Clear Money Guide
What this guide covers
A quick view of the questions and evidence developed below.
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Updated August 3, 2026. Quick answer: “90% refundable” is not the same promise as “90% refunded”. In some states the refund can be contractually conditioned on someone else moving into your unit — so the amount is certain and the timing is not. That distinction decides whether your estate waits weeks or years.
The three refund classes
| Class | How it works | Entrance fee |
|---|---|---|
| Non-refundable / fully amortized | the fee is earned by the provider over a stated schedule; once amortized nothing is owed back | lowest entrance fee of the three |
| Declining-balance / partially refundable | a stated percentage is refundable, declining over time | middle |
| High-percentage refundable | a large fixed percentage is repaid to the resident or estate on death or permanent departure regardless of length of stay | highest entrance fee of the three |
California distinguishes a ‘refundable contract’ as one whose entrance-fee refund promise extends beyond the resident’s sixth year of residency (Health & Safety Code 1771(r)(2)).
The resale contingency, and the disclosure nobody asks for
California law requires a provider to ‘make a good-faith effort to reoccupy or resell a unit for which a lump-sum payment is conditioned upon resale of the unit’.
And this is the sentence to use: 1788(a)(33)(E) separately requires the provider to disclose ‘the average and longest amount of time that it has taken to resell a unit within the last five calendar years’.
Read that again. Where that rule applies, the community must tell you the average and the longest time it has taken to resell a unit over the last five years — if you ask. It is the single most informative number in the entire transaction and it is sitting in a file. Ask for both figures, in writing, and ask how many units are currently waiting to be resold.
The refund is not a dated IOU. It is conditioned on a new resident taking and paying for the same unit. If the unit sits empty the estate can wait months or years, which turns the refund into an illiquid claim of uncertain timing and can hold up settling the estate.
It varies by state. Florida requires any refund due to be paid within 45 days of vacating the unit (Fla. Stat. 651.061), with no resale contingency in the text reviewed. So this is a state-by-state question, verified present in California and not found in Florida. So the first question is not “is my refund guaranteed?” but “what does my state require, and what does my contract say?”
Even a deposit can carry it: Even at the pre-occupancy deposit stage, 1783.2(b) can tie a refund to the condition that ‘another depositor has reserved the canceling depositor’s specific residential unit’.
The amount is certain. The timing is the part that is not.
Where the refund is conditioned on someone else moving into your unit, your estate may wait weeks or it may wait years, and the contract decides which. If that timing sits inside a larger plan, it is worth a second read before you sign. The matching service below introduces you to advisers who pay to meet you.
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Where your refund claim stands if the operator fails
A resident's refund claim is generally a GENERAL UNSECURED claim in an operator bankruptcy.
11 U.S.C. 507(a) enumerates priority unsecured claims - domestic support, administrative expenses, capped wage claims, benefit-plan contributions, grain and fishery producer claims, certain capped consumer deposits, tax claims, depository-regulator claims and drunk-driving claims. CCRC entrance-fee refunds are not among them.
Absent a state mechanism creating a lien, trust or escrow in the resident's favour, the claim stands behind secured creditors - including any mortgage lender on the community's real property - and behind the listed priority claims, sharing pro rata with other general unsecured creditors.
In plain terms: the bank that lent against the buildings is ahead of you. That is not a prediction about any community — most operate for decades without incident — but it is the legal position, and it is why the financial review matters more here than in almost any other consumer transaction. What to read, and what it tells you.
Not asserted: Whether 507(a)(7)'s limited priority for consumer deposits for undelivered property or services has been applied by courts to CCRC entrance-fee refunds, and its current cap, could NOT be confirmed. Not asserted.
The protections that do exist, where they exist
- California: statutory liquid reserve covering debt service and operating reserves (Health & Safety Code 1792), with authority to require the provider to place the reserve into escrow if it becomes financially unsound; deposit escrow (1783.2); resale-time disclosure (1788(a)(33)(E)).
- Florida: entrance fees and deposits held in escrow with an approved agent, released only on compliance (Fla. Stat. 651.033); minimum liquid reserve (651.035); refund within 45 days of vacating (651.061).
Texas and Pennsylvania primary text could not be retrieved. No claim is made about them, positive or negative.
And a caution about what state approval means: California's contract disclosure statute requires notice that the department 'does not approve or disapprove any of the financial or health care coverage provisions in this contract'. State review is procedural, not a solvency endorsement.
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General information drawn from IRS, Medicare, HUD and state statute and regulation, not legal, tax or financial advice. Continuing-care law is state law and differs materially between states; every figure here is year-labelled and every source named so you can check it against your own contract. Read your own signed agreement before relying on any general description, including this one.