Moving to a retirement village? Consider your payment options

Levande, Australia's third-largest retirement village operator, has just announced that it will be providing new payment options across its villages from July 1. Providing different payment options is a trend that is growing across the industry with big and small operators, for-profit and not-for-profit offering a variety of different arrangements.

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State-based legislation stops retirement villages from profiting from the weekly or monthly service fees so the overwhelming majority of payment options focus on the amount you pay upfront and the amount you get back (and how soon) when you leave. The general rule of thumb is that the more you pay upfront the less you pay at the end and vice-versa. Across the market you can find payment arrangements with exit fees of anything between zero and 100 per cent.

Levande's new contracts give you two options: you can pay your management fee when you leave, in which case it is 30 per cent or you can pay it upfront and pay 20 per cent. The new contracts........

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