Getting your RAD back
Historical article – pre-1 November 2025 aged care changes
Money you pay as a lump sum for your residential aged care room will be refunded to your estate – so what do you need to know about when and how your money is refunded.
Accommodation payments (called Refundable Accommodation Deposits – RADs for short) are one of the most misunderstood areas of residential aged care. Many people don’t realise that a RAD is not “lost” money but is refundable when you leave care or pass away.
When entering care you will have the choice to pay for your room as a lump sum or a daily fee. If you pay the lump sum you give up access to this money while you live in care, but it remains part of your wealth and can be left as an inheritance for your family. If you choose to pay the daily fee, this money is not refundable.
How much is refundable?
The full RAD paid is refundable. But if you ask the care provider to take ongoing care fees from your RAD (instead of paying these fees from your bank account) this reduces how much is refundable as you are spending some of the RAD paid.
The rules were different before 1 July 2014, so you may have had experience with a family member who did not get all their money back in previous years. The rules are also different for retirement villages where you may lose a portion of your entry cost as a deferred management fee or refurbishment fee.
Under the current residential aged care rules, as long as you pay your other fees in full each month, there will be nothing to deduct from the RAD and it is fully refundable.
Example:
John moves into residential aged care with a room price of $500,000. He cashes investments to pay the full lump sum RAD and uses his remaining savings and income streams to pay all of his ongoing care fees along the way. When Alasdair passes away, the care provider will refund $500,000 to his estate.
You do not receive interest on your money while you live in care – but payment of the lump sum reduces the daily fees that would otherwise be payable.
When is the RAD refunded?
After you pass away, your executor may need to obtain probate and show it to the care provider. The provider then has 14 days to pay the refund.
Some providers might not ask for probate and have a cheque ready to pay the refund when your family come to collect your personal items. It is up to the provider to decide if they want to see probate or not. The reason for probate is to ensure that the person coming to collect the refund is the person legally able to collect the money for the estate.
As an Accredited Aged Care ProfessionalTM, I can provide advice to remove the uncertainty and help you choose the best strategy for you.
If you want to talk through your options or find out more information for your situation, call my office on 0431 414 799 to find out how I might help.
This advice is general in nature and everyone’s circumstances are different. So it’s important to speak to someone like myself who is a licenced financial adviser (I am an Authorised Representative of Count Financial Limited AFSL 227232).
