Reading the contract
Is a CCRC entrance fee refundable?
Part of it usually is, and the contract type decides how much. In states that regulate continuing care contracts, a refund floor is written into law: New York, for example, requires every contract to refund some portion of the entrance fee during the first four years of residency, through what the state calls a traditional declining contract — a 4% one-time processing fee, then a 2% reduction for every month lived there, and nothing left at 48 months.
Data: CareScout Cost of Care Survey — 2025 national medians
Data: CareScout Cost of Care Survey — 2025 national medians — fieldwork July–November 2025. Entrance-fee and contract figures are New York State Department of Health figures, not national.
The short answer
An entrance fee is a buy-in, not rent. You pay it once to join a continuing care community, and the contract you sign states what comes back and under what conditions. Two shapes cover most of the market. The first refunds a shrinking share of the fee for a set period and then nothing. The second refunds a fixed percentage whenever you leave, whatever the number of years. Which one you are looking at changes the true cost of the first four years far more than the headline fee does.
What the fee buys is the care guarantee. A life care contract holds the monthly fee flat when a resident moves from independent living into assisted living or a skilled nursing facility. That guarantee is the reason the fee exists, and it is also the reason the refund terms are hedged: the community has promised care it may deliver for years after the money is spent.
The contract type decides the refund
New York recognizes two contract types plus a fee-for-service model, and the difference between them is how much nursing care the monthly fee carries. That is the same clause that determines how much of the entrance fee stays at risk for the community.
| Contract | Care included at the flat monthly fee | Who carries the care risk |
|---|---|---|
| Type A — life care | Unlimited assisted living, if offered, and unlimited skilled nursing facility care | The community |
| Type B — modified | A limited number of skilled nursing days, at least 60 excluding Medicare days; market or per-diem rates after that | Shared |
| Fee-for-service | Housing and amenities only; care is billed per diem when it is needed | The resident |
The month a contract's covered nursing days run out is the month the bill changes shape, because from that point care is priced at market rates on top of the monthly fee. That transition is the same problem as the day a Medicare rehab benefit ends, with the contract rather than Medicare setting the date.
New York also sets entry conditions that decide whether a contract is available to you at all: residents must generally be at least 62, must be able to live independently, must meet the community's financial criteria, and must be enrolled in Medicare Part A and Part B and maintain a Medigap policy.
What a declining refund looks like in dollars
New York publishes the mechanics, not a table, so the arithmetic below applies the state's rule to the state's own stated starting entrance fee of $115,000. A 4% processing fee on that fee is $4,600, and 2% a month is $2,300 a month until the refundable balance hits zero at month 48.
| Time in residence | Refund on a declining contract | Refund on a fixed-percentage contract |
|---|---|---|
| 12 months | $82,800 | 90% back: $103,500 · 50% back: $57,500 |
| 24 months | $55,200 | unchanged |
| 36 months | $27,600 | unchanged |
| 48 months and after | $0 | unchanged |
The dollar figures in the middle column are arithmetic on New York's rule and New York's stated fee floor. They are not any community's offer. Read the table as a way to test a fee schedule you are holding: find the formula, apply it to the fee on the page in front of you, and compare the result against what the sales office says.
The fixed-percentage column is why the two contract shapes are not interchangeable. On a 90% refundable contract the community keeps a tenth of the fee and returns the rest whenever the resident leaves or dies, so the months lived there cost nothing extra in refund terms. Communities price that difference into the monthly fee, which is the trade to compare: a higher monthly fee with most of the fee refundable, against a lower monthly fee with a refund that is gone in four years.
Entrance fee, community fee, monthly fee
Three different charges get called the up-front cost, and only one of them is usually refundable.
- Entrance fee. The continuing-care buy-in. Refund terms are governed by the contract and, in regulated states, by a statutory floor.
- Community fee. A one-time charge at move-in to a rental-model assisted living residence, set by the operator. Whether any of it is prorated or returned is a contract term, and it is covered in what a monthly assisted living rate excludes.
- Monthly fee. Rent plus services plus the care level. This is the number that recurs, and the one a care cost calculator turns into an annual figure.
For scale, the national median assisted living rate is $6,200 a month for a private one-bedroom, against a New York CCRC monthly fee that starts at approximately $2,100. The comparison is not like for like and should not be read as a saving: the CCRC figure is a floor published by a state regulator, it sits on top of an entrance fee, and it comes bundled with a care guarantee that a rental assisted living rate does not include. The rental side of that comparison is set out in assisted living cost of care.
What to get in writing before signing
A refund in a contract is a claim on the operator, not on a regulator. Four requests turn the promise into something you can check.
- The refund formula, worked at your fee. Ask the business office to write the calculation out for months 12, 24 and 48 on the fee you would actually pay. If the numbers do not match the contract language, the contract language wins.
- The payment deadline after a move-out or a death. A refund owed is not a refund received, and the gap is set by the contract. Get the deadline in writing, and ask whether the estate or the resident is paid.
- The clause on monthly fee increases. A refund right protects the fee you paid in; it does nothing about the fee you pay each month, which is covered in why senior living costs increase.
- The operator's financial statements. Ask for the most recent audited statement and the occupancy figure. An entrance fee refund is only as good as the balance sheet behind it, which is why states require disclosure before a contract is signed.
If the fee is coming out of a house sale, the sequencing matters more than the refund terms: paying for care when savings run out works through what to spend first.
Frequently asked questions
Is a CCRC entrance fee refundable?
Yes in part, in every state that regulates continuing care contracts, and the amount depends on which contract you signed rather than on the community's goodwill. New York's rules are the clearest published example: at a minimum, a contract must refund some portion of the entrance fee during the first four years of residency, through what is called a traditional declining contract. Under that contract the refundable amount drops 2% a month after a one-time 4% processing fee, and reaches zero at 48 months. Communities may also offer contracts that refund a fixed percentage — 90% or 50% refundable contracts are both in use.
How much does a CCRC entrance fee cost?
New York's Department of Health states that entrance fees begin at approximately $115,000 for a single-person independent living unit, and that monthly fees begin at approximately $2,100. Those are New York starting figures published by the state regulator. Entrance fee levels elsewhere follow local home values, because a CCRC entrance fee is generally priced at roughly the value of a house in the community's area, which is how the same state page describes it.
Do you lose the entrance fee if you die?
The refundable portion survives you. New York's page states that the refund is paid to the resident or to the resident's estate if the contract is terminated or on the resident's death. What changes at death is not the right to the refund but who receives it and how long the community takes to pay, so the payment deadline is a contract term to ask about in writing rather than assume.
Is a CCRC entrance fee the same as an assisted living community fee?
No. A community fee is a one-time charge at move-in to a rental-model assisted living residence, and whether any of it comes back is set by the operator's agreement. An entrance fee is a refundable-in-part buy-in to a continuing care contract that carries a care guarantee, and in states that regulate those contracts the refund floor is set by statute or regulation rather than by the operator alone. The two can appear on the same fee schedule, which is why they get confused.
Does Medicare pay any part of a CCRC entrance fee?
No. Medicare does not pay entrance fees, and it does not pay for custodial long-term care in any setting. It can pay for a short skilled nursing facility stay that meets its own rules, which is a separate benefit from the care guarantee inside a continuing care contract.
What should I ask before signing a CCRC contract?
Ask four things in writing: the exact refund formula with a worked example at your entrance fee, the payment deadline after a resident leaves or dies, what happens to the refund if the monthly fee is raised, and what the contract says about a move to a higher care level. Also ask for the community's most recent audited financial statement, because a refund right is only worth what the operator can pay.
Where these numbers come from
The contract types, the $115,000 entrance-fee floor and $2,100 monthly-fee floor, the 62-and-over entry conditions, the Medicare Part A and Part B and Medigap requirement, the 4% processing fee, the 2% monthly reduction, the 48-month cut-off, the 90% and 50% refundable options, and the rule that the refund goes to the resident or the estate were read from the New York State Department of Health's continuing care page. They are New York rules and New York figures; other states set their own, and the article does not assume they match. The statement that Medicare does not pay entrance fees or custodial long-term care is from Medicare.gov. The assisted living median is the national figure published by the cost survey named in the badge above, fieldwork July–November 2025. The dollar columns in the refund table are this page's arithmetic on the state rule, labelled as such. No community fee schedule and no invented rate is used anywhere on this page.