Aging, retirement, and long-term care
Helps you plan ageing, long-term care and end-of-life matters in Spain.
Plan later life in Spain: the retiree's overview, ageing in place and senior housing, Dependencia, care homes and carers, legal planning before capacity is lost, and what to do when someone dies.
- topics
- 7
- articles
- 53
- of reading
- 6 hours
Begin with
Spain's long-term care system (Dependencia)
You will know whether you or a relative can get state-arranged care, how to apply, what to expect and what to do when it stalls.
Where to start: your local social services office (servicios sociales) · How Spain's long-term care system (Dependencia) works · Can foreign residents claim long-term care support (Dependencia)?
More in aging, retirement, and long-term care
6 more topics in this section, about 6 hours of reading in all.
Retiring to Spain and planning ahead
You will see the whole later-life journey in Spain, the decisions that are hard to undo, and when to make them.
Retiring to Spain: what the whole journey involves · Choosing where to retire so life still works at 80 · Budgeting for retirement in Spain including future care costs
Ageing in place and senior housing
You will know how to keep living at home as long as safely possible and what housing options exist when that stops working.
Adapting your Spanish home so you can stay as you age · Home alert services (teleasistencia) for older people living alone · Senior housing options in Spain, from supervised flats to care homes (residencias)
Care homes and home care
You will know how to find, compare, pay for and check the quality of care at home or in a care home in Spain.
Getting home help (ayuda a domicilio) from the town hall or privately · Finding and vetting a private carer (cuidadora) for an older person · Day centres (centros de día) and respite stays for family carers
Incapacity planning and end-of-life choices
You will know which documents to put in place in Spain, how they work and what happens if you do not.
How Spanish law supports adults who lose capacity · Preventive power of attorney (poder preventivo) and naming your own support person · Advance directives (instrucciones previas): what to write and how it is found
When someone dies: first steps and funerals
You will know what must happen in the first days after a death in Spain and what choices you have.
What to do in the first hours after a death in Spain · Registering a death and getting certificates (Registro Civil) in Spain · A relative dies in Spain and you are abroad: first steps
Paperwork after a death
You will know what to notify, close or protect after a death, in what order, and what the survivor's own position is.
What to do in the weeks after a death in Spain · What happens to a bank account when someone dies in Spain · Cancelling utilities and stopping direct debits after a death
Other sections in Long-term settlement and leaving
Cross-border family and financial ties
Helps you manage family, legal and financial ties across borders.
Return, onward move, and exit planning
Helps you leave Spain or move within it cleanly.
Long-term identity and belonging
Helps you decide what long-term belonging in Spain means for you.
Need certainty before you act?
For important relocation decisions, speak with a qualified human specialist.
Always verify important information with the relevant official authority or a qualified adviser before acting. This website uses large language models together with various public data sources, official government documents and other established sources. Due to the amount of data on this website, some information might be wrong. Information may also be incomplete or outdated.