Verified — real FDD extraction
SBA-eligible · directory code S2243 since 2017
QUALICARE
Senior Care · independent · est. —
Qualicare is a home-care company that sends caregivers to clients' homes to assist seniors and others with daily living tasks such as bathing, meals, medication reminders, and companionship. It helps people remain in their own homes rather than move into care facilities. A franchisee runs an agency, recruiting and scheduling caregivers and coordinating client care plans.
QUALICARE net unit count grew +69.2% from 2022–2024 per its FDD Item 20.
New to franchising? Start here
A franchise is a business where you (the franchisee) pay a company (the franchisor) for the right to open and run a location using their brand and system — think a local Anytime Fitness or Taco John's owned by a small-business owner, not the corporation.
Before you can buy in, U.S. law requires the franchisor to give you a Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) — a long legal filing covering its fees, finances, and history. The numbers on this page come straight from that document:
- Franchise fee — the one-time cost to buy in.
- Royalty — the ongoing cut of your sales you pay the franchisor.
- Item 20 — how many locations opened and closed, the basis for our verdict (from Proven & strong down to Distressed — or Too new to judge).
The verdict
Proven & steady
Distress
A real track record with an unremarkable region of the ledger: neither the growth nor the exits stand out, for better or worse. The main concern in the record: too many owners are failing outright rather than selling.
Exit rate · latest year
30.6%
vs 5.6% across 20 senior care systems
Cost to open
$96K–$219K
Item 7 total investment range
SBA loan defaults
Too few resolved
8 loans exist; too few resolved to rate
Behind the verdict
the record, factor by factor · Item 20
3-yr trend · Item 20 Table 1
terminations + ceased-ops vs. all exits · Table 3
transfers vs. base · Table 3
actual vs. projected openings · Table 5
Item 19 disclosure + completeness
Systemwide units
2022–2024
Survival record
FDD Item 20 · outlet status by year
In fiscal 2024, 11 of 36 franchised outlets left the system — a 30.6% annualized exit rate, vs 5.6% across 20 senior care systems. Not every exit is a failure — but this is the measurable floor.
Show the outlet tables ↓Hide the evidence ↑
| Status (FTC) | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Outlets at start | 23 | 26 | 36 |
| Opened | 4 | 11 | 3 |
| Transfers | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Terminations | 0 | 1 | 7 |
| Non-renewals | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Reacquired by franchisor | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Ceased — other reasons | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Outlets at end | 26 | 36 | 44 |
| Net change | +3 | +10 | +8 |
The lender's view
SBA 7(a)/504 loan performance · FY1991–present
Banks have made 8 SBA-backed loans to QUALICARE franchisees since 2017. Most are still open, so there is not yet a resolved cohort large enough to rate.
—
3 resolved · too thin to rate
—
avg. charged-off $ ÷ approved $
—
default rate × loss severity
$138,900
what recent franchisees borrowed
24 mo
approval → charge-off, defaulted loans
2 vs 2
distinct banks still lending
Charge-off rate by loan approval year (%)
SOURCE: SBA 7(a)/504 FOIA LOAN DATA (DATA.SBA.GOV), FY1991–PRESENT · MATCHED TO QUALICARE BY FRANCHISE NAME · RESOLVED = CHARGED-OFF + PAID-IN-FULL
What it costs — and what it drags
FDD Items 5–7 · fees, investment, royalty
Buying in means a $50K franchise fee (Item 5) and a total investment of $96K–$219K (Item 7). The franchisor publishes an earnings claim (Item 19) — read its methodology closely.
To open (Item 7)
$96K–$219K
all-in investment range
Franchise fee (Item 5)
$50K
upfront, one-time
Royalty (Item 6)
5%
of sales, ongoing
Your figure — cross-check against this brand's Item 19 and current-owner validation.
Royalty you'd pay / yr
$50K
5% of sales, before profit
Over a 10-yr term
$500K
royalties alone, excl. ad fund
This is not profit. It's the only money the FDD actually pins down — what you put in, and the royalty you owe on every dollar of sales. Your real take-home depends on labor, rent, food cost, and ramp-to-breakeven, none of which any FDD discloses.
Build a real pro-forma for QUALICARE with an independent CPALabor record
US Dept. of Labor enforcement · franchisee-level · FY2005–present
Federal investigators have concluded 1 wage case against operators of this system, recovering $3K in back wages for 14 workers. These cases name franchisee-owned locations, not the franchisor itself.
Concluded cases
1
Back wages owed
$3K
Employees affected
14
Since 2020
0
Read this carefully. The employers in these cases are individual QUALICARE franchisees — separately owned businesses operating under the brand name — not QUALICARE itself. The franchisor is not the respondent and in most cases is not a party. What the record shows is how this system's operators run their payrolls, which is worth knowing before you become one of them. Counts rise with system size and with age: a 20-year-old, 10,000-unit system will out-count a young one regardless of conduct. Source: DOL Wage and Hour Division concluded compliance actions, FY2005–present, most recent finding 2018.
Modeled risk
FDD Risk Score · modeled from the public record
The public record puts this brand toward the riskier end of the systems we score — but the evidence is thin, so treat it as a range, not a number.
Risk percentile (range)
74–98 / 100
Directional
Modeled SBA charge-off
18.7%
Observed SBA charge-off
no resolved cohort
Top drivers: Item 20 exit rate (raises) · System size (log units) (raises) · Net unit growth (lowers) · Investment ceiling (log) (raises). Thin loan history — treat this as a range, not a number. A linear scorecard built from this brand's own disclosure figures plus the federal loan record behind its franchisees; full spec and cross-validated accuracy on the methodology page. A score is context, not a verdict.
Distress signals
news-sourced · bankruptcies, closures, lawsuits
No recent closures, bankruptcies, or major lawsuits found in the news for QUALICARE. That's a good sign — but it reflects news coverage, not a guarantee.
A broker is paid by the franchisor to place you. An independent CPA is paid by you — and the job is pressure-testing QUALICARE's numbers, including talking you out of a bad deal.
Talk to an independent CPA before you buy →QUALICARE franchise questions, answered from the filings
What percentage of QUALICARE franchises closed last year?
In QUALICARE's latest FDD Item 20 (fiscal 2024), 11 of 36 franchised outlets left the system — an annualized exit rate of 30.6% — compared with 5.6% across 20 senior care systems tracked here. That counts terminations, non-renewals, and "ceased operations — other reasons." There is no official failure rate, and not every exit is a failure, but this is the measurable floor.
How much does a QUALICARE franchise cost?
Per QUALICARE's 2024 FDD, buying in requires an initial franchise fee of $50K (Item 5) and a total initial investment of $96K–$219K (Item 7).
What royalty does QUALICARE charge?
QUALICARE charges an ongoing royalty of 5.0% of gross sales, per Item 6 of its 2024 FDD.
Does QUALICARE disclose earnings (Item 19)?
Yes — QUALICARE makes a financial performance representation in Item 19 of its 2024 FDD. Read it closely: franchisors choose which units and which metrics to include.