The objectives of this chapter are to assess the risk in very old age of long-term ADL-dependence (defined as ADL-dependence lasting 12 months or more) prior to death and to determine which factirs of social status predispose elders to find themselves in such a situation of dependence. One hundred and seventy-two participants in the Swiss Interdisciplinary Lontitudinal Study on the Oldest Old (swilsoo) were interviewed twice during the years preceding their death. Using a logistic regression, gender, occupational category, age at death, and rural/urban residence were analyzed as potential factors conducive to ending life in a condition of long-term ADL-dependence. The stage of long-term ADL-dependence prior to death was reached by 42.4% of the participants and was more frequent among women and among persons who had been employed in the lower occupational categories. Long-term ADL-dependence is not a natural conclusion to long lives: it is a risk but it is not inevitable.