CCRC Hilton Head SC: TidePointe, Cypress, Seabrook

A continuing care retirement community, or CCRC (many now say “life plan community”), sells two things at once: a home in independent living and a promise of care later on the same campus, in its own assisted living, nursing and memory care. You pay a one-time entrance fee when you move in, part of which may be refundable to you or your estate, and a monthly fee after that.

The contract sets what later care costs. With a Type A (life care) contract, the monthly fee barely changes if you move to nursing care. With Type B (modified) you get a set amount of care at a discount. With Type C (fee-for-service) you pay for care at the going rate, but residents get priority for a bed. Ask each community which type it sells, how much of the entrance fee is refunded and when, and what happens if your savings run out.

• TidePointe, a Vi Community: on Broad Creek, mid-island, run by Vi, a company with ten communities. Apartments and cottages in ten floor plans. Its own site calls it a Type C community: an entrance fee, with care at Broad Creek Care Center (assisted living and 25 skilled-nursing beds) on a fee-for-service basis, members first.

• The Cypress of Hilton Head: 100 acres inside Hilton Head Plantation, with three private golf holes. The difference here is ownership: residents buy and own their home, and resales are listed by The Cypress itself. Care is at The Preston Health Center (58 beds, with The Dogwood memory-care neighborhood).

• The Seabrook of Hilton Head: the island’s nonprofit CCRC, open since 1982, near Sea Pines Circle and the closest of the three to the south-end beaches. Independent-living apartments, with care at Fraser Health Center (33 Medicare-certified beds, including memory care). Its site does not publish its contract type, so ask.

The Bayshore is sometimes listed with these three, but it rents by the month with no buy-in and brings assisted living to residents’ own apartments instead of running a health center. It and Holiday Indigo Pines are on the independent living page.