• Consumer and village cohort analysis.
• Contract structure review and development.Practical and attractive contract structure recommendations and insights.

There are several reasons that organisations may seek a review of their contract structures, including to identify and resolve issues that may be contributing to resident confusion, disputes and dissatisfaction. They may also need to align fee structures with the sociodemographic and socioeconomic characteristics of consumers and to ensure the contracts offered are competitive against other operators of retirement villages.

Another driver to seek this review is the continuously evolving legislative framework governing the Deferred Management Fee (DMF) contract and other operator and consumer rights and obligations.

As part of contract structure reviews, Ansell Strategic provides tailored assistance to specifically target an organisation’s key present and likely future challenges, including:

• Collating feedback on consumer expectations and priorities through surveying existing consumers and the organisation’s teams;
• A detailed analysis of existing consumer profiles and segmentation across socioeconomic and sociodemographic divides.
• The review of existing retirement village stock and grouping villages by many variants, typically ranging them from low quality to high-quality stock;
• An analysis of the operator’s existing DMF options and other fee structures available. This is undertaken in the context of the identified consumer price tolerances and village price uptake potential; and 
• The development of new contract options, or refining of existing contract options, that are tailored to the specific consumer and retirement village cohorts.

We understand it is vital to gather feedback from the consumer and prospective consumers to effectively deliver on their expectations, preferences and price tolerances.

We anticipate that as the sector continues to evolve, many operators will be required to offer greater options and flexibility. They will also become more targeted in their marketing and pricing strategies if they are to appeal to the wealthier, more educated and business-savvy Baby Boomer generation of seniors.