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Home Insurance


Certain home improvements may lower your insurance costs and make your home safer for aging in place. 

As of September, U.S. homeowners pay an average of $2,728/year, or $227/month, on home insurance–that’s an 11.5% increase since 2022, and the numbers are expected to rise.


Some factors affect your insurance premium that you have no control over; the location, age, and size of your home, for example. But other variables, you can tweak. Combine several of them, and you could end up saving hundreds or even thousands of dollars each year.


People who want to age in place often invest in some significant home improvements, and they may wonder if a more accessible, safer home will be cheaper to insure. The answer is, it depends. Often, adding an addition to a home or remodeling a bathroom will raise premiums because the improvements raise the replacement cost value of the home. In general, smaller-scale improvements like adding grab bars and non-slip flooring won’t raise your premium, but they won’t qualify you for a discount, either; although it never hurts to ask. And if those safety features prevent a guest from falling in your home, they may have saved you from filing an insurance claim.

Home Insurance Discounts for Seniors

Combine smaller discounts to get the best rate and the lowest premium. Here are some discounts that may apply for seniors, in particular.



  • AARP members may be able to take advantage of discounts on home insurance.

  • Ask your insurer if they provide discounts to clients over a certain age, usually 55 or 65. Some companies factor in that retirees are home more often than people who work full time jobs. Homes that are more often occupied are less prone to crime and major damage from accidents like burst pipes or fire.

  • A no-mortgage discount may be available to homeowners who have paid off their mortgage.

  • If you’ve been with the same insurer for many years, make sure they’re giving you a loyalty discount.


Arguably, all home improvements that make a home safer are age-in-place improvements. After all, in order to continue living at home until late life, you need it to be safe and secure. To that end, here are a few ways homeowners can protect their homes from calamity and damage, while paying insurers less money. All of the following steps are likely to bring down your annual home insurance costs. Let’s break it down by natural hazard.


Wind

The most impactful step homeowners can take to drive down their insurance premium is to install a new roof. On average, a home with a 10-year-old roof costs $363 more to insure each year than a home with a new roof.


In some states, especially where wind damage from hurricanes and other strong storms is driving up insurance costs, a wind mitigation inspection following a roof replacement can save you money on insurance. Some insurance companies, especially in Florida, require these inspections in order to estimate how well your home would stand up to extreme wind events. Factors that earn you “wind mitigation credits,” which translate to insurance discounts, include the age of the roof, longer nails placed close together, and newer/higher-rated shutters, windows, and doors.


Wind mitigation inspections are good for about 5 years, unless you have work done to your roof or if the roof is damaged, in which case the insurer will want a new inspection performed. Expect to pay in the range of $175.

Water

Flood insurance is not included in basic homeowners insurance. Depending on your location, you might decide to take steps to protect your home against flooding, but doing so won’t end up lowering your home insurance costs. However, other kinds of water damage are covered under most home policies, so there are water-related home improvements that could garner you a discount on insurance. These include installing a sump pump and installing auto water shut-off valves. If your plumbing system involves lead or polybutylene, updating it could save you money in the long run.


Fire

Homeowners in California and Oregon can work towards a Wildfire Prepared Home certificate to garner insurance discounts and protect their home’s physical safety. Getting certified involves several steps including the creation of a 5-foot “noncombustible zone” around the home free of vegetation, parked items, and other structures.


If you live in an older house, determine if the wiring is up to the latest safety standards. If not, consider rewiring your home for fire safety and a lower insurance rate. Installing a sprinkler system can also help lower your costs.


Like putting on a new roof, updating a home’s electrical and plumbing systems is not cheap. Weigh the costs of the renovations with other factors like your long-term comfort, safety, home value, and, of course, insurance bill. CSAs can be an invaluable resource for clients looking to finance home repairs. There are many options to navigate including reverse mortgages, state and local assistance programs, and home equity loans.

This article is not intended to be a substitute for professional financial advice from a qualified financial advisor.



Sources:

Blog posting provided by Society of Certified Senior Advisors



Wednesday, December 11, 2024


What does a modern senior center look like?


What’s the first word that comes to mind upon hearing “senior center”? If you said “bingo,” you’re not alone. Senior centers suffer from an image problem: many people, including plenty of baby boomers, think of them as sedate, isolated places without much going on.

The stereotype has a kernel of truth: not every senior center has always been in touch with the needs of the people it serves. But with the population of older Americans expanding by the millions in the coming years, there’s exciting new energy around re-inventing senior centers. Baby boomers are envisioning and building their ideal community hubs–and these places go way beyond bingo.

Serving Today’s Generation

In the upcoming issue 98 of CSA Journal, Dianne Stone, Associate Director of Network Development and Engagement at the National Council on Aging (NCOA), shares insights from her team’s 2022 report, The State of Today’s Senior Centers. They interviewed clients and staff to identify themes around the ideal modern senior center. One important finding was that people who patronize these centers want them to be inclusive and knowledgeable about their clients. 

The Wallis Annenberg GenSpace in Los Angeles provides a case study for an innovative and inclusive senior center. Genspace describes itself as “a destination dedicated to enriching and expanding the lives of older adults by forging new relationships and creative expression through storytelling, technology, art, and horticultural therapy in beautiful green spaces.” 

Ann Batcheller tried other senior centers before finding GenSpace, but never felt at home. “They felt very antiquated, very old, not me,” she says. The encouragement and support she found at GenSpace, along with the beautiful building and gathering spaces, kept her coming back. 

Located in one of the most ethnically diverse neighborhoods in the country, GenSpace costs only $10/month to join thanks to philanthropic support. Because of these factors and the meaningful activity options, people of all backgrounds come together in the space. 

Another nationally-recognized senior center, the Stamford Senior Center in Connecticut, focuses on the specific interests of its members by offering some activities in Spanish, as well as English and Spanish classes. They also center volunteerism; for example, in 2022, about 50 members painted a run-down bridge with brightly-colored water lilies, a beautification project as a gift to the community. 

Focusing on Health and Technology

The NCOA study also found that senior center clients look for programming that’s centered around well-being and health. And, they want to see that not only is the center integrating modern technology into its services and physical space, but teaching its clients about technology, as well.

At GenSpace, clients can stop by a “tech bar” for one-on-one support with their devices, or sign up for classes on tech topics. And fitness class options range from restorative stretching to Latin dance. Other well-being classes include positive psychology workshops, meditation sessions, and nutrition seminars.

Modernizing means considering who’s the audience for a senior center. Today, centers are recognizing how they can better serve the entire family system, including caregivers. And, as people live longer and retirements expand, center leaders are thinking about how to appeal to the multiple generations of seniors who are seeking a community hub—people ranging in age from 55 to centenarians. 


A Set of National Standards for Senior Centers

Another finding from NCOA’s study was that people want nationally-recognized benchmarks for senior center programming and operations. Since the 1970s, NCOA has sponsored the National Institute of Senior Centers (NISC), which offered an accreditation program that set a standard of excellence for senior centers in the country. 

Recently, NISC phased out that program, and this year, they’re starting to offer instead free online self-assessment, called Senior Center Standards of Excellence. Their goal is to make it easier for any senior center to undertake a self-study process with stakeholders to identify strengths, weaknesses, and goals for the future. The standards include Purpose, Community, Governance, Administration and Human Resources, Program Planning, Evaluation, Fiscal Management, Records and Reports, and Facility. Taking part in a Standards of Excellence process puts a senior center in touch with a national network of other centers dedicated to modernizing and serving today’s older adults–not the older generation of 10, 20, or 30 years ago.

NISC also runs an online Modernizing Senior Centers Resource Center available to senior center professionals and the public. 

Nationwide, 11,000 senior centers serve our communities; meanwhile, 11,000 Americans turn 65 every day. As more people need senior centers, “the need to reinvent these vital facilities has never been more pressing,” writes Stone of NCOA in her upcoming CSA Journal article. The good news for all of us is that we’re experiencing a senior center renaissance–led today by the baby boomers, and tomorrow by Gen X.

Blog posting provided by Society of Certified Senior Advisors


Tuesday, December 10, 2024


When the last thing you want to do is spend eternity on the phone with a big company, ring up senior-friendly tech support instead.


If you’ve ever called the customer support line of a major tech company, you may understand why these business-specific helplines are dubbed “cold” tech support. It’s not that the staff aren’t trying to help you figure out why your internet isn’t working or why you’re locked out of your account. But at a huge company, how personalized can that assistance ever be? 

And seniors in particular may have special hesitations about using technology, or may fear being judged for their level of digital literacy. Older people are also more likely to use adaptive settings on technologies to compensate for vision or hearing loss. When these issues are in play, calling a cold support line can be more an exercise in frustration than anything else. 

Many people, including older adults, who seek out tech assistance prefer to talk with “warm” experts–that is, people who either already know them or already know about their particular needs. Warm tech support often comes from a younger family member. And while many adult “kids” are happy to help troubleshoot iPad, laptop, or home technology issues, relying on family isn’t always the best solution. In a study, seniors said they worried about being a burden when they asked family for tech support. And in a recent CSA Journal article, clinical informaticist and gerontologist Stephanie Latta shared the frustrations of some of her clients who feel they have no choice but to be their parent or relative’s personal IT expert; one client described the experience as “exhausting.” Another study found that not all warm experts are expert teachers, and that sometimes informal tech support from family can actually decrease digital learning among older adults. 

So if cold experts aren’t the best help, and family members can’t always serve as the warm experts, where should people turn when they need personalized tech support at home? Reliable tech support isn’t a triviality. Especially today, when we bank and shop online, increasingly use telehealth, and live in smart homes, technology can mean, for some, the difference between aging in place and needing to move. 

Businesses have stepped into this niche: providing tech support tailored to the common needs of seniors and to each client’s current level of technological literacy. Here are some top companies, their support services, and their pricing structure. 

Quincy

With the tagline, “Tech support for non-techies,” Quincy was created by college students at Columbia University. Having provided warm expertise to their grandparents for years, the founders saw the need for a more reliable tech support solution. According to the founders, “Quincy is our love letter to the generations of people who have supported our development and growth.” They offer live, online-only tech support with issues including password management, email setup, and “any internet connected device, service, or application.” 

Quincy offers some free support: there’s no credit card required to sign up for 14 minutes of free live tech support each month. If you want more in-depth assistance, you can also sign up for a one-time support session for $34.99, or subscribe to unlimited online tech support for $18.99/month. 

Candoo Tech

Candoo Tech, a Public Benefit Corp, provides technology support and training for older adults. Their online tech support includes device setup, troubleshooting, and personalized lessons. Email, video calling, and social media are all fair game. They offer one-on-one virtual sessions, a library of guides and videos, and group lessons. 

As a large nationwide company, Candoo Tech partners with organizations like continuing care communities as well as with individuals. For an individual who needs help with a tech issue as soon as possible, they offer hour-long tech support sessions for between $75 and $90. For $19/month, subscribers get an introductory 90-minute session, unlimited “Quick Support” from a Tech Concierge, and access to the online how-to video library.

For a list of the tech that Candoo Tech supports, check out their website.

HelloTech

HelloTech provides both in-home and online support for every piece of tech in your home. They take care of both hardware and software problems: from mounting a TV on your wall to setting up your new smartphone. They help with home security systems, WiFi networks, printers, and mobile devices.

HelloTech doesn’t specifically advertise to older adults, and we can’t vouch for how the company trains its technicians to work with seniors. But judging from their business model, they’re attuned to the many ways that modern technology frustrates its users, and they offer support to people with varying levels of tech experience and confidence. Some of their recent blog articles include: “Ring Video Doorbell Settings You Should Change,” “What is a Fire Stick and How Does It Work?”, and “What To Do When Siri is Not Working on Your iPhone.” Their technicians help with all these issues. 

Interestingly, HelloTech also offers “Around the Home” services including yard care, holiday light hanging, and furniture assembly. While they don’t state it explicitly, part of their mission seems to be to support customers with limited mobility.

Memberships start at $4.17/month for 24/7 online-only support, and $16.58/month gets you home visits for their wide variety of services at $69/visit. They also offer a la carte in-home services. 

More Ways to Level Up Your Tech Skills

Quincy, Candoo Tech, and HelloTech all provide targeted tech support when you’re having a moment of frustration. For the in-between times, when you’re just curious to learn more about how to make the most of your computer, phone, or tablet, other organizations offer classes and tutoring with older adults in mind. Here are a few: 

  • OATS from AARP: Older Adults Technology Service operates Senior Planet locations and provides a wealth of online resources to support seniors in living better in the digital age. 

  • Cyber-Seniors: This non-profit links trained youth volunteers with older adults for free online tech lessons.

  • GetSetUp: “Live classes for older adults, by older adults,” on a wide range of tech topics (plus cooking, lifestyle, and travel classes, too).

  • Local Area Agencies on Aging and public libraries: Don’t forget to look locally for in-person technology classes in your community.


Sources:


 
 
 

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