Ten years ago, Barbara Cooper’s parents made what they thought was their final move to the Harborside Retirement Community in Port Washington, New York.
“They had beautiful brunches every Sunday, intellectual activities that my mom loved. It was just a beautiful place,” Cooper told CBS News.
Joyce and Norman Cooper had earned it, saving diligently. To get in, they paid $946,000.
“It was a lot of money, but they’d have health care for the rest of their lives in the same building, in the same place and be together,” Barbara Cooper said.
The Harborside offered independent living, assisted living, nursing and memory care, all on one campus. The facility is known as a continuing care retirement community, or CCRC. Many use an unorthodox financial model: there’s a large entrance fee and smaller, fixed monthly fees. But when residents die, their heirs, like Barbara, get much of the entrance fee back.
“We were supposed to get 80% back. That’s not happening anymore,” Barbara Cooper said.
That’s because the Harborside went bankrupt in 2023. It was one of at least 15 CCRCs that have filed for bankruptcy in the last six years.
Harborside’s most vulnerable residents had to move out. At 94, Arlene Kohen was one of them. Her daughter, Beverly, found her a new facility, but it costs $10,000 more per month than the Harborside. Even worse — the family’s entrance fee of $710,000 vanished, Beverly Kohen said.
Beverly and other heirs hired a lawyer and hope to eventually get about 30% of the fee back. Representatives for the Harborside did not respond to CBS News’ request for comment.
Joyce and Norman Cooper also lost their entrance fee and moved out. With different medical needs, including Norman’s dementia, the couple was separated into two different facilities after more than 70 years of marriage.
“They were there to be together for the rest of their lives and had to split up. And that really did them in,” Barbara Cooper said.
Soon after, Barbara’s mother died. Three weeks after that, her father died.
“We did not tell him that my mom died, but somehow he knew,” Barbara Cooper said.
Barbara said she looks at the experience as a cautionary tale. When asked what advice she would give to seniors, she said, “Find out what happens with the money. If it’s not safeguarded, then it’s too risky.”
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