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At Morgan & Mallet, we place experienced, trained, professional private caregivers for families across the US.
We know how hard it is to find a caregiver you can trust with your relative. That’s why, when we place private caregivers, we make sure only dedicated professionals with vetted qualifications reach your family’s doorstep.
A caregiver takes care of personal hygiene, meals, and medication reminders all while providing your family member with warm company. Finding the right caregiver, someone you can trust with your loved ones at their most vulnerable moments, is hard.
With a caregiver from Morgan & Mallet every candidate clears a criminal background check and we call past employers to hear how they were with the person in their care. Only one in four candidates passes through our vetting process so that you get handpicked caregivers who protect your parent’s dignity and privacy.
By hiring a private caregiver you get the promise of continuous and consistent care for your elderly parents or adult children with complex needs. Whenever you’re ready, call us at +1 (646) 965-2308 and tell us what your loved one’s day looks like and we can start the search.
What does a live-in caregiver do?
A live-in caregiver lives in your relative’s house and helps with daily upkeep. A caregiver is there so your family member can stay safely at home, with familiar company beside them.
The main duties of a caregiver fall under a few categories:
- Personal care: Helping out with bathing, dressing, and grooming is the closest the caregiver gets with your relative. We hire someone who has done it many times before and knows how to protect your loved one’s dignity while helping them.
- Household support: Daily chores like cooking meals your parent enjoys, keeping the house and bathrooms tidy, and making sure they always have clean laundry.
- Health support: The caregiver sets medication reminders and drives your loved one for scheduled doctor visits while taking updated notes.
- Mobility and safety: A live-in caregiver is there for the moments that carry the most risk, like getting in and out of the shower, using the stairs, or walking to the car. During working hours your relative is never doing those alone.
- Friendly company: Providing companionship is often the most important part of the role of a caregiver. Having someone for pleasant conversations during walks or over coffee adds to the feeling of being cared for.
A caregiver supports the physical and mental well-being of your loved one but is not a stand-in for a medical nurse. You can let us know your needs during your consultation call and our recruiters can guide you on whether you need a caregiver or private nurse.
Agency home care, hiring alone, or your own private caregiver?
With agency home care, the company directly employs the caregiver with a fixed set of hours for the caregiver to work. The one issue you can run into is continuity.
The agency can try to set up the same caregiver to reach your home but it depends on their shift availability and rotation. This setup works best for a short-term period with room for flexibility in care hours.
Hiring alone means finding someone yourself, through a friend’s recommendation or through a job post you write. It’s a more personal route, where you meet each candidate and see for yourself if they fit well in your home.
It’s the cheapest option of the three but can also be the riskiest. As the sole employer, you have to screen the candidate’s background and stay on top of contracts and payroll services to avoid legal troubles down the line.
Our recruiters at Morgan & Mallet cover in-depth background and criminal checks to source private caregivers who fit in your home.
Here, you get to be the direct employer for one employee who shows up and stays with you for years to come. But our recruiters guide you and connect you with legal advisors for preparing contracts that align with your state’s labor laws. We also offer employer of record services where we help out with tax and payroll.
The risks of hiring a private caregiver on your own, and how vetting removes them
Outside of legal risks, the real trouble in hiring a caregiver on your own is placing the care of your family member in the hands of an unvetted stranger. Laurine Mallet, our co-founder, says the caregiver role is one of the hardest to verify.
That’s why we start with identity and background checks, catching things that usually slip by. Our recruiters once caught a fake ID with the help of our company screening tools. If that ID had been accepted, the background check would’ve come back clean on the wrong person.
For each role, we ask candidates to give references that our recruiters then later verify by phone. A phone call means we get to know how the caregiver showed care to their employer without rehearsed written answers.
Co-founder Morgan Richez says, “We need at least two references so we can compare. We don’t introduce anyone without checking their references. Otherwise, it’s a big mistake.”
Checking the authenticity of diplomas and certifications from hospitals and care centers comes next. First aid and CPR training is vital for caregiving roles. This ensures that we place caregivers who have the right experience for your relative’s dementia, limited mobility, or post-surgery support.
Where driving is a part of the role, we look at DMV driving records. They show whether the caregiver can drive wheelchair-accessible vehicles and has no history of reckless driving.
Although we are not legal advisors, our recruiters can still help you out with employment laws, taxes, and payroll when needed.
Every placement comes with a three-month replacement guarantee. If the fit is wrong, we search again at no cost.
Live-in caregiver or 24-hour care: which does your parent need?
A live-in caregiver is one person who lives in the home, works according to a daily schedule and sleeps at night in the same home. Working hours can be outside regular hours, like arrangements for occasional night needs.
Live-in care suits your parent if they need the assurance of company throughout the day. The caregiver does their chores around the house, helping with the routine, and then sleeps overnight.
24-hour care means more than one person working in shifts to care for your loved one around the clock. They work in shift rotation, so someone is awake at all times to meet any needs.
With 24-hour care, it cannot be left to one person since they cannot be awake for the whole day, seven days a week. This setup involves a rotating schedule where one takes care of the day while the other takes care of the night shift.
Shift care is best when your family member has advanced needs that need to be looked after all the time. Frequent night waking for changing positions or feeding needs someone who’s alert at four in the morning.
We can make individual caregiver placements for live-in care or a small team for 24-hour shifts. When you call our recruiters, they can suggest which schedule would suit your loved one’s needs the best.
Caregivers matched to what your family actually needs
Most caregivers we place have trained in hospitals or care centers before moving into private households.
- Senior caregiver: They provide daily support for aging parents or senior family members from morning till evening. This is a frequently requested placement for our U.S. offices.
- Elderly companion: Under a different role title, a companion offers practical help for a parent who can manage daily living tasks but is lonely. Companion care means your parent has someone who they can hold conversations with, go for outings, and provide pleasant company.
- Dementia-experienced caregiver: According to a study published in the National Library of Medicine, dementia patients are the majority for caregiving services. For these homes, we place caregivers with confirmed experience in caring for people with dementia and Alzheimer’s.
- Post-surgery care: These are short placements, ranging anywhere from three to six months while someone recovers from a hospital stay.
- Caregivers for adults with disabilities: These roles run for years involving transfer and mobility tasks, medication handling, feeding preparation, confidence in handling wheelchairs or adapted devices, etc.
- Caregiver in a staffed household: Sometimes, a caregiver works alongside a housekeeper, who can handle most of the household chores while the caregiver tends to your family member.
How much does a live-in caregiver cost?
A full-time live-in caregiver in the United States earns $60,000 to $100,000 gross per year, according to Morgan & Mallet’s 2026 salary data for private households. A live-out caregiver salary starts at $300 for a standard eight-hour day. Factors like experience, location, medical complexity, travel, and accommodation play a part in deciding where a role fits in that range.
For live-in roles, providing the caregiver a decent room within your family member’s home is necessary.
“If you provide really good accommodation, the candidate will feel very comfortable and will stay long term. Offer a tiny room and they’ll probably last a few months before leaving,” says Laurine Mallet, Morgan & Mallet’s co-founder.
Living in the house means the caregiver only works according to the hours set in their contract, with breaks and days off in place.
Morgan Richez says it’s necessary to explain what the live-in arrangement covers. Think about whether the accommodation covers the internet, water, and electricity. It matters when you present the caregiver with a final salary and boarding package.
The Department of Labor has specific rules for live-in domestic workers on top of whatever your state requires. Morgan & Mallet connects you with lawyers to set up a contract that covers workers’ compensation and employer liability within your state.
Medicare does not generally pay for private live-in caregivers. It only covers short-term skilled care after a hospital stay, and only when prescribed by a doctor. Long-term private caregivers who help with washing, dressing, meals, company, etc. fall under private-pay care.
If you have any questions on what the right number looks like for your parent’s caregiver, our recruiters can talk it through with you.
How the search works when it’s your mother or father
- A consultation about your parent: We want to know what their day looks like, what things they can manage on their own, what they need help with, how the house is laid out, and what they find as good company.
- A shortlist of vetted caregivers: We look for candidates from our database of 50,300+ professionals whose experience matches the specifics. After confirming their experience with previous employers, we give you a shortlist of three to five top candidates.
- Interviews and trial period with your family: After you meet the shortlisted candidates, we suggest a paid trial period as that’s when the right match becomes obvious. You see for yourself if the caregiver is as warm and patient as you expected with your mother on the third day of the trial.
- Offer and contract: When you’re the employer, our recruiters can guide you on how the hours, nights, days off, and the pay of a caregiver look in your state.
- Placement and follow-up: We check in at ten days, then periodically to make sure everything is going well and offer the replacement guarantee when needed.
The caregiver’s placement is often shared between siblings, and our recruiters almost always receive a call from a concerned son or daughter rather than the parent. We keep you updated on the care of your parent whether you and your siblings are in the same state or out of the country.
A word to families in the middle of hiring a caregiver
The decision to hire a caregiver can happen suddenly, maybe after a fall or a diagnosis. The decision can be harder on the sibling who lives the closest, who runs the search on top of their own work and life.
That’s where Morgan & Mallet recruiters can help. We do the search for you and check every reference, certificate, and ID before anyone is in contact with your loved one.
We understand the reluctance a parent has about having a stranger in their house. That’s what helps us create our shortlist, to find someone who can win over your parent and give them good company and care.
We bring you three to five people worth meeting, and you make the choice, because that decision was always yours to make.
Why families trust Morgan & Mallet with their parents
When we place a caregiver, we know they will become a part of your family’s private life. They see your parent on their worst days and know what goes on behind closed doors. Our recruiters understand what sort of person gets that job right and how to look for them.
The search for a caregiver is one we’ve been familiar with since 2015. Morgan & Mallet’s very first client was a live-in caregiver for an elderly client in Paris.
For Laurine Mallet, finding caregivers is one of her favorite searches, and the difficulty is exactly why. Two things have to be true at once. The qualifications have to be real, and the personality has to be the one the family is hoping for. Getting both in the same person is the interesting part.
For the past 11 years, we have placed caregiving staff for wealthy homes across the U.S. through our New York, Miami, and Los Angeles offices. Every caregiver you meet has already been through a 90-minute interview with one of our recruiters, and roughly three in four applicants do not get that far.
Discretion agreements are standard, because your parent’s health is nobody else’s business. Morgan Richez co-founded this agency after years of working in private households so he understands how important a personality fit is. What you are looking for, past the qualifications, is someone whose company your parent will enjoy.
Our placement success rate runs at 96% for caregivers. If the fit seems wrong, our three-month replacement guarantee means you are not starting again on your own.
To learn more about the Morgan & Mallet story, you can visit our about us page.
Private caregiver job description
This is an example of a job description we would write for a family hiring a full-time, live-in private caregiver for an elderly parent, based in the client’s own home.
Example of a caregiver job description
Job description
A family is looking for an experienced, live-in caregiver for an elderly parent in their own home.
The client needs help with personal care, medication, and mobility, along with company through the day.
The caregiver will be the client’s main daily support. They’ll help the client stay comfortable and safe at home, and watch for changes in health or mood.
They’ll work closely with the family and the client’s medical team. Medical care such as injections or wound treatment stays with a visiting nurse or doctor.
The role is full-time and live-in, with a private bedroom and en suite. Time off can be arranged in two- or three-day blocks, or on a week on/week off pattern.
Responsibilities
Personal care
- Help with bathing, dressing, grooming, and toileting
- Help the client move safely between bed, chair, and bathroom
- Help the client get around the home and on outings, including with any mobility aids
Health and medication
- Remind the client to take medication on schedule
- Watch for changes in health, skin, appetite, sleep, or mood, and flag them early to the family or medical team
- Help with simple exercises prescribed by the client’s doctor or physical therapist
- Keep written notes on health and daily activity
Meals and household
- Cook for the client’s dietary needs
- Do light cleaning and laundry
- Do the weekly grocery run and pick up prescriptions
Company and daily life
- Spend time with the client, whether that’s chatting, reading, playing games, listening to music, or going for walks
- Go with the client to medical appointments, social visits, and outings
- Keep a calm, steady daily routine the client can rely on
Requirements
Essential experience
- Minimum 3 years as a private caregiver, or in a hospital or care home
- Verifiable written references from previous families or employers
- Calm, patient, and physically able to help with lifting and moving the client safely
- First aid and CPR certification
- Comfortable tracking medication and noticing early signs of health changes
Preferred qualifications
- CNA or HHA certification (US), NVQ Level 2 or 3 in Health and Social Care (UK), or DEAES (France)
- Experience with dementia, stroke recovery, or long-term chronic conditions
- Clean driver’s license for errands and appointments
Personal qualities
- Absolute discretion and respect for the client’s privacy
- Kind, patient, and attentive
- Steady presence, able to be in the home without being intrusive
- Clear communicator with the family and medical team
- Fluent English; a second language is a plus
Work conditions
- Full-time, live-in with private bedroom and en suite
- Time off in blocks: two or three days at a time, or week on/week off
- Health insurance included
- Paid holiday
- Salary based on experience
This job description was reviewed by Laurine Mallet, co-founder of Morgan & Mallet.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does a live-in caregiver cost?
$60,000 to $100,000 gross per year for a full-time live-in caregiver in the US, based on Morgan & Mallet’s 2026 salary data. Room and board are provided on top of the salary. Experience, the state you are in, and the medical complexity of the role move the figure within that range.
Will Medicare pay for a live-in caregiver?
No. Medicare does not cover private live-in care, so this is private-pay. Families typically fund it from savings, a long-term care policy, income from a property, or contributions split between siblings. Medicaid rules differ by state and cover some home-based services for people who qualify.
What is a live-in caregiver called?
Live-in caregiver, private caregiver, and private duty caregiver all describe the same role. “Private duty” is the term you will see most in U.S. healthcare settings, and it simply means care paid for privately rather than by an insurer. Job listings and search results also use “caregiver for the elderly” for the same work.
Do live-in caregivers pay rent?
No. A private bedroom and food are part of the arrangement, which is why a live-in salary reads differently from an hourly rate.
How many hours does a live-in caregiver work?
Most live-in caregivers work 8 to 10 hours a day, five days a week, with two consecutive days off. Living in the house is not the same as being on duty. The hours, the breaks, and the night arrangements all go in the contract before an offer goes out. Department of Labor rules for live-in domestic workers apply, and your state’s rules sit on top.
Do you place caregivers with dementia experience?
Yes, and we verify it. We ask what stage of dementia the candidate worked with, for how long, and how they handled the difficult parts, then confirm it with the family who employed them.
What is the difference between a caregiver and a home health aide?
A home health aide holds a state certification and usually works through a home health agency. The certification lets them take on hands-on health tasks, like checking vital signs or helping with prescribed exercises. A caregiver supports daily living, personal care, and companionship, and plenty of caregivers hold aide certification anyway. For clinical treatment at home you need a nurse.
How long does it take to place a caregiver?
Two to four weeks for most searches. A brief that has several requirements, dementia experience plus driving plus live-in, takes longer. We will let you know the expected time frame at the consultation rather than three weeks in.
Related roles
Get in touch to hire a caregiver
Call Morgan & Mallet on +1 (646)965-2308 or get in touch online.
New York
office address
260 Madison Avenue, 8th floor, 10016, New York, NY - United States
phone
+1 (646)965-2308
opening hours
Monday - Thursday : 9AM - 6PM
Friday : 9AM - 5PM
Saturday & Sunday : Closed
Miami
office address
1221 Brickell Ave Bricknell, Miami, FL 33131, United States
phone
+1 305 710 3380
opening hours
Monday - Thursday : 9AM - 6PM
Friday : 9AM - 5PM
Saturday & Sunday : Closed
Los Angeles
office address
895 Dove St, Newport Beach, CA 92660, United States
phone
+1 305 710 3380
opening hours
Monday - Thursday : 9AM - 6PM
Friday : 9AM - 5PM
Saturday & Sunday : Closed