Consumer Friendly Books on Retirement Communities

This week is Spring Break for our law school and I've had a bit of time to catch up on my  stack of "must read" books.  Here are two that caught my attention:

Settling In: My First Year in a Retirement Community, by Richard L. Morgan (2007):

    "At age seventy-four, I left my home in the state of North Carolina, which I dearly loved and where I had lived for fifty years, to come to a retirement community in Pennsylvania.  In a real way, I left my identity, forged over years of hard work and experience, to start a new life as a relative nobody.  At times I endured sleepless nights, worrying if I had made the right decision."  

With that beginning, the writer tracks his evolution in thinking about a retirement community, candidly describing excitement and depression, while achieving a growing sense of engagement with his new environment.  A retired Presbyterian minister, the writer uses both religious and non-religious texts to supplement his thinking. There's a real honesty here that transcends any religion, and the book seems useful not just for new or prospective residents but also for adult children and care-givers.

What's the Deal with Retirement Communities?, by Brad C. Breeding, Certified Financial Planner (2014):

    I met the author a few years ago while he was in the development phase of a project to provide consumer-friendly internet materials on continuing care retirement communities (and more on that in a few days!).  But he also has a helpful little book that offers objective information on how to assess a community, including chapters on understanding various types of contracts and financial viability factors.  A good place to start for someone who wants to ask the right questions.