Senior Living Placement Professionals — Vetted Local Advisors

A good local placement advisor can save a family weeks of research — they know the communities, the pricing, and which buildings are struggling. But most are paid referral fees by the communities they place you in, and national call-center services have drawn serious scrutiny for recommending only communities that pay them. You deserve advisors whose incentives you can see.

Start here: Finding help choosing a facility — all your options for getting help, including how placement specialists work like a realtor for senior care (paid by the community, not by you). Then how placement services really work for the business model in depth and the questions to ask.

What we verify before listing an advisor

Every advisor in this directory must pass all ten checks — and we publish the answers, not just a badge:

1. Business standing — active state registration and at least 2 years in operation (or 2+ years of verifiable placement experience)
2. State registration where required — Oregon advisors must appear on the state’s public Long-Term Care Referral Registry; Nevada advisors must hold current state registration; Washington advisors attest compliance with the state’s referral-agency disclosure law (RCW 18.330)
3. Written fee disclosure — we review their actual pre-referral disclosure form: who pays them, how the fee is computed, and their refund policy. Required by law in Oregon and Washington; we require it everywhere, including California and Idaho, where placement is unregulated
4. Liability insurance — current certificate at the $1 million level Oregon and Washington law requires
5. Background & credentials — criminal background check, and any claimed credentials (like the exam-based CPRS certification) verified with the issuing body
6. Local, in-person service — based in the market they serve, has personally toured the communities they recommend within the past year, and will tour with you
7. Conflict-of-interest answers, published verbatim — “Do you ever recommend communities that don’t pay you?” and “Does your fee vary by community?”
8. Complaint screen — BBB, state attorney general actions, and court records
9. References — recent placed families plus a professional reference who doesn’t pay them
10. Ethics commitment — a signed code of conduct, with delisting for verified violations

Verify an advisor yourself

Even without our directory, you can check a lot in ten minutes:

• Oregon: every legitimate referral agent must be registered — search them on the state registry. Not there? Walk away.
• Washington: the law requires a written disclosure of fees and refund policy before any referral, with your signed acknowledgment. If you didn’t get one, that’s your answer.
• California and Idaho: placement agencies are effectively unregulated — ask for the fee disclosure and insurance certificate anyway, and treat refusal as a red flag.
• Everywhere: ask “Will you show me communities that don’t pay you a fee?” and “When did you last personally visit the places you’re recommending?”

Free alternatives

If you’d rather not use a commercial service, real help is available at no cost:

• Eldercare Locator — 1-800-677-1116, the federal service connecting families to local aging resources
• Your Area Agency on Aging — care navigation and options counseling in every county
• Long-Term Care Ombudsman — advocates for residents; can tell you about complaint histories
• Government help finding and paying for care

Are you a placement professional?

If you already work the way the best in this industry do — registered, insured, transparent about fees, touring with families in person — you’re exactly who we want families to find. Apply to be listed — listing is free for the founding cohort, and transparency about compensation is a condition of listing.