Broadcast Retirement Network’s Jeffrey Snyder discusses the evolution of senior living with De Arment Consulting’s Michele Holleran.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Joining me now is Dr. Michele Holloran of DeArmet Consulting. Dr. Holloran, so great to see you again. Thanks for joining us this morning.
Michele Holleran, DeArmet Consulting
Oh, it’s my pleasure. I enjoyed our last talk and looking forward to this one as well.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Yeah, last time for the audience, if you don’t recall, we talked to Dr. Holloran about some of the key senior living trends. Obviously, Dr. Holloran, senior living, aging, longevity, those are some of the buzzwords out there. I would imagine that there’s a big evolving industry around senior living today.
Michele Holleran, DeArmet Consulting
Oh, absolutely. There’s never been a more exciting time to be in this field. And the trends that we see out there are really encouraging.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
And a lot of us are, I mean, we’re all aging, but I think there’s some stat that I saw that the over age 65, which is really kind of where we’re focused today, is I think going to exceed the younger demographics in our country. So we’re definitely an aging society, and this is the case across the globe. Are we prepared today to handle this volume of retirees, people that are maybe aging in place or choosing to age in a community?
Michele Holleran, DeArmet Consulting
Yeah, it’s a great question. I think it’s a mixed answer. I think part of the challenge is the economics.
A lot of people in this age cohort that’s turning 65 have not saved enough for their retirement nest egg. And so that becomes a conundrum for them because sometimes they want to move, but economically it doesn’t look like a good possibility for them. And moving in with their kids is not attractive to either party sometimes.
And so I think from the economic perspective, there is a challenge there. By the same token, I do think that society is going to have to change the way they look at the way that we as a group need to look at aging. There’s a lot of great gifts and contributions that older folks can make.
And now it’s predicted that a very significant portion of the population will continue working 75 to 80 years old because either they have to economically or they want to. I’m 70 and I have no plans to retire. I’m going to at least work until I’m 80, if not longer.
And so that’s pretty much a gift to society. It’s a gift to those of us who are aging. We don’t have the same level of discrimination we once did.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Yeah. Like you, I intend to continue to work and you don’t have to work in the same vocation. You love what you do, so you probably will continue in the same line.
But many people, if you have a hobby, you could give up your… I kind of look at what I do now as my third phase of my career. I’m doing something tied to what I’m doing, but it’s kind of the next iteration.
I think a lot of people maybe are thinking and redefining what retirement actually means. Yeah.
Michele Holleran, DeArmet Consulting
I think that’s absolutely true. I think people are feeling a great deal of freedom around that to reinvent themselves and to have the kind of support and resources that go along with that reinvention process.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
If someone’s developing a planned community, and there are a lot of them out there, they’re leveraging the research that you’re doing in the space. What are some of the things that people our age, us aging folks are looking for? If we economically and financially make it work, what are we looking for in terms of our next home?
Is there a sustainable aspect to it? Is it having easy access to healthcare and other shopping? What goes into those communities?
Michele Holleran, DeArmet Consulting
I think all of the above. I think we as consumers, and I would have to say that I’m in that range where folks start to think about what their retirement or their third phase of life looks like. I think that, first of all, I want to have a self-directed healthcare experience, meaning that I want to be able to access resources easily, conveniently, and at a cost that’s very affordable.
I think that tech improvements are something that I would look for and others like me would look for. Now we’re really at the point where predictive analytics are available to us so that we can proactively manage our health. There are active engagement apps out there now that we didn’t have in the past.
It puts us in control and allows for complete personalization of our health indicators. Robotics are very big in senior living right now. I assume that they might be deployed out into the greater community as we age in place.
Robotics are assisting with loneliness abatement, filling in for non-skilled staff at retirement communities, such as in the dining venues, and even things like smart utensils are out there for those who have Parkinson’s disease. Telehealth visits are very popular these days. Since COVID, they’ve really at least doubled in number, if not tripled.
Medication management, many older folks do have medications. Keeping track of those using technology, I think, is something we want. I would also say that we want longevity.
Longevity being defined as living longer, healthier. Not just living longer for the sake of living longer, but to make sure that we are optimizing our health and our experiences. An attractive brand promise that many life plan communities are offering Jeff revolve around longevity and scientific wellness and brain health.
Traditionally, people have run away from the discussion on cognitive wellness, but it is now becoming much more normalized. Everyone wants to remember the name of their grandchildren. It’s really, I think, important to people of my age cohort that we have good brain health offerings, programming that’s robust, nutritional health options as far as dining.
We want to make sure that we have the ability to age independently and not be dependent on people. That old hospitality model that was so popular just years ago is really being replaced with much more of a purposeful model. Many of the providers out there are locked into this now.
Finally, I’d say affordability is important to people who are in this age cohort. The provider market out there is becoming much more cognizant of the middle market, which are people who would have an 80 to 120 percent of area median income. Of course, that’s going to change depending upon where the geography is, but I’m working with some folks in Rockville, Illinois now, and they’re defining the middle market as people who have $250,000 to $500,000 in assets, which might sound like a lot, but people who have traditionally gone into high-end retirement communities are used to paying millions of dollars in entry fees.
The middle market is the one that’s below that, but not impoverished. I think there are many people who are in this age category right now who are in that middle market. Affordability, I think, is important.
I think as we adapt product for that market, it’s going to be very exciting, whether that be longevity day clubs or modular housing or concierge services at home. There’s a wide variety of things that are being tried out to attract the boomer market.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
I’m not far behind, actually. I’m hoping that it gets ironed out and we find a good path. We get a little bit of help from Washington, D.C. and our local legislators to get the right policy, but with people like you leading the way, Dr. Halloran, I think we’re going to get there. We’re going to have to leave it there. Great to see you as always. Thanks for joining us, and we look forward to having you back on the program again very soon.
Michele Holleran, DeArmet Consulting
My pleasure, Jeffrey. Thank you so much.
#Senior #Living #Trends