Retirement villages are residential communities providing “age friendly” accommodation for healthy senior citizens able to live independently. With the aging of the population, increasing numbers of people are likely to seek retirement village residency in the future as an alternative to living with their relatives, or in their own home or apartment. Retirement village contracts are complex for consumers to understand. These typically involve a large fee paid at entry, recurrent fees charged every week or month, and then on exit from the village the resident receives an exit payment from the village. This is usually a refund of the entry fee less a so called “deferred management fee”. There may be some sharing of the capital gain on resale of the resident’s retirement village apartment on exit from the village. The structure of the contracts varies considerably across retirement villages, making it difficult for consumers to compare one retirement village contract with another. Recent studies of financial literacy, both in Australia and internationally indicate that older members of the community, particularly females, have low levels of financial literacy. We show that these retirement village contracts may be thought of as a combination of insurance products including annuities / pensions and complex death and disablement insurance policies with a sum insured that varies with duration of residency. This thesis aims to contribute to consumer’s financial literacy regarding retirement village contracts and awareness of the risks involved. This thesis reports on recent studies of the factors that impact on seniors’ decisions about retirement village residency and proposes several different financial and demographic metrics to assist consumers with understanding the contracts and with decision making.      «

Retirement villages are residential communities providing “age friendly” accommodation for healthy senior citizens able to live independently. With the aging of the population, increasing numbers of people are likely to seek retirement village residency in the future as an alternative to living with their relatives, or in their own home or apartment. Retirement village contracts are complex for consumers to understand. These typically involve a large fee paid at entry, recurrent fees charged ev...     »