We know that senior living can be costly. But, when you consider how a lot of current expenses will no longer be needed, it can seem a lot less discouraging. When determining if senior living is financially feasible, it’s important to understand their current expenses as well as their financial resources.

In most cases, the cost of utilities, meals, transportation, and social gatherings is included in the cost of assisted living communities.

The following list are the ways we see used most often to pay for care needs and senior living expenses for our clients:

Income and Savings

Probably the most direct and no nonsense way of paying for independent or assisted living is by using your loved one’s income and savings. These can come from retirement income or pension funds as monthly income, or could include investments such as savings, IRAs, stocks, bonds or other various investments they may have.

Family Support

Perhaps the easiest option, outside of self pay directly from your loved one’s income and savings, would be to pool family support. However, this isn’t always an option and it differs from family to family.

Long-term Care Insurance

It depends on the individual policy, but most long-term care insurances will cover care associated with assisted living expenses. We have been able to get most client’s assisted living costs covered if they do have a long-term care policy.

If your loved one does not already have a long-term care policy in place, and you’re currently looking for their care, it’s likely to late or cost prohibitive at this point to be a viable option. However, it may be a good idea to look into for yourself or your spouse so your family isn’t faced with the same situation in the future.

VA Aid and Attendance Benefits

The VA (Department of Veterans Affairs) has assistance programs in place that can help pay for care for veterans, or their spouses, as long as they served one day of active duty during wartime. It’s not necessary that they saw actual combat, but that they were active during certain time frames that the government considers wartime. Read more about VA Benefits on our Aid and Attendance page.

Home Equity

While some don’t want to go the route of placing the family home on the market, many seniors sell their home and use the equity they’ve accumulated to pay for care in their later years. If you need emergency placement, and you don’t have the time to wait on the sale of a home, you can utilize a bridge loan until the home is sold.

If you and your family decide not to sell the home, but still need the money, you can utilize a Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC) to fund your loved one’s care and pay it back over time.

Life Insurance

Using a life settlement, you can sell some life insurance policies to a third party for market value, and use those proceeds to fund long term care. The third party will then collect the benefit upon the policy holder’s death. Some policies are able to be cashed out early for a cash value or surrender value with the insurance company.

Renting Home

If your family is not ready or willing to sell your loved one’s home, you can always explore the option of renting it to directly fund assisted living or long term care costs.

Medicaid

Medicaid is as state-funded program to provide financial assistance to seniors who need help paying for personal care. The benefit in Florida usually will not cover all of the expenses for assisted living and severely limits your options. Read more in Harmony’s Assisted Living Medicaid Guide.