Retirement Industry 8 Point Plan

Retirement Living announced that there has been a meeting between retirement village operators and village resident association leaders, the industry has announced an eight point plan that in their words is "designed to lead to greater transparency and higher standards across the industry"

The 8 point plan can be summarised as:-

• Nationally consistent retirement village legislation and contracts


• Transparent and easy to understand descriptions re the various cost components of living in a retirement village


• Encouragement for all prospective residents to seek independent legal advice


• Improve training and professional support for village managers and sales staff.


• Commit to improve industry accreditation standards and industry coverage and support madatory accreditation.


• Work with Village Residents Associations to implement an industry Code of Conduct.


• Commit to the establishment of an industry Ombudsman or Advocate for disputes that cannot be settled at village level.


• Maintain and strengthen the relationship between industry and the Australian Retirement Village Residents Associations.

Although improvements for retirement village residents is welcome and long overdue the above steps will not change the financial damage done to retirees by the Deferred Management Fee business model.

The table below shows the transfer of capital from a retirement village resident to a develop/operator over a period of 10 years. Not one of the steps in the above 8 point plan will stop this from happening. The missing link in all this discussion about reform in the industry is the absolute necessity to reform or discard the deferred management fee business model.