A reasonable scenario range for estimated owner-operator benefit is about $79,500 to $140,500 annually for a Senior Care Authority Placement Agency with one Marketing Area after more than 54 months of marketing. The base scenario is about $108,200. These figures are pre-tax estimates, not earnings reported by the franchisor.
What does the 2026 FDD actually disclose?
The official disclosure measures Gross Sales, not owner earnings. For calendar 2025, Item 19 reports revenue ranges, averages, and medians for full-time franchised Placement Agencies grouped by months since beginning marketing and by single versus multiple Marketing Areas. It does not disclose expenses or profit.
The most relevant mature single-area cohort contained 23 Placement Agencies with more than 54 months of marketing. Their official median Gross Sales were $295,018, average Gross Sales were $228,670, and the disclosed range was $51,398 to $462,948. Because Gross Sales are revenue before expenses, none of those figures can be treated as salary, take-home pay, or business profit.
Pre-tax annual scenario range before financing principal and personal income taxes.
Mature single-Marketing-Area cohort in calendar 2025.
Single-area agencies with more than 54 months since beginning marketing.
Broad Tax Year 2023 Social Assistance sole-proprietor proxy, including owner labor.
Subject to monthly minimums for each Marketing Area.
For one Marketing Area, before any permitted future increase.
The FDD's $295,018 mature single-area median is a revenue statistic. Owner earnings require deductions for royalty, marketing and technology, bookkeeping, insurance, travel, local marketing, occupancy, labor, referral fees when applicable, and other operating costs.
| 2025 mature cohort | Agencies | Median Gross Sales | Average Gross Sales |
|---|---|---|---|
| One Marketing Area, 54+ months | 23 | $295,018 | $228,670 |
| Multiple Marketing Areas, 54+ months | 7 | $483,084 | $602,725 |
Source: 2026 Senior Care Authority FDD, Item 19, pp. 36–38. Multiple-area results are per Placement Agency, not per Marketing Area, and include a small cohort with varying configurations; they should not be multiplied or normalized without additional records.
How is the annual owner-earnings range estimated?
The estimate applies a broad official net-income benchmark to an FDD-anchored sales range. The base revenue is the $295,018 Item 19 median for mature single-area Placement Agencies. Because Item 19 provides no quartiles for that cohort, the conservative and upside revenue anchors are explicit analytical assumptions at 80% and 120% of the median.
The base margin is 36.675%, calculated from IRS Tax Year 2023 Social Assistance sole proprietorships: $9.409 billion of Net Income Less Deficit divided by $25.655 billion of Business Receipts. The conservative and upside margins are three percentage points below and above that benchmark. This is a broad sector proxy, not a same-brand margin.
| Scenario | Revenue anchor | Net-income margin | Owner-operator benefit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | $236,014 | 33.7% | $79,500 |
| Base | $295,018 | 36.7% | $108,200 |
| Upside | $354,022 | 39.7% | $140,500 |
Estimated annual owner-operator benefit under three revenue-and-margin combinations.
Interpretation: Revenue and operating efficiency compound; the scenario range is not a probability forecast and the base case is not presented as the most likely outcome.
Sources and formula: 2026 Senior Care Authority FDD, Item 19, pp. 36–38; IRS Nonfarm Sole Proprietorship Statistics, Tax Year 2023. Formula: revenue × scenario margin, calculated at full precision and rounded to the nearest $100.
- Includes normal unit-level expenses in aggregate through the IRS net-income ratio, including recurring franchise costs only to the extent comparable businesses reported them within deductions.
- Includes owner labor value. A sole proprietor does not deduct a salary paid to the proprietor, so the resulting figure is owner-operator benefit rather than passive business profit.
- Interest and depreciation are embedded only to the extent reported in the IRS aggregate. Senior Care Authority-specific amounts are unavailable.
- Excludes financing principal, personal income taxes, and unmodeled capital spending. It is not after-tax take-home pay.
How does owner involvement change the result?
Owner involvement can determine whether the modeled benefit is compensation for work or residual business profit. Item 15 requires the Placement Agency to be under the owner’s or a Designated Manager’s direct, day-to-day, full-time supervision. Therefore, an owner-operator scenario and a manager-run scenario are economically different.
For the manager-run comparison, the model subtracts $86,778, annualized from the BLS May 2023 median hourly wage of $41.72 for General and Operations Managers in NAICS 624100 Individual and Family Services. The BLS figure excludes self-employed workers and does not include employer payroll taxes or benefits, so actual manager cost could be higher.
Owner-operator benefit compared with estimated manager-run residual, before financing principal and personal taxes.
Interpretation: In the conservative scenario, the BLS wage proxy exceeds estimated owner-operator benefit. Even in the base scenario, only about $21,400 remains before payroll burden, benefits, debt principal, and personal taxes.
Sources: 2026 Senior Care Authority FDD, Item 15, pp. 29–30; BLS May 2023 wage estimates for NAICS 624100. Manager compensation is an external labor proxy, not a disclosed Senior Care Authority expense.
The $79,500 to $140,500 range should be read as estimated owner-operator benefit. It may combine residual operating profit with the market value of full-time work performed by the owner. It is not a passive-income range.
Which FDD fees materially affect annual earnings?
The largest disclosed recurring obligation is the 8% royalty on Gross Sales. For one Marketing Area, the FDD also requires a $950 monthly Marketing and Technology Support Fee and a QuickBooks Online subscription currently estimated at $960 to $1,380 per year. Referral fees can also apply when another Placement Agency refers a customer.
At 54 or more months, the minimum royalty is $1,200 per month for each Marketing Area. In all three modeled revenue scenarios, 8% of Gross Sales exceeds the $14,400 annual minimum, so the percentage royalty is the relevant calculation.
| Scenario | 8% royalty | Support + QB midpoint | Known fee load |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | $18,881 | $12,570 | $31,451 / 13.3% |
| Base | $23,601 | $12,570 | $36,171 / 12.3% |
| Upside | $28,322 | $12,570 | $40,892 / 11.6% |
Calculation: known fixed fees use $11,400 per year for Marketing and Technology Support plus the $1,170 midpoint of the disclosed QuickBooks range. Referral fees, additional users, conferences, local marketing, insurance, travel, and other operating expenses are not included in this narrow fee table.
The fee table is a diagnostic, not an extra deduction from the scenario earnings. The IRS net-income benchmark is an all-in tax-return ratio and already reflects reported business deductions in aggregate. Subtracting the FDD fees again would double-count an unknown portion of expenses.
Source: 2026 Senior Care Authority FDD, Item 6, pp. 5–10. Item 7 startup investment is not subtracted from one year of revenue because initial investment is not an annual operating expense.
Why is the evidence confidence limited?
The largest uncertainty is the absence of same-brand expense and profit data. Item 19 gives a useful revenue anchor, but every earnings result depends on an external margin benchmark whose business mix, legal forms, expense structure, and owner labor treatment do not precisely match a Senior Care Authority Placement Agency.
- Gross Sales
- Official FDD revenue before operating expenses. It is not owner earnings.
- IRS Net Income Less Deficit
- A broad Schedule C tax measure for Social Assistance sole proprietorships. It can include the economic value of owner labor and is not equivalent to EBITDA or passive profit.
- Estimated owner-operator benefit
- Scenario cash benefit after normal operating expenses in the benchmark, before personal income taxes and financing principal; it includes labor performed by the owner.
- Estimated manager-run residual
- Owner-operator benefit less an external manager wage proxy. Employer payroll taxes, benefits, and recruiting costs are not included.
The mature single-area FDD cohort contains 23 agencies. Item 19 excludes six part-time agencies, agencies that ceased operations during 2025, and agencies that otherwise failed the inclusion criteria. It also describes an affiliate-status exclusion, while specifically retaining two Ohio agencies in the applicable table because the same owner and franchise-equivalent economics continued through 2025. The reported Gross Sales were unaudited. The included population also mixes franchisee-operated and full-time-manager-operated agencies, while the FDD does not split their results.
- Referral volume, conversion rate, facility commission levels, and the share of cases subject to inter-agency referral fees.
- Marketing Area size, legacy territory differences, local competition, and the time required to establish referral relationships.
- Whether the owner performs full-time management and business development or pays a Designated Manager.
- Local advertising, travel, insurance, office choice, bookkeeping, payroll burden, and additional technology users.
- Debt structure, interest expense, reinvestment, capital spending, entity structure, and personal tax circumstances.
The U.S. Census Bureau definition of NAICS 6241 Individual and Family Services is directionally relevant to nonresidential social assistance, but it covers many activities beyond senior placement consulting. That breadth is one reason the external benchmark does not support a Moderate or High confidence label.
What should a buyer verify before relying on this range?
A buyer should replace the broad assumptions with same-system operating records. The FDD says written substantiation for Item 19 will be available upon reasonable request, and Item 20 provides current and former franchisee contacts. The Federal Trade Commission advises buyers to examine the source, sample, assumptions, and limitations behind any financial performance representation.
- Request the written Item 19 substantiation and reconcile the 23-agency mature single-area cohort to the stated median, average, range, and exclusions.
- Ask mature single-area franchisees for recent profit-and-loss statements with royalty, marketing and technology, insurance, local marketing, travel, referral fees, and owner compensation identified separately.
- Separate owner salary, draw, distributions, retained earnings, and reimbursed expenses rather than accepting one undefined “income” figure.
- Compare owner-operated agencies with Designated-Manager agencies and obtain the fully loaded manager cost, including payroll taxes and benefits.
- Ask former franchisees listed in Item 20 why they left and whether low sales, manager cost, territory characteristics, or other operating expenses contributed.
- Model financing principal and personal taxes separately; neither belongs inside the operating earnings estimate.
The strongest defensible range is approximately $79,500 to $140,500 in annual estimated owner-operator benefit, with a $108,200 base scenario. It is scenario-based, not official owner-profit data. The most important driver is Gross Sales relative to the mature single-area median, followed closely by whether the owner supplies full-time management labor. The largest unresolved uncertainty is the true same-brand operating-cost structure. Before making a decision, a buyer should verify Item 19 substantiation, obtain comparable franchisee profit-and-loss statements, and test owner-operated and manager-run economics separately.
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