What Is a Senior Placement Agency?

A placement agency is a go-between. It learns what an older adult needs, then points the family toward homes that may be able to provide it. In California those homes are assisted living communities and board and care homes, licensed as residential care facilities for the elderly (RCFEs), including homes set up for memory care.

The work usually looks like this:

• A conversation about care needs, health conditions, daily habits, preferred location and monthly budget.
• A short list of homes that may fit, with an explanation of why each is on it.
• Help arranging tours. Some agents go on the tours with the family, and some do not.
• Help understanding what a home is quoting and what its paperwork asks for.
• Sometimes a check-in after the move.

A placement agency does not house anyone, employ caregivers or give medical care. The home does that, under its own state license. An agency also does not license or inspect homes. That is the job of the Community Care Licensing Division of the California Department of Social Services.

An agency cannot decide whether a home will accept your mother or father. The home makes that decision after its own assessment of the person. And an agency's opinion does not replace the public record. You can look up any home's license, visits and complaint findings yourself. Our guide on how to check an RCFE license shows where.

California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform (CANHR), a consumer group, says most private referral and placement agencies offer their services to consumers for free because they are paid a commission by the facility for a placement. A smaller number of advisers, such as care managers, charge the family instead, usually by the hour.

That arrangement keeps help within reach for families, and it also creates a conflict you should know about. CANHR warns that agencies may steer people toward homes they have contracts with, even when another home might provide better care. The California Department of Aging puts it this way: referral agencies may only be referring you to facilities that pay them.

So ask the question directly, and ask whether the agent ever suggests a home that does not pay. Our page on whether senior placement is free explains how this works for Hamssa LLC.

Both are referral services, and both are usually paid by the home. The difference is in how they work. A national referral website generally collects your contact details through an online form, then has an adviser call you and send a list of communities that take part in its network. Your details may be passed to several of those communities, which then contact you themselves.

A local placement agent usually covers a small area, meets families in person and may know the homes and their owners firsthand. Neither model is right or wrong by nature. A website can cover a wide area quickly. A local agent can often tell you what a home is like on an ordinary Tuesday. What matters is what the service actually does for you, which our comparison of a placement agency and searching on your own goes through.

The rules are short, and it helps to know exactly what they cover. Health and Safety Code section 1569.47 defines a placement agency broadly. The definition includes county departments, hospital discharge planners and private agencies that provide placement or referral services for older adults. The section then sets four duties:

• No unsuitable placements. An agency must not place a person in an RCFE when, because of a health condition, the person cannot be cared for within the limits of the home's license or needs inpatient care in a health facility.
• Licensed homes only. An agency or its employee must not place, refer or recommend a person to a facility providing care and supervision unless it is licensed as an RCFE or is exempt from licensing.
• Report unlicensed homes. An employee who knows or reasonably suspects that a facility is operating without a required license must report its name and address to the state licensing department.
• Report danger to residents. An agency must notify the licensing agency of known or suspected incidents that would put residents' health or safety at risk, such as physical abuse, a violation of personal rights, or a home that is unclean or short of staff.

Not for referrals to assisted living or board and care homes. Section 1569.47 makes a violation of the first three duties above a misdemeanor, so the rules have teeth. What the law does not do is license the agencies themselves.

A separate chapter of the Health and Safety Code, starting at section 1400, requires a state license for anyone who refers people for pay to skilled nursing or intermediate care facilities. As written, that chapter does not cover referrals to RCFEs. A bill in the 2023 to 2024 session, SB 875, would have required a license and written disclosures from agencies that refer to RCFEs. It did not pass, and it died when that session ended in November 2024. As of October 2026, the two code sections read as described here.

In practice this means there is no state license number to look up for an RCFE placement agency, and no required disclosure form. The checking falls to you. Our guide on how to choose a placement agency lists what to ask.

You also do not need an agency to act on a concern about a home. If someone is in immediate danger, call 911. Complaints about a licensed care home, or about a place that seems to be providing care without a license, go to California's Community Care Licensing Division at 1-844-538-8766.

Hamssa LLC is a one-person placement agency in Torrance, so families work with Hamssa Benrekia herself from the first conversation to the tours. She helps them find assisted living and board and care homes in the South Bay and Harbor area of Los Angeles County, not statewide. She refers only to licensed homes she has toured, and she checks each home's public licensing record. To talk through your situation, contact Hamssa, or start with the California Assisted Living Placement Guide for the rest of the decision.