Finding Financial Aid for the Move to Senior Living

What does a family do when faced with having to pay for a senior loved one to move into a senior care community? Emily Schwarz with ElderLife Financial joins Suzanne to talk about solving this financial conundrum, courtesy of MorningStar Senior Living. "A family might have a home to sell, maybe they're eligible for VA benefits, maybe they have a long-term-care insurance policy. They have ways to pay for the community of their choice, but they don't have the funds available today. What ElderLife does, when a family contacts us, is provide a free consultation and review everything that might be available to that senior, kind of like a financial aid office at a college or university, and will help them with resources to pay for the community that they want and need. "ElderLife Financial is a one-stop shop to help families understand their financial resources to pay for senior living. They speak with a financial concierge who will work with them from start to finish. And they go through a whole menu of things that a family could use to pay for their community. Selling a home, VA benefits, taking the maximum advantage of their long-term-care insurance policy. Maybe it's a reverse mortgage of one part of the couple's remaining at home, selling a life insurance policy, if they're gonna lapse it. And we also educate about tax deductions, and personal loans. So there are ways to pay for senior living that maybe the family's never thought of. "We help them with a loan that helps bridge the gap from the time the senior needs the care to the time the senior can afford the care. The Outer Life Bridge loan will actually allow the family to include moving expenses, perform home repairs, staging, whatever you need. We can provide those funds directly to family, and then we can also add in the initial senior living community fee. All of that can get rolled into the bridge loan, and then you don't have to ask a family member for that loan. When the home sells, you use the proceeds to pay off the loan, without having all those difficult family conversations." Suzanne describes the situation she had faced with her mom, who had to sell her house to pay for senior care, and having to go to a family member for a personal loan on her behalf to pay to get the house ready to sell, which was paid back from the proceeds of the house sale. Emily explains, "In your family situation, what we could have done is, we would have talked with your mom and we would have talked with you, and we would have established a line of credit for that, essentially a life bridge loan. We would have provided the money that she needed for however long it took to sell the home. We could provide the money that she needed to pay for the community, to bridge the gap between her social security and the cost of the community." Hear much more on today's podcast. For further information, call their financial concierge family line at 888-228-4500 or visit ElderLife Financial's website. Courtesy of MorningStar Senior Living. Lead image © Can Stock Photo / dolgachovSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.