And welcome back everyone to Answers for Elders Radio Network. And believe it or not, we have been burning up this hour with so much information, and I am lucky, very lucky, to talk to the wonderful Emily Schwarz from ElderLife Financial on behalf of MorningStar Senior Living. And I want to put out a special thank you to MorningStar for bringing this service forward, because I think it’s important. I know they have communities all across the U.S., all the way from West coast into Iowa, and they serve a lot of seniors that take advantage of ElderLife Financial, and it’s great that they bring this resource forward to everyone. Emily and I’ve been talking a lot this hour about different ways in which ElderLife helps families, whether it’s through a bridge loan, whether it’s through any sort of assistance as far as community fees, moving fees, anything like that. And we talked in our last segment about Aid and Attendance benefits, or Veterans benefits, and that’s really powerful. Emily, I want to welcome you back to this final segment, and it’s been such an honor visiting with you, so I’m glad you’re with us. So, Emily, I would love to learn – let’s talk about the bridge loan program and do you have any success stories or stories that might be relevant to families, so that they can kind of understand how you came into the picture?
– Yeah, so the bridge loan is used most often for a home sale, for VA benefits, sometimes for long-term care insurance, and even for assisting residents. Here’s just a couple of stories. Most popular is a home sale, and I know we’ve talked a lot about that, but we recently had a family down in Florida that was looking for a bridge loan while their home was selling. So Mary had a $131,000 home to list and they needed to move into the community immediately. They reached out to the ElderLife Financial concierge, and within three days we were able to fund a bridge loan. They needed $5,000 a month for rent and care, and so we estimated that it would probably take about six months for that home to sell. Now, the great part about this is they listed their home for $131,000 and they actually received $146,000 for that home when it sold. How did that happen? Because they were able to fix up that home. I know we talked a lot about home repairs, and staging them, and having mom and dad out of the home. They ultimately got $15,000 more by utilizing our bridge loan. They were able to get top dollar, even in this tough real estate market, because the house was staged and in its tip-top shape, all repairs done. So I would think that’s the one of the best case scenarios. That’s what we see a lot, where families actually earn more for their home than they thought they would.
– Yeah, and certainly you charge a fee for this bridge loan, I’m sure you don’t do it for free. So tell us just briefly about how they came out with that, as far as what their fees were.
– Absolutely, so there are two costs to the family. There is interest during the life of the loan. Essentially it’s an interest-only loan. It’s usually around 9.99%, which is about $8 for every $1,000 you borrow. So if you borrow $2,000, it’s gonna cost you $16 and change. If the next month, you go up to $4,000, it’s going to be $32 and change. So you’re only paying interest during the life of your loan. There is an origination and support fee. It’s typically between 3.5% and 7.5%. So let’s say a family borrows $12,000. If their origination and support fee is 5%, they owe us $600, and they don’t owe that until their funding comes in, until their home sells, or their VA benefit. So that family that I just mentioned spent $936, the interests and the origination and support fee, but they need $15,000 extra dollars.
– That’s huge, it really makes it a positive experience. So, now another example would be… let’s just say you have a military couple, and let’s say mom has Alzheimer’s and dementia, and you’re trying to keep up with care. You realize that dad can’t take care of her anymore. What happens? But their house is fully paid for.
– So that sounds like someone who is eligible for VA benefits. So we not only can do a bridge loan on the home, but we could also do a bridge loan for the VA benefits. So, in that situation, with a healthy veteran and a spouse that needs care, that veteran can get $1,750 a month. We will provide a bridge loan, the wife is the only one that needs the care. So healthy veteran, sick spouse, $1,750 this year, So we will help the family with $1,750 a month, the exact amount of their VA benefit, as a bridge loan. So they want to move mom into that community. You said she’s got memory care issues. She needs to move in immediately, so we will provide $1,750 a month while they’re waiting for their VA benefits to get approved, which is probably four to six months. And we even add an initial community fee of one extra month of VA benefits, so we basically act like the VA while we’re waiting for the VA benefit to come through. And then there’s those retroactive benefits which we haven’t covered. But you do get money back from the VA from the first of the month after you apply, and use that money to pay off your bridge loan.
– So obviously, if Dad doesn’t need care, then he doesn’t qualify for VA benefits, but once he sells that house, then what happens at that time?
– So I guess that’s almost a VA benefit question. If he’s going to sell the house and that’s going to push them over the asset limit for VA and they’re already getting that VA benefit, we don’t want them to lose it, so if they call in, we’re going to connect them with a VA accredited attorney to move that home into an irrevocable trust before the home goes on the market. We don’t want them to lose the benefit. So yes, we can help with the VA bridge loan and help them keep their VA benefits.
– Yeah, so those are things that obviously we can work together on. So now we’re just going to talk. I’m throwing out these scenarios because I think there’s a lot of situations. What about a mom who has a daughter that lives with her, that’s taking care of her, but she also has a home care agency that she needs to come in. But mom is a widow of a military veteran.
– Okay, so you can apply for the Aid and Attendance benefit, both on that home care agency or, in fact, the daughter can be paid as a caregiver and she can sign the application to help mom apply for the Aid and Attendance benefit. So either one works. The VA will allow you to use anybody as your home care provider as your medical expense, and still be approved for the Aid and Attendance benefit.
– That’s awesome. I’m throwing out all these scenarios because there’s so many. Let’s say, for example, husband and wife live in another state and they’re gonna move into senior living across country. Obviously they have to get their house on the market. They’re gonna work with a a real estate person or whatever to handle the house, but they have moving expenses. How much benefit do you provide in something like that?
– So for the ElderLife Bridge loan, you can take out as little as a $5,000 bridge loan up to $50,000, even more. So it sounds like that family is going to need money for moving expenses, and then we can also help them with that initial community fee, those first couple of months of rent while they’re waiting for that home to sell, because likely they’re going to move across country before they list that house. They’re gonna want to get out of the house, so it can be listed vacant, and so they’re going to need the moving expenses, community fee, and repair expenses. Can I give you another scenario?
– Absolutely.
– One thing that people don’t realize that we help with is existing residents. So if you are listening to this call or watching this, and you are already living in senior living or your mom’s already living in senior living, and you never knew that ElderLife Financial existed, and you’re struggling to pay that rent bill every month, because your home hasn’t sold as fast as you thought, or your VA benefit is dragging along. Even though Emily said it’s only going to take four months, maybe there was a hiccup, it landed on the wrong desk at the VA and eight months or nine months have passed, you can contact ElderLife and we even provide bridge loans for existing residents, so before you start thinking about moving mom and dad out of the community, have a conversation with us. We also clear up arrearages. I just had a family in that situation. We’ve provided $25,000 to their community because they were in arrears. The next month, their house sold. They were able to pay it off, but they didn’t have to be evicted. They were able to stay while they waited for that home to close.
– That’s what’s most important. I’ve now been in this industry for, I think, well, I founded Answers for Elders in 2009, and I help families every day. And one of the things that I always tell them is that I have never, ever been in a situation where we can’t find care for someone. I’ve never put a senior out on the street, and I know that there’s resources out there. So if your family is feeling frustrated or doesn’t know where to turn, I know that you guys will be a great resource, no matter what kind of situation you’re in. And if they don’t qualify for you, you have resources to refer out, do you not?
– Absolutely, sometimes the bridge loan isn’t perfect for them, you might be able to provide them with a personal loan. We are always trying to find some solution to help you pay for your senior living, that’s our goal.
– Absolutely, so, Emily, how do we reach you?
– You can call ElderLife Financial at 888-228-4500, or check us out on the web at https://www.elderlifefinancial.com/.
– I am so glad you were with us today, Emily. It’s been an honor to have you, and I want to throw out a very special thank you to MorningStar Senior Living for having Emily on the show with us today. It’s been a wonderful hour, and I have to say I learned a lot today about what you do, and I’m looking forward to hooking you up with a lot of my network as well. So in the meantime, to each and every one of you, it is the holiday season as we’re moving forward. I hope each and every one of you are having a wonderful holiday. And most importantly, I know there’s a lot of difficult times out there. Go on to https://answersforelders.com/ and we have right now online a free Advocate Guide to help you with seniors. This there’s a lot of information about ways in which you can accommodate loved ones, senior loved ones that may have hearing issues, or dementia or Alzheimer’s or any of those things. So we encourage you to go to https://answersforelders.com/ and learn more. In the meantime, to everyone, be good to each other.
