Financial Clarity, First
Take our free, self-paced assessment. Understand your Loved One's needs and preferences, key Senior Living terms, and whether your family is financially ready, so your shortlist is realistic from day one.
Offered through your employer benefits
Your parent can’t live alone anymore. Here’s the clearest path forward.
Petunia gives Sandwich Generation families the structure, tools, and conflict-free guidance to navigate the Assisted Living and Memory Care search, without losing weeks of your life to a process no one prepares you for.
Zero referral fees, everNo communities pay usFree self-assessment, no calls
70+hours the average family spends searching
Petunia family research
Featured in and recognized by
Why Families Come to Petunia
It usually starts with a phone call. Or a fall. Or a diagnosis.
You weren’t planning for this. No one is. The call comes and suddenly you’re Googling “Assisted Living near me” at midnight, trying to figure out what the difference between Assisted Living and Memory Care actually is, whether Medicare covers any of it (it doesn’t), and wondering how families afford $5,000 to $6,500 a month (industry research).
At the same time, you’re still going to work. Still managing your own household. Still showing up for your kids. The Sandwich Generation isn’t a metaphor. It’s a specific kind of pressure most people carry completely alone and in silence.
Half of the people managing this are doing it without their supervisor ever knowing. This is not a niche situation. This is the most common crisis no one talks about at work.
What Most Families Don’t Know
The most visible “free” services are not on your side.
Commission-driven referral services present themselves as free family advisors. They are not. They collect $4,000 to $10,000 per placement from the Communities they refer to, paid by the operator, not the family.
A 2024 U.S. Senate investigation into one of the largest referral services found that 38% of families paid more per month than they had been told to expect. Among Memory Care families, 55% exceeded their budgets.
The tour guide is paid to fill a room. The advisor who called you back in 20 minutes has a financial incentive to close. This is not guidance. This is a sales funnel wearing a helpful face.
Your family
Pays nothing up front
…. signs up with a ….
Referral Service
Earns a hefty placement fee
…. paid a commission by ….
Senior Living Community
Pays 60–120% of the first month's rent to the referral service
The referral service is incentivized to recommend whichever Communities they have agreements with, not the best fit for your Loved One.
Your employer
Offers Petunia as a Caregiving Benefit
…. activates access for ….
Your family
Pays a one-time fee
…. receives unbiased guidance from ….
Petunia
Takes zero payments from Communities. Ever.
Our one incentive is helping your family make a confident decision for your Loved One.
How Petunia Is Different
Petunia takes zero from the Communities we help you evaluate. Ever.
Petunia is offered through your employer. Start with a free self-assessment: a short, scored survey covering your family’s needs, timeline, and financial readiness. No calls, no cost, no commitment. If Senior Living is the right path, a one-time $200 fee unlocks the full Petunia decision management platform. No community pays us anything. No referral fee. No placement commission. No financial incentive to steer you toward any specific option.
That structural alignment is the product. When Petunia helps you evaluate a Community, we have nothing to gain from the outcome. That is the only way objective guidance is actually possible.
Greg Hearn, Petunia’s founder, has personally toured 30+ Assisted Living and Memory Care Communities across two states. He built this platform because his family needed it, and because no conflict-free version of it existed.
Communities pay Petunia
$0
No referral fee. No placement commission. No financial relationship with any Community.
Your cost, if you move forward
$200 one-time
A one-time fee unlocks full platform access, only if and when you decide Senior Living is the right path. Your employer makes the offering available; you only pay when you're ready.
Petunia's incentive
Your family's confidence
We succeed when you make a decision you can stand behind, not when you sign a lease.
What Petunia Gives Your Family
Structure for a process no one prepares you for.
Most EAPs give you a list of links. Petunia gives your family four purpose-built tools that walk you through the entire decision, from building a shortlist to touring Communities to making a confident, informed choice together. One shared dashboard. Designed for the Sandwich Generation.
Family Dashboard
Invite your family team, wherever they live. Everyone stays informed and confident in the process.
Shielded Private Email
Contact Communities without exposing your personal inbox, and eliminate the relentless sales follow-up calls that come with every tour request.
Tour Capture
Just text Petunia the photos, videos, and scanned documents you collect on a Community tour. Petunia categorizes, tags, and files them by Community for the whole family to review.
How It Works
From your first login to a decision your family can stand behind.
- 1
Your employer activates your benefit
Petunia is offered through your employer. Check your benefits portal or open enrollment materials to confirm access. If you're not sure, email your HR team. It takes one sentence.
- 2
Take your free self-assessment
A short, scored survey covering your family's needs, timeline, and financial readiness, no phone calls required. Get instant results, plus educational guides like "Assisted Living vs. Memory Care" to download along the way.
- 3
Create your Family Dashboard
Set a shared goal: a target Community type, a geography, a timeline. Invite siblings and other family members. Everyone sees the same information. No one is left out of the loop.
- 4
Research, tour, and take notes together
Use Petunia's shielded email to contact Communities without exposing your inbox. Tour with the 70-question checklist. Upload photos and notes your whole family can see. Collaborate across states, across schedules.
- 5
Make a decision you can stand behind
Compare Communities on equal footing. Reach consensus as a family. Know the choice was made for the right reasons, with an objective record to stand on, not because a commission-paid service pushed you toward it.
Not sure if your employer offers Petunia?
Email your HR or Total Rewards team and ask. It is one sentence, and it may already be part of your benefits package.
From Families Who’ve Been Through It
You are not the first family to go through this.
“I wish I had had something like this when we were going through it for my mother-in-law. We had no idea what questions to ask. We just kept touring and hoping something would feel right.”
Family research participant
Adult child, Assisted Living search
“I didn't want to make the wrong choice for her. When we found a Community where she could still laugh, still be herself, I knew we'd finally gotten it right.”
Family research participant
Adult daughter-in-law, Memory Care search
71%
Newsweek, 2024
Of middle-aged Americans are currently caring for a parent while raising children of their own. If you are managing both, you are not unusual. You are the majority, and you deserve more than a list of links.
Common Questions
The questions every family asks before they start.
Straight answers, no spin, no sales pressure.
“Who pays for Petunia?”
Families pay for Petunia. That's how we remain unbiased and can ensure the most confident decision making. The self-assessment and financial clarity walkthrough are free, even if your family never moves forward. After self-qualifying, if Assisted Living or Memory Care is the right path, a one-time $200 fee unlocks the full platform for your whole family. No Community pays us for placements or referrals, ever.
“Is it too late to start if we've already begun our search?”
No! Many families who find Petunia are already mid-search, not starting from zero. Bring your existing shortlist of Communities into your Petunia Family Dashboard and let us help you drive the remainder of the search with confidence.
“We already have a placement advisor. Should we use Petunia too?”
Absolutely. Most placement advisors are paid by the Community when your Loved One moves in, so their advice, however well-intentioned, comes with a financial incentive built in. Petunia takes zero fees from any Community, so we can act as a second "coach" for your family through the process. It never hurts to have more, better information!
“What if we're not sure Assisted Living or Memory Care is even the right move yet?”
That's exactly what Petunia's free qualification step is for. Before anything costs your family a cent, a short self-qualification helps you understand your Loved One's needs, what it would realistically cost, and whether now is the right time. Some families learn the honest answer is "not yet" or "they need more." We would rather you have clarity.
“What does Petunia actually do that we can't just do ourselves?”
Most families end up choosing between two imperfect options: piecing it together themselves across email, spreadsheets, and group texts, or handing it to a placement advisor whose paycheck depends on where your Loved One lands. Petunia gives you a real third option. Not another vendor with a stake in the outcome, and not a folder of tabs you're managing alone. It's the guidance, the tools, and the know-how to make a clear-eyed decision, together, as a family, with confidence.
Don’t have Petunia through your employer yet?
Ask your HR team to add it. We wrote the email for you.
One email is all it takes. It goes from your address directly to your HR team, no forms, no third parties, no waiting.
Email preview: edit before sending
ToYour HR or Total Rewards team
SubjectCan we add an eldercare benefit?
Hi [HR or Total Rewards team],
I'm currently helping my parent find Assisted Living or Memory Care, and I came across a benefit called Petunia that I'd love for us to offer. I doubt I'm the only one on the team dealing with this, it's more common than people think.
Petunia is a zero-cost elder caregiving benefit employers can add to support their highest performing mid- and late-career employees, who are most often part of the Sandwich Generation. The Petunia platform gives employees a system that walks them through every step of the Senior Living decision-making process, reducing stress, increasing confidence, and streamlining a high-cost, high-emotion decision with conflict-free guidance.
No pressure. If it's useful, grab 15 minutes whenever works for you at usepetunia.com/employer-experience.
[Your name]
Opens your email app with this message pre-filled. Edit freely before sending.
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