Retirement Living Challenges During the Pandemic

By Mike Switzer

Published May 7, 2020 at 5:30 AM EDT

For 60 years, our next guest’s faith-based nonprofit has been providing retirement living options, including assisted living and skilled nursing care for people across the state. It’s a challenging business to begin with, and then came the coronavirus.

Mike Switzer interviews Dr. Franklin Fant, the current director of foundation services and church relations at Presbyterian Communities of South Carolina in Columbia, who is also currently transitioning to become their next CEO.

Tags

Mike Switzer

After almost 20 years, Mike Switzer retired from Wells Fargo Securities in 2001 as Senior Vice President/Investment Officer and Certified Portfolio Manager. In 1999, he and his wife, Maggie, purchased and operated for eight years the Baskin Robbins ice cream store on Forest Drive in Columbia. They grew the store from a bottom-tier operation in the Baskin Robbins franchise system to one in the top 5% nationwide within three years, tripling sales along the way. While operating the ice cream store, Mike and Maggie received patents for a portable ice cream sink and fold-down sneezeguard they invented and in 2002 started Magnolia Carts, an ice cream cart manufacturing company, which they sold in 2013.

See stories by Mike Switzer