Congratulations to the HJ Sims team for an outstanding 2025 Late Winter Conference held in February in Fort Worth, Texas. This event is always filled with invaluable education, trending topics and insights into senior living’s future, fun activities (complete with line dancing lessons and a photo op with a massive long-horned steer!) and engaging social connections. Here are three lessons I learned from the conference.
1. Lessons Learned from Distressed Properties
The session I found particularly insightful was the panel on distressed communities. The panel of Wendy Carpenter (CEO, EdenHill Communities), Kimberly Fuson (former CEO, Cedar Sinai Park) and Cherie Grisso (CFO, Aldersgate) shared many great insights, and I suspect the most important observation is also the most difficult to apply. CEOs must not allow sacred cows to hold them back from making the best decisions for their companies, even when these are exceedingly hard decisions to make.
The panel also stressed, in various ways, the importance of educating board members so that they can genuinely fulfill the governance role. Two of the panelists inherited situations where the governing board did not pay attention to growing signs that were present for many years leading up to the crisis.
The panel agreed that board members may be very well intentioned, but good intentions can’t make up for a lack of financial acumen, a willingness to listen to qualified consultants and the courage to raise their hands when they don’t understand the financial reports being shared with them. Without these qualities, a board can’t fulfill its governance responsibilities.
2. Acquisition Insights
The mergers and acquisitions panel proved valuable by sharing insights from both sides of the deal, featuring Simcha Buff (Chief Legal Officer, Comprehensive Care Capital), Jeff Gentry (EVP and COO, Buckner International) and Reed VanderSlik (President and CEO, ThriveMore).
The panel shared highly practical advice on arriving at go/no-go decisions about potential affiliations, which included:
- Does the opportunity enhance and/or help sustain your mission?
- Will the opportunity add value to your brand?
- Is the asset a strategic fit for your portfolio?
- Will the asset in question diversify your portfolio?
- How does the affiliation/acquisition enhance your workforce?
- Does the opportunity make financial sense?
- Do you have the resources and expertise to operate the asset under consideration?
- Will the affiliation/acquisition accelerate your time to market?
Just as helpful were the more generalized observations the panel shared, such as:
- Nurture relationships over time, as they do matter. Build a strong relationship with the outgoing owner for working through difficult scenarios that may later arise.
- Sellers should be prepared for how unexpectedly hard it is by the end of the due diligence process to remain objective about the deal.
- Acquisitions can be more appealing than a new build situation because the residents in place workforce means you have time and cash flow to “fix” issues—if the root cause(s) of the distressed asset is solvable, like inefficiencies and related operational gaps.
3. Airport Construction CAN Be Inspiring
I’ve never thought of busy airports as a positive thing before, but HJ Sims SVP and Director of Credit Analysis Gayl Mileszko shared a wonderful illustration that compares the senior living growth imperative with Dallas Fort Worth International Airport construction.
She conjured images of the airport’s never-ending construction projects—seemingly impervious to any ebbs and flows of outside factors—as an inspiration for us all to plow forward relentlessly with hope in our growth plans, through all senior living’s ups and downs.
Construction hasn’t slowed down at the airport and neither should our field as we seek to meet the inexhaustible demand of ageing boomers. The entire conference was filled with insights and guides on how to make that progress happen.
More Insights On Senior Living Growth
Much of this year’s HJ Sims conference echoed insightful ideas that Managing Principal Aaron Rulnick shared as a panelist on Love & Company’s own webinar A Look Ahead At 2025 webinar—Strategies for Growth and Innovation in Life Plan Communities, which also shared practical insights into building and educating boards and getting creative in how we all think about acquisitions. Check it out.
