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Residents, advocates urge state limits and safeguards on CCRC entrance-fee refunds
Summary
At a Massachusetts commission hearing, residents and advocates detailed long waits and financial harm tied to entrance‑fee refund policies and urged statutory limits, escrow or endowment protections, and annual solvency reporting for continuing care retirement communities (CCRCs).
Residents of continuing care retirement communities and consumer advocates told the Special Commission on Continuing Care Retirement Communities on June 9 that entrance‑fee refund practices can leave former residents without timely access to life savings and asked the legislature to set firm limits and financial safeguards.
Ivy Cooley, who testified she is the primary caregiver for her 80‑plus‑year‑old mother, said the family was owed $170,000 after her mother moved from independent living to an assisted‑living memory care unit and that “it took 18 months for her unit to be rerented.” Cooley said that the facility’s refund policy — which requires re‑rental of the same specific apartment before a refund is triggered — “discriminates against less affluent residents” whose units are less desirable and can mean long delays in getting funds returned.
Cooley urged multiple protections:…
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