Hiring a Senior Move Manager: What NASMM Members Do, What It Costs, and When It Is Worth It

There is a profession many families have never heard of. And it exists for exactly this reason. A senior move manager specializes in helping older adults downsize, sort, pack, sell, donate, and move, with patience and skill that most adult children cannot match. The trade group is the National Association of Senior Move Managers, NASMM, founded in 2002. NASMM has roughly 1,000 member firms across the United States and Canada, and members follow a code of ethics and complete training in working with older adults.

A senior move manager is not a moving company. The moving company shows up the day of the move and carries boxes. The senior move manager has been at the home for weeks or months beforehand, sorting closets, labeling china, scheduling estate sales, coordinating donations, hiring the movers, planning the new layout, and showing up at the new home to unpack and hang the curtains. Some firms call this concierge service. The work is part organizer, part counselor, part project manager.

The people who do this work tend to be patient, calm, and skilled at the emotional side. They have seen hundreds of homes. They do not blink at unusual collections, secret rooms, or the long pauses an 85-year-old needs to make a decision. They are also outside the family, which is often the single most useful thing they bring. An older adult who refuses to give a sweater to a daughter may hand the same sweater to a senior move manager without a fight, because the manager carries no family history.

Cost varies, but ranges are well documented. Most NASMM members charge between $50 and $125 per hour, with a typical full downsize-and-move project costing between $3,000 and $10,000 for a smaller home, and $10,000 to $30,000 for a large long-lived home. Estate sale services usually take a 30 to 50 percent commission on items sold, with a clean-out at the end included. Many firms offer free initial consultations and will give written estimates.

A senior move manager is worth the cost when the family is far away, when the adult children work full time, when the home is large or has been lived in for many decades, when the older adult is overwhelmed, or when family relationships are strained around the topic. They are also worth it when the move has a tight deadline, such as a sold house or a scheduled move into assisted living. The cost is real but often offset by faster turnaround, fewer family fights, and better prices for sold items.

(Sources: National Association of Senior Move Managers — Find a Member Directory and Code of Ethics; AARP — Hiring a Senior Move Manager; Family Caregiver Alliance — Moving an Older Adult)