Top Senior Living Companies

Senior living is usually charged as a monthly fee for housing, meals and services, with care costs added by level after an assessment. Memory care is the most expensive tier, and location, apartment size, staffing and add-on services such as medication management change the total.

Assisted living helps residents with daily tasks such as bathing, dressing and medications, while memory care serves people with dementia in secured settings with specially trained staff. Many communities offer both, so a resident can move to memory care when needs change.

Review its license and state inspection reports, ask about staffing ratios on every shift, and visit more than once at different times. Talk to residents and families, ask how care levels are assessed and priced, and read the residency agreement for move-out and fee increase terms.

Owners should ask for occupancy, inspection and staff retention records across the company's portfolio, how it budgets and reports, and how management fees and incentives are structured. Ask which communities it has turned around and who would lead your site.