CCRCs (also called Life Plan Communities) let a healthy retiree move in once and stay through assisted living, memory care, or nursing — but the entrance-fee contract you sign determines everything. Here's how Florida regulates them and what to check before you pay a deposit.
By Orlando Senior Advisor Care Team · September 27, 2026
A Continuing Care Retirement Community — increasingly marketed as a "Life Plan Community" — is different from a standalone assisted living community in one key way: you move in while still independent, pay an entrance fee plus a monthly fee, and the community guarantees access to higher levels of care (assisted living, memory care, skilled nursing) on the same campus as your needs change. Central Florida has a real supply of these: Westminster Winter Park is the best-known local example, and the Orlando metro has several others, from Winter Park to the Space Coast side of the region.
Florida had 70 licensed CCRCs statewide as of the most recent state count, serving more than 27,500 residents under a continuing-care contract — plus several thousand more residents living in the rental-only sections of those same campuses, who don't get the same statutory protections. That distinction matters: ask specifically whether the unit you're touring is under an entrance-fee continuing-care contract or a straight month-to-month rental, because only the former carries Florida's Chapter 651 protections.
Florida CCRCs sell three basic contract shapes, and the letter on the paperwork changes your financial exposure enormously. A Type A ("Extensive" or life-care) contract charges a larger entrance fee but keeps your monthly payment essentially flat even if you move from independent living to memory care or skilled nursing — the community absorbs the cost risk. A Type B ("Modified") contract has a lower entrance fee and includes a set number of days of higher-level care at no extra charge (commonly 30 to 60 days), after which you pay a per-diem rate that's usually discounted from the market rate but is still an added cost. A Type C ("Fee-for-Service") contract has the lowest entrance fee of the three, but you pay full market price for assisted living or nursing care if and when you need it — cheaper to enter, riskier to stay.
There's no universally "best" type; it's a trade-off between paying more now for price certainty later (Type A) versus paying less now and carrying the risk yourself (Type C). A family with long-term-care insurance or substantial reserve funds may reasonably choose Type C; a family that wants a fixed, predictable budget for the next 15–20 years often leans toward Type A or B.
Florida regulates CCRC contracts through the Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR), not AHCA — continuing care is treated as a specialty insurance product, and a provider must hold a Certificate of Authority from OIR before it can collect an entrance fee. Before you commit money, ask the community for its current disclosure statement and its most recent audited financial statement; state reform effective in 2020 strengthened these requirements, but the financial health of the specific provider is still yours to check, not the state's to guarantee. One statewide finding worth knowing: more than 60% of Florida CCRC providers use resident entrance fees to help cover normal operating expenses rather than holding them purely in reserve — which is common industry practice, but it's exactly why the audited financials matter more here than at a standard rental assisted living community.
Also confirm, in writing: whether any part of the entrance fee is refundable to your estate and under what formula (some decline over a fixed number of years, some stay level, some are fully non-refundable after a short rescission window); what triggers a monthly-fee increase and how it's calculated; and what happens financially if you need to leave for a higher level of care that the specific campus doesn't offer on-site. An elder-law attorney or a local senior-care advisor who has read the specific provider's disclosure statement — not just a general CCRC brochure — is worth the fee before signing anything with a five- or six-figure entrance payment attached.
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