Happy 2019 from myLifeSite! We hope your holiday season has been filled with love, laughter, and fond memories. As we begin this new year, let’s take a moment to look back at the five myLifeSite blog posts that received the most views in 2018.

#5: A Closer Look: Examining the CCRC Market in the U.S.

When considering a continuing care retirement community (CCRC, or life plan community), it is useful for prospective residents to gain an understanding of the CCRC market in general. At myLifeSite, we get a lot of great questions around this topic: Who are the largest CCRC players? What’s the split between for-profit and non-profit CCRCs? What geographic region has the most CCRCs? Are most CCRCs a single site or owned by a multi-location conglomerate? This post can help shed some light on these and several other questions that CCRC prospects often have.

#4: Why Every Retiree Should Consider a Retirement Community

There are certain adages I distinctly recall my mother saying when I was a child. Among her repertoire of time-tested axioms: “Don’t judge a book by its cover,” “Things are not always what they seem,” plus, of course, “You won’t know until you try.” (And yes, in a karmic twist, I now say these exact same things to my own children.)

Clichés are repeated again and again because most often, they are true. And it just so happens that these three sayings don’t just apply to the important lessons of childhood — many adults would do well to adhere to these proverbs as they go through life. In fact, it struck me that seniors who are considering their various senior living options may want to keep these very adages in mind as they ponder the possibility of moving to a retirement community, such as a CCRC.

#3: Number-Crunching: A Look at Differing CCRC Pricing Sheets

Understanding CCRC contract types conceptually and actually knowing what you are looking at when you read over a particular CCRC’s pricing sheet are two very different things. A large source of the potential confusion is the fact that there is no consistent, industry-wide standard for how to show pricing. This isn’t surprising since, unfortunately, there isn’t a uniform protocol for much of anything in the CCRC industry! This can make it exceedingly difficult for the consumer (potential CCRC residents) to do an apples-to-apples comparison between two communities’ contracts and pricing.

I decided to randomly pull the pricing information for three different CCRCs. In this post, you will find an overview of how the pricing information is reported (and the differing formats that communities use for their pricing), in order to help you more effectively research and compare your CCRC options.

#2: A Guide to Understanding Annuities

Prior to founding myLifeSite, I spent 14 years as a financial planner, and I still enjoy educating people on retirement-related financial matters, so occasionally I get asked about annuities.

Annuities are actually insurance contracts, issued by insurance companies, even though they do not work exactly like traditional types of insurance. Whereas life insurance pays out in the event of death, annuities pay out during life. There are many different types of annuities, so it is understandable that this topic is a source of confusion for a lot of people. This post clarifies the basic differences between the types of annuities.

And the most-read blog post we wrote in 2018 was….

#1: The Pros & Cons of 55+ Active Adult Communities

As you are exploring your senior living options, you may have looked at what is referred to as an “active adult community.” These are 55 and over “age-restricted” or “age-qualified” communities, typically meaning that someone in the residence must be at least 55 years old.

As the Baby Boomers reach retirement age, active adult communities are becoming more and more popular in the U.S., but it is important to weigh the pros and cons of your various senior living choices. Of course the advantages and disadvantages of any decision are in the eye of the beholder, but for active adult communities, this blog post highlights a few key points you may want to consider

Senior living blog posts you can use!

Each week, myLifeSite posts new blog entries on topics that are important to seniors. We invite you to visit our main blog page where you can see recent posts, sign up to receive notification when a new blog post is added, or search previous posts for information that is of interest to you. Or if you are researching CCRCs, be sure to check out our online community search tool.

FREE Detailed Profile Reports on CCRCs/Life Plan Communities
Search Communities