Answers For Elders Radio Network

At Answers for Elders this week, we continue our conversations to open up the hood, peel back the curtain, and talk about what goes on behind the scenes at senior living communities. And we're honored to have conversations today with two incredible C-level executives here at Chateau Retirement. Angel Audino Averman, the Chief Financial Officer of Chateau Retirement, joins Suzanne Newman on the Answers for Elders Radio Show from Chateau Pacific in Lynnwood.

Suzanne points out, "You've seen the industry change, where management companies come in and everything keeps changing. It makes you guys so much different in the fact that you can keep that consistency." Angel says, "We own the real estate. And we partner with our mortgage lenders and HUD, being a primary lender for us. And we were fortunate to refinance most of the portfolio 3% over a 30 year term. I know that we sat on a very stable foundation. And so the fact that the Godfrey family owns the bricks and mortar and the operations, it's one phone call when we need to make a decision."

Angel adds, "There's two generations of family in the Chateau and the family members who have worked here in the past and the grandchildren that have worked here, that continues. And we can point to a half a dozen families employee families where it's the mom and the dad, it's the kids, it's the grandkids. So that family element is there as well, or will have a resident come in and their grandchild is looking for a job. And and we say we'd love to have them. So it's a community, and it's not the physical building. It's how it feels...

"We invest in years of service. So we celebrate that every year at the holiday party. And it's $100 for every year of service. So if you think about 350 employees, and the benchmarks of three, five, 10, and every five years after that, the idea being that it's not so much that we want you to stay because it reduces our cost now, but the way that we train, the way that we develop employees, we can't get that traction [by] constantly turning people every six months.

"Most of our suggestions come from our employees. And Jim [Godfrey]'s famous for saying, 'What's the dumb thing that we should stop doing?' And I thought, that's an interesting way to ask that question. He's truly interested – you're the boots on the ground, what do you see that we don't?"

Family-owned Chateau Retirement is Greater Seattle's expert in senior living, with a legacy of success in its culture, tenure, and dedication of staff to its residents. This episode was recorded at Chateau Pacific in Lynnwood, Washington.

Chateau Retirement provides independent living, assisted living, and memory care services. They have been locally owned and family operated for more than 25 years. Chateau Retirement has three communities in Washington's Seattle/Puget Sound area: Chateau Pacific in Lynnwood, Bothell Landing in Bothell, and Chateau Valley Center in Renton.

Visit them online or call 800.960.1944. Also visit Chateau's specialist page on Answers for Elders to hear more of their shows.

Check out our affiliate podcast Alzheimer’s Speaks.

Mentioned in this episode:

Chateau Retirement

Chateau Retirement

This week, we're going to open up the hood, peel back the curtain, and talk about what goes on behind the scenes at senior living communities. And we're honored to have conversations today with two incredible C-level executives here at Chateau Retirement. Jason Brooks, the Chief Operating Officer of Chateau Retirement, joins Suzanne Newman on the Answers for Elders Radio Show from Chateau Pacific in Lynnwood.

Jason says, "We've been family owned from the beginning. And having that family ownership really translates down to treating people with love, dignity, respect. We feel like our job is to take care of our employees, because we know that a happy employee who loves where they work, who has been there forever, is going to treat the resident better... Literally 25% of our workforce have been here ten years plus.

"We really want to bring in people who have a real cultural fit, have a real caring sense to them, a real sense of wanting to to serve and do well for other people. If they need to learn how to be a better server or be a better caregiver or be a better maintenance guy, we can teach them all of that. What I can't teach somebody is to care. I can't teach them to have that heart. They have to kind of come by that a little naturally."

Jason adds, "You also have to be very responsible with your growth and your trajectory. You know, we're 25 buildings, we're looking at expanding here shortly again, but we've built three buildings in 25 years. It was very steady. It was very purposeful... Unfortunately, there's a lot of companies that get into, 'the Silver Tsunami's coming!,' so they want to build as quickly as they can and capture as much of that as they can. And then they end up either being highly leveraged or they don't actually own the property. They're managing it for somebody else. So they don't actually get to make the call. Jim [Godfrey]’s always kept a very conservative fiscal approach to everything, which has really allowed us to do the right thing by our employees and by the residents from day one.

"There's a couple of different [financial] models out there, right? Some people are beholden to Wall Street, because they're publicly traded. And as share prices dip, they have to make sacrifices financially, and cut back services and programing. Or somebody comes in, at their management company, they could be a management company and have to report to several different ownership groups. And then it gets really complicated, because you can't have the same programing if you can't fund things all the same. If you're if you're a management company for multiple people, building A and building B, even if they're in the same town, may be completely different. It could be a completely different culture that's being run through there, because of how they have to manage the financial aspect of the business."

Family-owned Chateau Retirement is Greater Seattle's expert in senior living, with a legacy of success in its culture, tenure, and dedication of staff to its residents. This episode was recorded at Chateau Pacific in Lynnwood, Washington.

Chateau Retirement provides independent living, assisted living, and memory care services. They have been locally owned and family operated for more than 25 years. Chateau Retirement has three communities in Washington's Seattle/Puget Sound area: Chateau Pacific in Lynnwood, Bothell Landing in Bothell, and Chateau Valley Center in Renton.

Visit them online or call 800.960.1944. Also visit Chateau's specialist page on Answers for Elders to hear more of their shows.

Check out our affiliate podcast Alzheimer’s Speaks.

Mentioned in this episode:

Chateau Retirement

Chateau Retirement

Hear some examples from Rob Haynie of what people have done with the proceeds from selling their life insurance policy. Rob joins Suzanne Newman on the Answers for Elders Radio Show. Rob serves on the Board of Directors of the Life Insurance Settlement Association (LISA) and is a charter member of the Association’s PPC committee, which is charged with the regulatory and legislative activities of the industry. The Managing Director of Life Insurance Settlements, Inc., he has been proactively in the industry for more than 31 years.

Rob describes a family who had been donating money to a ballet center, but were running low on funds around 2008. "The money that would be going to the 501c3 [the ballet center] was not going to go to them, because they were going to lapse the policy. So they were losing money. Their financial planners said, 'What about a life settlement?' He said, 'What are you talking about?' They said, 'We're going to sell the policy.'

"Two things happened. They immediately donated the money, what they got, to the 501c3, who was able to take it tax free. But the key thing was, the donors, he and she were both alive, were able to write off the donation while they were alive. And they also were able to go to the ballet center and see their name above the doors as you walked in for a number of years, before they passed away."

Rob adds, "Your life insurance policy is like any other assets you own. It's yours. You can do with it as you please. You can find out what it's worth – exactly what it's worth, today – by going through a process, a free non-binding appraisal, and then at that point you will have a decision to make as to what's best for you. And you can sell some of your life insurance policies. We can split a policy in half. You can sell half, and keep half. But at the end of the day, we just want you know there are options."

Email Rob Haynie at [email protected], call his cell phone at 954-599-4433, or learn more at the LI Settlements website.

Check out our affiliate podcast Alzheimer’s Speaks.

Mentioned in this episode:

Legacy Estate Planning

Legacy Estate Planning

Chateau Retirement

Chateau Retirement

Rob Haynie joins Suzanne Newman on the Answers for Elders Radio Show to talk about selling your life insurance policy for cash. Rob serves on the Board of Directors of the Life Insurance Settlement Association (LISA) and is a charter member of the Association’s PPC committee, which is charged with the regulatory and legislative activities of the industry. The Managing Director of Life Insurance Settlements, Inc., he has been proactively in the industry for more than 31 years.

Suzanne asks, "What are people most confused about with life settlement?" Rob answers, "That they don't understand that, they think there's a catch, they're missing something.

"It isn't too good to be true. It's a life insurance policy. You own it. You can do whatever you want with it. And if you can get more money then you can from the carrier, you have every right to get it."

Email Rob Haynie at [email protected], call his cell phone at 954-599-4433, or learn more at the LI Settlements website.

Check out our affiliate podcast Alzheimer’s Speaks.

Mentioned in this episode:

Legacy Estate Planning

Legacy Estate Planning

Chateau Retirement

Chateau Retirement

Believe it or not, you don't have to be sick to sell your life insurance policy. You can sell it and repurpose the proceeds in a life settlement. Rob Haynie joins Suzanne Newman on the Answers for Elders Radio Show to talk about how Life Settlements work. Rob is the Managing Director of Life Insurance Settlements, Inc. and serves on the Board of Directors of the Life Insurance Settlement Association (LISA). He has been proactively in the industry for more than 31 years.

Rob says, "Life insurance policies are not designed to pay a death claim. They are priced to know they're going to lapse. You don't have to be sick to sell your life insurance, it's just another misnomer in our industry.

"I've been saying it for 30 years: we're putting the life back in life insurance... We are helping people with life expectancies exceeding 20 years to sell their policies. I sit on the board of LISA [Life Insurance Settlement Association], and I was told the other day we do a market data collection study every year. On average, when you talk about things you could do with the settlement money versus not having so much money, we determined that the typical seller gets 5.2 times to as much as 7.8 times. This is on average. So if you were about to give up your policy for $100,000, and now you're going to get make it up $500,000, that's a big difference...

"There's a lot of fear about Social Security. A lot of people are living on Social Security right now. So the idea of knowing that this is a resource, it eliminates a lot of that uncomfortableness, knowing that they're going to be okay no matter what happens."

Email Rob Haynie at [email protected], call his cell phone at 954-599-4433, or learn more at the LI Settlements website.

Check out our affiliate podcast Alzheimer’s Speaks.

Mentioned in this episode:

Legacy Estate Planning

Legacy Estate Planning

Chateau Retirement

Chateau Retirement

Rob Haynie, Managing Director of Life Insurance Settlements, Inc., joins Suzanne Newman on the Answers for Elders Radio Show to talk about Life Settlements: selling your life insurance policy and repurposing the proceeds. Rob serves on the Board of Directors of the Life Insurance Settlement Association (LISA) and is a charter member of the Association’s PPC committee, which is charged with the regulatory and legislative activities of the industry. He has been proactively in the industry for more than 31 years.

Rob explains, "A life settlement is the sale of an existing life insurance policy to a third party – we'll call that person an investor – and for money that is greater than the cash surrender value, or certainly in the case of lapsing, but less than the death benefit. And it's all based upon someone's life expectancy and the cost of insurance going forward from that. They might have been 45 years old when they bought it and they had a whole list of reasons down on a pad of paper... [Maybe there's been] some chaos in the financial sector of the person's household. Most people will lapse the life insurance policy, or surrender it for the cash, because that's the only thing they know to do. The insurance company is certainly not going to tell them they could [sell it].

"You can sell your life insurance policy. We've always kidded the life insurance industry, saying, 'You should be telling people they can sell the life insurance policy because they could turn around, take the proceeds and buy something else you offer, as opposed to letting it lapse or surrender.'

"They can take the proceeds from the settlement, and we use the word repurpose that, and buy something that fits their current needs, such as an annuity. So instead of paying money, they're getting money every month off of an asset they didn't know had any value."

Email Rob Haynie at [email protected], call his cell phone at 954-599-4433 or learn more at the LI Settlements website.

Check out our affiliate podcast Alzheimer’s Speaks.

Mentioned in this episode:

Legacy Estate Planning

Legacy Estate Planning

Chateau Retirement

Chateau Retirement

Chateau Gardens memory care director at Chateau Valley Center Michelle Oleas joins Suzanne on the Answers for Elders podcast with Lacy Steed, Vice President of Life Enrichment for Chateau Retirement. This episode was recorded at Chateau Valley Center in Renton, Washington. Michelle and Lacy talks about how memory care interfaces with with Life Enrichment at Chateau, and how they work together.

Michelle says, "They're both very important entities, but I don't look at it as separate entities, rather independent pillars. That is very important to enhance the quality of life of our residents. Nursing, we take care of the medical part. We give the medications. We want to keep them safe. While life enrichment, they're there to provide social interaction, meet their spiritual needs. There's just so many things that work hand in hand that are both essential in providing the needs of our residents."

Michelle says, "Usually in dementia, we cannot dwell in the past nor the future, right? They live in the moment. When I have a family member come up to me and say that was a wonderful event, and my mom was really happy with what was going on in memory care, that really hits me hard, right? Because at the end of the day, we're here for the residents. Whatever time they have left, we want to make sure that they do have quality time. We always hear, 'Oh, they have dementia. They won't remember any more.' That's not true. Because at that moment, if you made them happy, then they know – something made them happy. So I think that's a very important piece with these activities."

Lacy adds, "Memory care holds also a special place in my heart. My grandmother suffered through dementia, and it's just a horrible disease. So we work very closely with all of our nursing staff and our caregivers and med techs. We try to be very involved in memory care, and we are working on having weekly morning meetings with the teams to make sure we're all on the same page. It's everyone's job to enrich people's lives, especially for memory care. In memory care, it takes a lot. It takes a village. I have so much respect for nurses and memory care, and it's a hard job. And dementia and Alzheimer's, and we couldn't do it without them and vice versa."

Chateau Retirement provides independent living, assisted living, and memory care services. They have been locally owned and family operated for more than 25 years. Chateau Retirement has three communities in Washington's Seattle/Puget Sound area: Chateau Pacific in Lynnwood, Bothell Landing in Bothell, and Chateau Valley Center in Renton.

Visit them online or call 800.960.1944. Also visit Chateau's specialist page on Answers for Elders to hear more of their shows.

Check out our affiliate podcast Alzheimer’s Speaks.

Mentioned in this episode:

Chateau Retirement

Chateau Retirement

Why is senior living the next adventure, and not your grandma's nursing home?

Cindy Serrano, community relations director of Chateau Retirement at Chateau Valley Center, joins Suzanne on the Answers for Elders podcast with Lacy Steed, Vice President of Life Enrichment for Chateau Retirement. Chateau's services are helpful and consultive, guiding seniors through a journey to live a happier, healthier, longer life – providing resident and family support, and increasing family involvement. This episode was recorded at Chateau Valley Center in Renton, Washington.

In the previous segment, Lacy and Suzanne talked about how Life Enrichment plays into senior living. Cindy talks about this starting at the beginning, integrating the interests of new residents into the community. Cindy says, "We want to make sure that they have an understanding of everything that we have to offer. We're more than just apartments for aging adults. Life Enrichment plays a huge role. You have your day-to-day activities to really enhance the quality of care... I almost treat every meeting almost like a first date, because it's getting to know the core of who the person is and how we can help out."

Cindy adds, "If we hear a story, we want to include that with them, it means a lot. It's a huge part of their life. So housekeepers, maintenance, whenever they hear something that resonates with them, they will let us know. And then we try to do our best to make that happen. I think that is really what also sets us apart.

"At each community, the Life Enrichment directors and occasionally our Culinary Directors will all meet once a month to plan either the year or the month ahead. And that way we know what is needed from everyone to make sure that this successful. And we're all very communicative. We all work really well together. And if we need help, everyone steps in. It is a very team-oriented company. It's very true: teamwork makes the dream work, and that is what Chateau is. And if they know something about a resident that we didn't know, they will share it and then we will work together to make sure it happens."

Chateau Retirement provides independent living, assisted living, and memory care services. They have been locally owned and family operated for more than 25 years. Chateau Retirement has three communities in Washington's Seattle/Puget Sound area: Chateau Pacific in Lynnwood, Bothell Landing in Bothell, and Chateau Valley Center in Renton.

Visit them online or call 800.960.1944. Also visit Chateau's specialist page on Answers for Elders to hear more of their shows.

Check out our affiliate podcast Alzheimer’s Speaks.

Mentioned in this episode:

Chateau Retirement

Chateau Retirement

Lacy Steed, Vice President of Life Enrichment for Chateau Retirement, joins Suzanne on the Answers for Elders podcast to talk about the ways Chateau supports independence and successful aging with a varied activity schedule. But life enrichment goes beyond social activities to quality of life, quality of care, as well as resident and family support. Family-owned Chateau Retirement is Greater Seattle's expert in senior living, with a legacy of success in its culture, tenure, and dedication of staff to its residents. This episode was recorded at Chateau Valley Center in Renton, Washington.

Lacy says, "We have activity committees, we have dining committees, we have anything you can really think of — and anything that we can do, we will do. I like to think of Chateau as a cruise ship on land. I want to do anything we can within reason and safety. I think that this is the best part of living. You're retired. You can kind of do what you want, and I want that to happen everywhere."

"Life Enrichment is an all-encompassing program. It is not just activities where it's bingo, pinnacle, canasta, It's health, it's well-being, it's overall happiness. I really try to involve physical, social, emotional, mental, everything into the life enrichment experience. It's a huge step, moving into a retirement community or just moving in general, and to move somewhere where you're not just playing games, but you are actually living the next part of your life in all aspects of the word."

Chateau Retirement provides independent living, assisted living, and memory care services. They have been locally owned and family operated for more than 25 years. Chateau Retirement has three communities in Washington's Seattle/Puget Sound area: Chateau Pacific in Lynnwood, Bothell Landing in Bothell, and Chateau Valley Center in Renton.

Visit them online or call 800.960.1944. Also visit Chateau's specialist page on Answers for Elders to hear more of their shows.

Check out our affiliate podcast Alzheimer’s Speaks.

Mentioned in this episode:

Chateau Retirement

Chateau Retirement

Our common denominator with indoor and outdoor safety is walking. Dr. Shawn Weiss joins Suzanne Newman on the Answers for Elders Radio Show to share tips for seniors on how to be more mindful of how we walk.

Dr. Shawn says, "I've [talked to] five people in the last three months that have had an issue because at home they use a walker. And for some reason, when they went outside the house, they didn't think they needed it with them, or they didn't want people to see them with a walker. What you have to remember, it's a mindset shift. The initial response of most older adults is they don't want an assisted device, because they feel like that's the beginning of the end, right? It's all going to go downhill from here. But actually, those devices allow you to walk safely, give back independence, make people more independent."

"Walking is the number one exercise for a healthy body because it builds bone density, keeps your bones strong, it's keeping your muscles strong. It's also building cardiovascular endurance, being able to especially community distance. If you're going to go out and go to the store, being able to be able to walk those longer distances, it's literally the number one thing I recommend."

In May, Dr. Shawn will be hosting "Stand Up, Keep Up," a two-session Zoom course covering not only steps for fall prevention, extrinsic and intrinsic factors, but also digging deeper to find the root causes of why they might be at a high fall risk. Answers for Elders viewers and listeners can get special pricing. Click here for more information or to register.

Visit Rockstar Seniors.net to learn more or to set up a free discovery call with Dr. Shawn Weiss to get answers to any questions or concerns. Hear more podcasts by Dr. Shawn here.

Check out our affiliate podcast Alzheimer’s Speaks.

Mentioned in this episode:

Chateau Retirement

Chateau Retirement

Legacy Estate Planning

Legacy Estate Planning