and it was $2,050 a month including 20 meals monthly. Very swanky place with a Dutch chef. After her death, we got back 90% of the $170K deposit. She had to have 24/7 help to watch over her, and she really didn't have the resources to live there over a long, long period of time.

CCRC's are fine for those with deep pocketbooks, as many of them are truly luxury properties. Most of the other residents were "country club" types. My mother would have been just as happy in a regular $2K per month assisted living apartment as she was very social. She was down to her last $5K when she did pass on, and God knew when it was her time.

Few people that are financially substantial ever get to the point to where Medicaid has to pay for full nursing home care. The average person that goes into nursing homes doesn't live but a year or two.

 

[audreyh1]

Don’t you need to be on a waiting list? 2025 is not far away and your spouse is quite a bit older.

Living at a CCRC doesn’t keep you from traveling like mad as long as you can. In fact it makes it easier.

 

[harllee]

My spouse is 76. I am 67. We do not have long term care insurance. We have decided to move to a CCRC but not immediately. We have been thinking 2025 or 2026. Our estate planner is encouraging us to take a smaller placeholder unit at the CCRC in order to secure the long-term care benefits sooner rather than later. We have the money to do so but we are not fat-FIRE. It could put a crimp in our plans to travel over the next few years. On the other hand - the CCRC is close to the airport, major hospital, theater, restaurants, on paved road (as opposed to our dirt -mud in spring-road). We would get to know the community which could make the transition easier. We are both in good health now, but the future is not guaranteed. For $ comparison: The unit would cost about $255K w/monthly fees of ~$6,400. Our estate planner says if one of us ended up in a nursing home for years, we would have to pay $1.5M before his medicaid planning provisions kick in. Have any of you made the decision to maintain two homes in order to lock in long-term care? What would you do?

DH and I are both early 70s. We plan to move into a CCRC in the next year or so. Our place will cost more than yours on the front end for a 2 bedroom apartment, a little less per month. What type of CCRC is it? Our CCRC is a Type A life care which means our monthly fees do not go up just because we move into assisted living, skilled nursing or memory care. Our place has a 10 year waiting list. There are several reasons we want to go ahead and move there--one is because we have friends there and another reason is that we want to be able to do all the activities. The main reason we want to move now is that you have to pass a mental and physical test to get in and we are concerned that if we wait too long we will not qualify. We know several people who could not get in the place because of health issues.

 

[lem1955]

Thanks, all. Yes, the CCRC we are planning on is a type A facility. Compared with some states we know the cost is high. But it is comparable to other places we have looked at in neighboring states and we are too invested in our community to move to a place where the politics and attitudes would be very different than where we live now. Between the further slide of the stock market and your advice, we've decided to pass on this idea. We are already on the list of depositors but not quite ready to jump to the waiting list. We will probably move up our timeline if we do anything at all.

 

[harllee]

Thanks, all. Yes, the CCRC we are planning on is a type A facility. Compared with some states we know the cost is high. But it is comparable to other places we have looked at in neighboring states and we are too invested in our community to move to a place where the politics and attitudes would be very different than where we live now. Between the further slide of the stock market and your advice, we've decided to pass on this idea. We are already on the list of depositors but not quite ready to jump to the waiting list. We will probably move up our timeline if we do anything at all.

Just keep an eye on your physical/mental health issues and don't wait too long. Is your CCRC strict about admission requirements regarding health? The place we are going in is very strict in that regard. Any sign of dementia and you can't get in. MS, Parkinsons, you can't get in. Any type of cancer (other than minor skin cancer) disqualifies you until you have 5 year remission. The CCRC can be very picky on admissions because it has a 10 year waiting list.