Touching Hearts at Home Hits 100 Units

Touching Hearts at Home, a non-medical senior care franchise founded by Renae Peterson in 1996, has opened its 100th location. The milestone caps two years in which the brand added more than 35 units, one of the strongest development stretches in its twenty-year franchising history.

A Family Business Handoff

Peterson's sons, Ryan and Andrew Lungstrom, took over day-to-day leadership after she retired, and both frame the growth as a continuation of her founding standards rather than a break from them. Founder-to-next-generation transitions are a common failure point for franchise systems, and the company is using this milestone to signal it came through the handoff intact.

Franchisee Support Drove the Growth

Executives credit the acceleration to added investment in franchisee support: business coaching, marketing tools and operational guidance. The 100th unit itself was an expansion by an existing franchisee rather than a new operator, a detail that points to satisfied owners reinvesting rather than the system relying solely on new-owner recruitment.

Why It Matters for Senior Care Franchising

Demand for non-medical in-home care keeps climbing as the U.S. population ages, and franchise brands across the category are competing for territory and caregiver labor. A milestone like this gives Touching Hearts at Home a stronger recruiting pitch to prospective franchisees weighing which senior care brand has the support systems to back up its growth claims.

The Next Phase

Leadership says the brand remains focused on strategic expansion across the country rather than treating the 100-unit mark as a plateau. For franchise operators evaluating senior care brands, the combination of founder legacy, a stable leadership transition and accelerating unit growth is the kind of track record that tends to separate durable systems from short-lived ones.