Senior Housing and Assisted Living

It’s difficult to watch ourselves age. It’s also difficult to watch our parents age. It’s even more difficult when it comes to figuring out how to help them when the time comes. This type of help can be anything from some financial assistance, a few trips to the doctor’s office, or helping them find a long term care facility they – or you – can afford. Perhaps you and your parents should have considered buying some long term care insurance years ago. But what is long term care insurance?

In short, it’s probably one of the best investments you can make at any age. Of course, the younger you are when you buy it, the lower your premiums. But what 30 year old seriously considers his old age and associated health problems while he’s young and healthy? Not many!

The longer we wait, however, the more expensive it gets, and the fewer options we can have on the policy itself. Finally, when the need arises, we can’t do much about it. Most insurance carriers have policies that get pretty prohibitive when it comes to buying coverage after a certain age.

Long term care is probably one of the most affordable types of insurance when you think about what you pay vs. What you get. Policies range from basic care for less a year, to a permanent facility.

Policies differ, as with all sorts of insurance, and you can pick and choose options according to what you can afford or according to what you believe you might need. For instance, if Alzheimer’s runs in your family, you may want to get a plan that supports the in depth level of specialized care these patients need. If everyone in your family lives till 105 and drops dead on the golf course, you may decide to purchase a lesser type of coverage.

Depending on the insurance company will depend of course on your policy now, and what type of add ons and options you are able to buy at later dates. For instance, if your 62 year old husband is in a head on collision and you find that he will need extensive long term care, you may or may not be able to increase your policy to suit the current situation.

These types of policies can provide an incredible amount of financial help when the time comes. With long term facilities averaging over $500 a day, not many regular insurance plans will cover these for more than a few weeks – no matter what.

Before you go out and buy a policy go to Long Term Care Insurance, ask questions and request a long term care insurance quote. We represent 20 of the top LTCi providers. This gives you tremendous options.

As a number of us approach middle age, one sees our parents are rapidly approaching retirement years. Some need our help, others don’t. For adult children who do are in a position where they must provide some sort of emotional, physical and/or financial support for one or both parents, it is probably way past the point where their parents would be able to even consider purchasing what is called Long Term Care products. For those who like to be proactive, however, you might be wondering exactly what is long term care insurance, and how do we get it?

Long term care insurance is an excellent investment, no matter what age you are when you buy your policy. Unfortunately, too many of us ignore the fact that we are going to get old someday, and we put off anything to do with forcing us to deal with our own mortality. Until it’s almost too late.

The longer we wait, however, the more expensive it gets, and the fewer options we can have on the policy itself. Finally, when the need arises, we can’t do much about it. Most insurance carriers have policies that get pretty prohibitive when it comes to buying coverage after a certain age.

However, dollar for dollar, long term care insurance is one of the most affordable insurances on the market in terms of what you get for your money. This type of insurance provides exactly what it promises – funds to pay for long term care – whether in a medical facility such as a nursing home, or even at home.

The policies can be customized to your needs, or at least, what you think these needs might be. Even though it’s impossible to tell the future, you can always get a good idea of what you should add to these policies simply by understanding your family’s medical history. If your family has a history of coronary heart disease in their 50s, you should seriously consider the best possible coverage if at all possible. In reality, you can’t afford not to.

Deciding on the type of coverage you want might take into consideration your family history. Someone whose family suffers from heart attacks and strokes might select a more in depth type of coverage than someone whose family members tend to live well into their 90s without major health issues.

In the end, you’ll be glad to have this type of coverage whether it’s for your parents, or for yourself.

Before you go out and buy a policy get more info on insurance for long term care, ask questions and request a long term care insurance quote. We represent 20 of the top LTCi providers. This gives you tremendous options.

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Province by Meritage Homes, celebrated its grand opening last week in Maricopa, Arizona.  The master-planned active adult community located just outside of Phoenix was voted the best active adult community in the U.S. in 2006 by the National Association of Home Builders.  Province designated over 30 percent of the land as parks and open space and includes approximately 50 acres of lakes, 125 acres of parks and greenbelts and a completed clubhouse of more than 30,000 square feet.

The homes, priced in the mid-100s, offers  nine unique floorplans and four models.  Province is also a part of Meritage Homes’ 99-Day Guarantee program, promising buyers a new home built in 99 days.

“We are proud to add Province to our portfolio of active adult communities,” said Jeff Grobstein, Meritage Homes’ regional president. “Province has an unbelievable presence coupled with great views and a very robust social infrastructure.  We will be offering exceptional values to customers with homes starting from the mid-$100s.  We are very excited about the grand opening and can’t wait to unveil Province by Meritage Homes Active Adult Living to the public.”

Will senior and baby boomer homeowners choose to remodel in 2010 rather than making a move?  A recently released report by the Remodeling Futures Program at the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University shows that homeowner improvement spending is likely to reach a cyclical bottom in the current quarter and steadily increase through 2010 according to the Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity (LIRA).  The LIRA projects annual declines in home improvement spending will ease from the current rate of 12.0 percent to 3.1 percent in the third quarter of 2010.

“It appears we may be near the bottom of the current remodeling cycle,” says Nicolas P. Retsinas, director of the Joint Center for Housing Studies. “With signs of stabilization in the national economy, homeowners are once again planning home improvement projects.”

Share your personnel moves with the world of consumers and professionals in senior living and senior care.  Submit senior living job changes and appointments for your 2010 staff announcements to movers-shakers@seniorhousingnews.com.  Looking to advertise positions for new & future movers and shakers?  Check out our Senior Housing Jobs section for more information.

Life Care Services Executive Assumes National Leadership Role

At the start of 2010, Ed Kenny, President and CEO of Life Care Services LLC, officially assumed the role of Board Chair for the American Seniors Housing Association (ASHA) Board of Directors. 

In January 2008, Kenny was first appointed to a two-year term as Vice Chair of ASHA.  With the completion of these leadership duties, he now assumes the role of Board Chair, which will also be a two-year term ending in 2012. 

A 30-year veteran of Life Care Services and the senior living services field, Kenny also serves on the boards of directors for Children and Families of Iowa and Hoyt Sherman Place in Des Moines, and is also an appointed member of the National Investment Center (NIC) Operator Advisory Board.

Lombardi Joins West Living

Tom Lombardi recently joined West Living, a investor and developer in Carlsbad, CA.  Prior to joining West Living, Tom was on the investment team at West Partners, the private equity firm that founded West Living.  Tom spearheaded West Living’s two most recent acquisitions of McDowell Village in Scottsdale, AZ and Castle Hill Retirement Community in Thousand Oaks, CA. The Company is currently developing two senior communities in Carlsbad and La Quinta, California, both slated to open in 2013.

Tom’s career in real estate capital markets began at Bank of America, most recently in the Global Corporate Investment Bank covering homebuilders, REITs and private equity clients. Prior to that, he was an Assistant Vice President of quantitative finance and portfolio analytics. Tom received a B.S. in Finance from the College of Charleston and an M.B.A. with a concentration in Finance from the Graziadio School of Business & Management at Pepperdine University.

Isle at Watermere Names Jamie Bryant Director of Marketing

Isle at Watermere, Southlake – recently named Jamie Bryant director of marketing. Originally from Tazewell, Virginia, Jamie comes to Isle at Watermere with a background in senior living.  Bryant began her career in senior living in 2005 as co-manager of South Colleyvine Ranch, an active senior retirement community in Grapevine, Texas.    In 2007, Bryant moved to Keller, Texas where she was the community relations director at Conservatory Senior Living retirement community.

“I am very excited to be part of the Isle at Watermere community,” said Jamie Bryant.  “Isle at Watermere is truly revolutionizing assisted living with our attention to specialized care and extensive amenities.”

Presbyterian Homes & Services’ future senior living development in Eden Prairie, has received a grant for $848,300 from Livable Communities of the Metropolitan Council of Minnesota. The grant is for design and engineering, street realignment and storm water management improvements. The 21-acre mixed-use residential, commercial and retail development includes 372 units that will offer a full range of living options, including senior independent living, assisted living and memory care apartments and a new skilled care center. A limited number of apartments will be affordable to income-qualified older adults. Senior Housing Partners, Presbyterian Homes & Services development arm, will develop the project that will also feature shopping, dining, office and recreation uses.

The Livable Communities Advisory Committee recommends projects for funding to the Metropolitan Council, the regional planning agency serving the Twin Cities seven-county metropolitan area and providing essential services to the region. For 2010, the committee approved $4 million in funding for eight projects in five communities around the region.

All of us need to come to the realization that we’re going to grow old one day, though what we think of as aging is probably far different than what it actually can be if we take care of ourselves. Truthfully, growing old doesn’t mean you have to ‘grow old’ and, as Germaine Greer observed; ‘You’re only young once, but you can be immature forever.’ That’s a good philosophy to have.

What that means is that we may only have a limited number of years on a calendar where we’re considered ‘young, ‘ but we have a lifetime to be as youthful as we want to be. We can go out and buy that really nice electric guitar we always wanted and learn how to play it even if we might be a southpaw, for example. Not to worry though a quality left handed electric guitar can always be had quite easily.

Essentially, doing things like what has been noted above can be a great way of keeping one’s youth around for far longer than we once thought possible. As long as we keep moving whenever possible and don’t come to a screeching halt and start sitting around growing old, we stand a good chance of making the body quit reminding us that we are aging at a certain rate.

What this means is that even though you might have a touch of leg arthritis, for example, there are certainly plenty of things that can be done to help deal with that result of some broken bone you may have gotten when you were younger. It might be, technically, an infirmity of age but it doesn’t have to be a condition that makes you even older.

If you’re experiencing achy joints, realize that there are also a myriad of ways to help deal with that, too. Head over to that big outlet department store and pick up a jumbo bottle of Kirkland glucosamine and start taking it every day. For sure, your joints are going to be much happier with you and you’re going to like being able to get out there and mix it up like in the days of old.

This doesn’t mean, also, that you will be the all-world athlete you once were in your youth, but the famous writer George Bernard Shaw said it best when he observed that we don’t stop playing because we get older, but that we get older because we stop playing. That’s a great philosophy of life to carry around with you whenever you’re out and about.

Never forget that you can do plenty of things to stay young that don’t require jumping out of a perfectly good airplane, for example. Getting up and moving around, learning to play a musical instrument and — most importantly — laughing as often as you can and with as much enthusiasm as you can can go a long way to keeping you young in ways that don’t have anything to do with actual age.

For more information on things like left handed electric guitar, visit Electric Guitar For Sale for more information.

Getting old is not fun. Many middle age adults tend to ignore the fact that they are indeed getting older, and as they contend with their own approaching mortality, they all too frequently find themselves face to face with their parents’ issues of advancing years. As these adults try to provide whatever assistance they can for mom and dad, they rue the day that they decided that long term care insurance just wasn’t worth looking into. But, what is long term care insurance?

In short, it’s probably one of the best investments you can make at any age. Of course, the younger you are when you buy it, the lower your premiums. But what 30 year old seriously considers his old age and associated health problems while he’s young and healthy? Not many!

As we put off buying the insurance, the premiums increase and finally, for too many of us, we learn the hard way that we will be needing some type of long term care and we either find that we have huge deductibles because we’ll need to use our regular health insurance, or worse, we find out we have to pay for everything out of pocket.

Long term care is probably one of the most affordable types of insurance when you think about what you pay vs. What you get. Policies range from basic care for less a year, to a permanent facility.

Policies differ, as with all sorts of insurance, and you can pick and choose options according to what you can afford or according to what you believe you might need. For instance, if Alzheimer’s runs in your family, you may want to get a plan that supports the in depth level of specialized care these patients need. If everyone in your family lives till 105 and drops dead on the golf course, you may decide to purchase a lesser type of coverage.

Depending on the insurance company will depend of course on your policy now, and what type of add ons and options you are able to buy at later dates. For instance, if your 62 year old husband is in a head on collision and you find that he will need extensive long term care, you may or may not be able to increase your policy to suit the current situation.

When the occasion comes, a long term coverage policy can provide a tremendous amount of financial help along with the peace of mind you as well as rest of your family will need in order to get through the current health crisis at hand. Typically, additional out of pocket expenses are minimal, or nothing at all.

Before you go out and buy a policy go to Long Term Care Insurance, ask questions and request a long term care insurance quote. We represent 20 of the top LTCi providers. This gives you tremendous options.

It’s difficult to watch ourselves age. It’s also difficult to watch our parents age. It’s even more difficult when it comes to figuring out how to help them when the time comes. This type of help can be anything from some financial assistance, a few trips to the doctor’s office, or helping them find a long term care facility they – or you – can afford. Perhaps you and your parents should have considered buying some long term care insurance years ago. But what is long term care insurance?

Long term care insurance is an excellent investment, no matter what age you are when you buy your policy. Unfortunately, too many of us ignore the fact that we are going to get old someday, and we put off anything to do with forcing us to deal with our own mortality. Until it’s almost too late.

The longer we wait, however, the more expensive it gets, and the fewer options we can have on the policy itself. Finally, when the need arises, we can’t do much about it. Most insurance carriers have policies that get pretty prohibitive when it comes to buying coverage after a certain age.

This type of insurance, in actuality, is one of the most reasonably priced types of coverage when it comes to costs vs. Benefits. A policy purchased in your forties, for example, with standard coverage such as nursing homes and rehab (or hospice), will probably be less expensive than your car insurance!

Policies differ, as with all sorts of insurance, and you can pick and choose options according to what you can afford or according to what you believe you might need. For instance, if Alzheimer’s runs in your family, you may want to get a plan that supports the in depth level of specialized care these patients need. If everyone in your family lives till 105 and drops dead on the golf course, you may decide to purchase a lesser type of coverage.

Deciding on the type of coverage you want might take into consideration your family history. Someone whose family suffers from heart attacks and strokes might select a more in depth type of coverage than someone whose family members tend to live well into their 90s without major health issues.

When the instance comes, a long term coverage policy can provide a tremendous amount of financial help along with the peace of mind you and the rest of your family will need in order to get through the current health crisis at hand. Typically, additional out of pocket expenses are minimal, or nothing at all.

Before you go out and buy a policy go to Long Term Care Insurance, ask questions and request a long term care insurance quote. We represent 20 of the top LTCi providers. This gives you tremendous options.