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In 2025, the baby boomer generation is standing at the industry’s doorstep. Trustwell Living CEO and senior living industry pioneer Larry Cohen has prepared for this moment for decades.
Cohen, who is the former CEO of Capital Senior Living – the operator now known as Sonida Senior Living (NYSE: SNDA) – has seen many real estate cycles over the years, ranging from industry’s infancy and growth in the ‘80s and ‘90s to the Great Financial Recession and Covid-19. All that time, he and many other industry executives have anticipated an “age wave” in the form of the millions of aging baby boomers.
Now, that age wave is nearly cresting and the oldest boomers are turning 79 in 2025.
“It’s not just people talking about the age wave, it’s real now,” Cohen told Senior Housing News. “It’s a very interesting time for this industry – and I’ve experienced all of it. The challenges change, but I do think that the fundamentals are as positive as they’ve ever been.”
But Trustwell Living and other senior living operators have their work cut out for them in the years to come. While there is plenty of demand to be had, it’s also no secret that senior living companies must grow and evolve to meet that demand. For operating companies with third-party turnaround experience like New York City-based Trustwell, growth often hinges on how well they are able to work with larger partners to meet desired operational and financial outcomes.
With a management portfolio that spans 42 properties, Cohen believes that the future of his company increasingly depends on its ability to analyze and collect data. And to that end, the company is now plugged into a data platform that he believes rivals that of large senior living real estate investment trusts (REITs) like Ventas (NYSE: VTR) and others.
“We have really invested in systems, information, data and people,” Cohen said. “I think it gives us a big competitive advantage.”
That investment in data, among other things, also gives Trustwell the ability to fine-tune its operations to generate the right amount of revenue matched to its expenses. In 2025, Cohen said the operator will use its capabilities to help its community leaders improve performance and solve future challenges.
“We’re adding more to that and making the investments to give our great team members the best tools to be successful,” he said.
Data as a competitive advantage
At the heart of Trustwell’s new data capabilities is a belief that businesses need real-time financial information to make good decisions. Although that may seem like an obvious point, many operators still struggle with finding and analyzing the right kind of data and industry benchmarks. Accessing large pools of data is also particularly challenging given operators’ limited footprints.
In recent years, senior living operators have sometimes relied on help from larger partners that work with many different companies to determine their best way forward. For example, Ventas operating partners have access to a larger database of operational metrics, dubbed Ventas OI, that they can compare their businesses performance to.
Similarly, Trustwell has access to a database it has built with its community ownership partners. Cohen and Trustwell’s community leaders can use it to compare resident rates, marketing strategies and staffing expenses with other communities in real time.
Trustwell can study markets and perform competitive rate analyses using a wider dataset than it could alone. The company also uses data analytics to track with surgical accuracy how much it charges for resident care to ensure a healthy margin. Trustwell recently analyzed its care levels and adjusted pricing using that approach.
“We have increased some of the fees at the higher levels, and in some cases on the lower levels, we may be adjusted down,” he said. “Now, we’re making sure that we’re capturing it.”
Trustwell additionally uses its database to determine the exact right amount of spending to adequately meet demand and maintain quality in a community. To that end, the company is in 2025 studying a swath of data points from staffing and response times to food costs and utilities, with an eye on cost efficiency and maximizing results.
For instance, the company’s executive directors and regionals can use the database to analyze payroll spend and match their staffing expenses to other similar properties in their area.
Trustwell’s leaders leaned on the company’s new data capabilities during a recent three-month deep-dive into its communities’ budgets, which Cohen said revealed some “redundancies and confusion” and ultimately prompted new operational adjustments and efficiencies.
That is all ultimately in service of driving better community results. The company has specialized in turnaround opportunities over the years, and Cohen believes that, for operators, access to data and operational discipline usually spells the difference between stagnation and success.
“We are refining and collecting all the information and making sure that we’re taking what data and putting it into a format that allows the [community and regional leaders] understand what is expected and how they are performing to expectations,” Cohen said.
Trustwell’s next chapter
In 2023 Trustwell Living onboarded 41 senior living communities in 90 days, a task that is tough for even seasoned operators. In 2024, the company had a “pivotal” year marked by the rise of its new data platform.
Now, the company is bolstering its leadership in preparation for a new year. The company recently hired industry veteran and alumnus of Sunrise Senior Living, Holiday Retirement and Eclipse Senior Living Jamison Gosselin as vice president of marketing in addition to two new regional directors of sales.
As it prepares to look to a new chapter, some of Trustwell’s earliest efforts are starting to bear fruit. The company initially started with a portfolio of five communities, into which it invested $5 million for renovations and repositioning.
Those renovations wrapped up at the end of 2023, and in the year that followed, the buildings gained 12 percentage points of occupancy. The coming year is an “inflection year” wherein the portfolio will generate cashflow – proof to Cohen that the company’s method of slow and constant improvement can pay off.
“We’re looking at having the infrastructure in place, having the systems, having the people, and then … grow off this base, and do it in a way that is additive,” he said. “I expect to see continued improvement in financial performance and I expect that we will see growth in 2025.”
