What I Thought About After Reading This Article

Today, The Wall Street Journal re-shared an article about a woman who paid nearly $1 million to join a continuing care retirement community—only to lose it all when the facility went bankrupt. Since 2020, at least 16 similar communities have failed.

The Plant Home wasn’t one of them. But that doesn’t mean the risk wasn’t real.

I joined the board of The Plant Home because I believed in its mission. What I found was a facility left vulnerable by a lack of sustainable funding, inconsistent oversight, and shrinking public trust. And at the center of it all was a skilled, committed board doing everything it could—fighting for a future we knew was worth saving.

That’s the part no one talks about: who’s in the room when the future is being decided. Board members can make or break a nonprofit care community. I’ve seen it up close—and I’ve lived the consequences.

That’s why I built Maine Aging Partners. My job isn’t just helping families choose a care option. It’s helping them understand how those options work—who owns them, who governs them, and what that means when things go wrong.

Naming the truth makes people uncomfortable. It’s cost me a lot. But I’ll keep doing it—because families deserve clarity before crisis.