Founder's Fees: FSA Eligibility

What is a founder's fee?

Founder's fees, also known as a life-care fee, are additional expenses charged by nursing homes or retirement facilities that are made for the home's promise to provide lifetime care for the patient, as well as direct medical care. In some cases, this fee is laid out in a life-care contract offered by the facility, and taxpayers can deduct a portion of this expense each year as long as it is properly allocated to offer direct medical care to patients (Paying for Senior Care).

In most cases, founder's fees are a concern for caregivers of elderly patients and physically or mentally impaired children. Payments made to a private institution for lifetime care of a dependent upon the death or inability to provide care of the payee are considered deductible medical expenses under the condition that the institution that receives these payments will take over the care of the child and aren't refundable as deductible medical expenses.

Why aren't founder's fees covered by consumer-directed healthcare accounts?

Under IRC 213(d)(1), "medical care includes amounts paid for the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease, or for the purpose of affecting any structure or function of the body." This includes medical equipment, supplies and devices." Because founder's fees are conditional expenses that are paid for the prospect of future care and not directly relating to medical care conducted during an account holder's current plan year, they are not eligible for reimbursement with consumer-directed healthcare accounts.