Family matters: The missing link in retirement village decisions

Over the course of this past week, the national broadcaster has released a series of stories which paint a bleak picture of living in a retirement village.

For some of us, this has not been our first rodeo.

I don’t say this as a badge of honour, but rather to paint a picture that the sector has seen attention like this before – and have come out stronger for it.

Over the past 8 years we have seen sweeping reforms across the country in each state and territory to strengthen the consumer protection that is in place via the Retirement Villages Act, and Regulations. Only Victoria is to finalise their review.

Among the reforms has been requirements for greater levels of levels of disclosure, as well as to simplify contracts – with work still to be done on the latter.

Interestingly, the disclosure is with the resident entering into a contract with the operator – the family are rarely involved. More on this in a moment.

The sector has always positioned itself as a lifestyle choice, not an investment. We know this, we live this in our roles each and every day welcoming that next someone who has chosen to rightsized from the family home into a purpose built community with folk of similar age, and interests.

The broadcaster failed to mention that operators encourage all incoming residents to seek legal advice. After more than two decades in the sector, I have never known a salesperson to discourage this course of action.

Now, back to the family.

At our recent professional development days held across the country, we spoke about the concept that ‘everyone works in sales’. The conversations were excellent with more than 500 professionals joining us across the country.

One of the key take aways from all of the sales presenters was to include the family before any decision is made with delegates sharing stories of how the family don’t know what their parent agreed to, until they are exiting the village. This is too late.

Some residents embrace involving their family, others reject it as “they are independent” – their money, their choice.

Low hanging fruit is to offer every resident a contract check up. It’s a bit of administration, and can save a difficult conversation in the years head.

Take aways

That is two clear take aways as I see it.

• Encourage, encourage, encourage legal advice (maybe even offer to pay for it.)
• Involve the family.

Yes, there are more than two, which we will touch on later. For now, this is a good start.