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Retirement Living Solutions offers independent advice about the options available to you when determining your housing needs in retirement. We have a particular expertise in helping you to understand the financial implications associated with retirement village living. The choices in housing that you may be considering will invariably have different cost implications. Our aim is to help you work through the range of alternative options to arrive at the best solution for your lifestyle needs and financial situation. It is vital that you and/or your carers receive reliable and up-to-date information that enables you to make an informed choice. Making the wrong decision may have a significant impact on your future quality of life. |
Retirement village living has many benefits to offer. However, you shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that retirement villages are businesses and as such, one of their key motivations is to maximise profit for their shareholders.
Before making a decision to move into retirement housing it is important to consider your preferred lifestyle and identify the reasons you have for moving. It is equally important to understand the available options in order to make an informed decision.
Contact Retirement Living Solutions and we can help you make the right decision.
Retirement Living Solutions will analyse your financial and lifestyle objectives and provide written recommendations that will evaluate a range of options to secure your optimal accommodation needs.
Retirement Living Solutions uses a structured planning process, which involves 4 key steps that ensure you receive advice relevant to your individual needs and goals. These steps are:-
To make appropriate recommendations on your future housing needs, Retirement Living Solutions will work with you to understand your present living arrangements, your future needs, and the type of accommodation that will meet these needs. This will include details of such things as the type of housing you are after, your financial status (income, savings, current investments &c.) and the cost of living requirements.
An integral part of the planning process is the identification of your goals and objectives and how you value the following lifestyle factors related to your future housing needs:
Retirement Living Solutions will help you to examine in detail the range of housing options that you may be considering. For example, you may be looking at how the purchase of an Independent Living Unit may compare with a Resident Funded Serviced Apartment. Or perhaps you may be considering staying in your current home and getting additional support. We will help you to understand all of the factors that need to be considered before making a decision.
Having identified the range of possible options, Retirement Living Solutions will help you to evaluate and then determine the best housing option for you, taking into consideration the relative importance of your stated lifestyle values.
The range of considered options for your future living arrangements will be presented as an “Advisory Report” that provides clearly identified recommendations relating to your goals and objectives.
Retirement Living Solutions is happy to provide you with any ongoing advice should you need it.
Laura and Bill are a couple in their early eighties who have lived in their home in Adelaide’s leafy eastern suburbs for nearly 40 years.
Over the last 10 years, Laura’s husband Bill has suffered from heart disease. 5 year’s ago, Bill had a coronary bypass operation, however his health has deteriorated to the point that he cannot even do simple physical tasks without enduring discomfort or severe fatigue.
Laura has a real desire to remain independent, and she knows that Bill does as well. Whilst Bill’s physical health has deteriorated, he still retains his wicked sense of humor and his enjoyment of the company of others. But Laura is unsure how she would manage if it gets harder for her to look after Bill and herself. She often wonders what will happen if she can no longer do the cleaning, cooking and shopping or if she gets sick or frail. Laura is not sure what type of help, housing or accommodation might be available, or what information there might be about their options.
She and Bill have visited a couple of nearby retirement villages, but she found the whole experience quite confusing, particularly when it came to understanding all of the documents and information they received. In particular, they found the financial aspects of moving into a retirement village very complex and difficult to understand. Many questions still remain unanswered in her mind, such as, if the residence in which they are interested has not been built yet, is the price fixed, regardless of when the building commences? How much will they have to pay in ongoing charges, and what other charges might be imposed? Or if she and Bill moved in, will she still be able to afford to live there if Bill passed on?
They wondered where they could go to get honest and independent advice on the complex range of options they were confronted with. Retirement Living Solutions is able to help people like Laura and Bill make the best decision to suit their circumstances.
It is important when you are making decisions about your future housing needs that you obtain balanced and independent advice about the options that are available to you. Advice that is also presented in a clear and understandable way.
The choice that you make may have a significant impact on your future quality of life. For this reason, it is vital that your decision is based on a careful and well considered assessment of all relevant issues.
There is considerable diversity in the way that retirement villages manage their affairs. They are not a simple, unified product, but operate under a wide range of legal structures. As a potential resident, you will be confronted with a complex array of occupancy agreements. For most people, these documents are not easy to understand, and it is highly advisable that you seek professional advice to assist you with making the right decision.
Retirement Living Solutions offers you a service that is completely impartial and independent of any commercial influence. Advice you can trust.
“With so many different kinds of contracts for retirement villages around at the moment, it’s hard to know where you begin shopping for retirement. It’s very difficult at the moment for people to be able to make those comparisons and its (the) lack of transparency which has produced a high level of distrust and anxiety about retirement villages. Some of the people I’ve been interviewing say, well, they went into the retirement village with a layer of promises about what the maintenance costs might be, what the range of services provided, they were going to get hot meals and now they don’t.” ABC Radio National – Background Briefing, 16th April 2006 |