Long-Term Care Insurance Gives You Peace of mind

Long-term care insurance is purchased for many reasons. In this article I focus on the number one reason you should purchase long-term care insurance. Long-term care insurance puts a plan in place that provides for your loved ones and brings peace of mind at the same time.

Everyone knows a family that has suffered a catastrophe. Long-term care events happen to young working adults as well as active seniors who are just aging as gracefully as possible. The difficulties families face after the catastrophic event are determined by how well they planned.
We all know that advance planning is critical.

So, why do so many people fail to plan for such an occurrence? The key reason why people don't plan is fear and discomfort with facing the prospect of family tragedy especially one in which you are involved. Who wants to discuss your own aging, becoming frail and eventually needing help with the activities of daily living? It is easier not to approach the subject that to picture oneself getting and needing assistance with activities that we take for granted when we are in our youth.

I even hear jokes about what people will do if this does happen to them and then they stick their heads in the sand and pretend everything is fine. The potential consequence of a long-term care event affects you and all the close family and friends around you. Emotions are not rational and instead of suppressing them and procrastinating it is important to deal with them. Once the emotional hurdle is addressed and crossed, long term care insurance brings relief as well as peace of mind.

Here are some tips that may help you make the right decision:

(1) Contact a Long-Term Care Specialist who has the additional education and training in long-term care financing and planning. A consultation with a long-term care specialist will give you the best options for you and your specific situation.

(2) Think about the importance of your own peace of mind. Let yourself appreciate how much better you would feel if you did not have to worry about your family. Let yourself face the fact that your own fate is ultimately out of your control, but that you can control the impact of your demise on others.

(3) Get an application in as early as possible to be able to qualify for the discounts available for good health and marital or partner status. Without an application, you will not know exactly how you qualify for the policy or exactly what the cost is. After you are approved, you have 30 days to accept, change or decline the plan. You may be pleasantly surprised at how affordable long-term care insurance can be.

For more information on Long-Term Care planning and Long-Term Care insurance and before you purchase a long-term care policy, consult a Long-Term Care Specialist. I have found Long Term Care Insurance Pros to simplify this type of planning. Request a Free Ebook on long-term care planning.

Long-Term Care Insurance and What A Long-Term Care Specialist Do For You

A long-term care specialist has his clients’ interest at heart. He/she is an independent agent with no ties to one particular carrier or another. The companies all pay the agents the same. The insurance industry is regulated by the State Department of Insurance. No one agent can sell the same plan with the same benefits for a different price.

So, why seek counsel with a Long-Term care specialist?

1. With the counsel of a Long-Term care specialist, you will be able to research the different companies and their plans. The long-term care specialist helps to simplify this research by making it easier to compare the different plans . Every company has something unique to it which may or may not be a benefit for you and your situation.


2. A long-term care specialist will assess if you have the assets to protect as well as comfortably be able to pay the premiums without sacrifice.

3. A long-term care specialist will help you understand the different benefit options and which ones have value for your particular situation.

4. A long-term care specialist will recommend carriers with the highest financial ratings and lowest customer complaints.

5 . A long-term care specialist will ensure you that you understand the carriers’ definition of the activities of daily living (ADLs).

6. A long-term care specialist keeps up with the changes in the law as well as new products that come into the marketplace.

7. A long-term care specialist has additional training and education (LTCP, CLTC).

8. A long-term care specialist is State Partnership Certified.

9. A long-term care specialist does business with top-rated carriers.

10. A long-term care specialist will help design a plan that is customized for you, your lifestyle and financial situation.

Seek the advice from a Long-Term Care Specialist. You will be provided with online quotes from the top carriers. You receive the counseling from the comfort of your own home or office. LongTermCareInsurancePros simplifies your Long-Term Care Planning.

Request your free Ebook on Long-Term Care Planning.

Long-Term Care Insurance-FAQs

Many questions keep coming up in regards to Long-Term care planning. The questions, however, have different answers for different people.

Long-Term Care planning and insurance are not the same for everyone. Insurance is about understanding risk and how you are prepared to handle the financial and emotional components if and when a long-term care event occurs in your family.

In the long run, it isn’t just about money, but the assurance that there is a plan in place. This plan will lessen the impact on your family when the need for care arises.

The Top Questions:

1. What is Long-Term Care?
2. When is the right time to buy Long-Term Care Insurance?
3. What should the Policy cover?
4. How do you make sure the insurer will be around when you need the coverage?
5. Won’t Medicare pay for Long-Term care?
6. What are the Partnership plans?
7. Can’t I just invest the money?

These questions and more can be answered when you consult with a Long-Term Care Specialist.
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Simplify Your Long-Term Care Planning with a Long-Term Care Specialist!

A long-term care specialist has additional training and education (LTCP, CLTC) in long-term care planning. The industry is changing constantly with new products coming into the marketplace.

Is There is A Risk to Living Longer- Long-Term Care Insurance Can Help

Financial service professionals help client manage risk, most obviously the risk of death and disability. There is a less understood risk emerging that is going to face the aging baby boomers. This is the risk of longevity and is a threat to even the best-laid financial strategies.

While baby boomers worry about outliving their retirement savings, longevity has other implications as well. The older we get, the more likely we are going to need long-term care. The odds of needing long-term care increase with age, according to a 2007 report by the Health Insurance Association of America. The cost of this care can be staggering.

We are not even talking about just nursing home care. The cost of in-home care can drain retirement savings and change any plans for loved ones. Longevity poses risks and needs a strategy to hedge against this risk.

Medicare does not pay for unskilled nursing care, such as bathing, eating and other daily activities. This is often the kind of care that people need most. This is the type of care that keeps people in their own homes. Individuals need to understand that Medicaid is not the answer. You would first have to meet Medicaid’s guidelines for income and assets in order to have access to Medicaid/ Medi-Cal eligible nursing homes. In addition, Medicaid does not cover in home services.

As we get older, the cost of long-term care insurance increases along with the chance of becoming uninsurable. It is important to understand that long-term care insurance is part of comprehensive strategy that helps with the preservation of retirement income, asset protection, and wealth transfer.

Younger individuals are adding this protection to their retirement portfolio while the premiums are low and their good health enables them to get substantial discounts.

Businesses are losing work hours due to the “Sandwich Generation”. The sandwich generation are the adults caught in the middle of taking care of their own children while beginning to care for their aging parents. Employers bear the cost of long-term care when a worker needs to take time off or resign due to caregiver issues. Employers are beginning to see the benefit of offering long-term care insurance on a voluntary basis. Employers provide access to this valuable benefit often at a discount. This benefit can extend to family members as well.

It is important to pick the right carrier. A lot has been written about long-term care insurance carriers in recent months, not all of it good, particularly in relation to sudden increases in premiums. Choosing the right carrier enables you to have the confidence that the company will be around when it is time for you to receive benefits. It is important to choose a company with strong financial strength.

Now that we are all living longer, we will have to pay for it, but we do not have to exhaust all our resources doing so. With long-term care insurance, you protect yourself from the risk of longevity as well as protecting ones assets and maintaining your lifestyle.

Consult with an independent Long-Term Care Specialist that has the training in long-term care financing and planning (LTCP, CLTC). You will find this education at LongTermCareInsurancePros
Dane Petchul, LTCP, CLTC is a Long-Term Care insurance Specialist. He counsels his clients in Long-Term Care Planning and insurance. You can get Free information and articles regarding Long-Term Care and Long-Term Care insurance at http://www.longtermcareinsurancepros.com/ and download a Free Ebook.

Long-Term Care Insurance and What is the Real Cost of Self-Insuring?

Financial professionals realize that Medicare doesn’t cover long-term care and that it’s a bad idea to gift assets to qualify for Medicaid or MediCal (in California). The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 tightened loopholes that allowed people to transfer assets to their children so they can qualify for Medicaid benefits.

Self- insuring for high net worth individuals needs to be addressed. Long-Term care specialists need to provide the proper information so that the clients can make an educated decision about long-term care insurance. It is important to calculate the real cost of self-insuring and communicate it to the client.

It is dangerous to ignore the inflation factor when planning for Long-term care. Let’s look at a married couple in their mid 50’s with $2 million of liquid assets not including their primary residence. At first glance, the couple considers what their liability would be at today’s rate. The average daily rate for a nursing home in California is $210/day. So, now the couple does some quick arithmetic and arrives at an annual cost of $76,660 with a potential 5-year cost of $383,250.00.

They quickly conclude that they can easily afford to self-insure when they compare the 5-year cost of $383,250 to their $2 million liquid net worth. The problem with this is that the couple didn’t come close to the true cost of self-insuring. To do that they would have to do the following:
· Adjust today’s cost of care for inflation
· Consider the potential tax consequences of taking a qualified plan distribution or selling as asset that has appreciated in value to pay the cost of care-out-of-pocket.
· Account for lost investment opportunity on the money that was spent self-insuring during the five years they pay for care.

Now, let’s look at the real cost of care with the couple living another 30 years. This would be the approximate time one of them may need long-term care. Today’s expense of $210 per day could grow to more than $900 per day 30 years from today. Multiplied out over a five-year care event, this would result in an out-of-pocket expense of $1.66 million, which is substantially more than the clients were anticipating.

In addition, if high net worth individuals have a combined state and federal marginal tax bracket of just over 37%, the could incur an additional tax liability of $610,000 if they take large enough distributions from their qualified retirement plans to cover the cost of care. The cumulative distributions could exceed $2.27 million to cover this care event. If the long-term care event was for only one spouse and the second spouse lived on another five years after the first spouse’s death, the second spouse has lost the use of the $2.27 million which was spent caring for the first spouse.

So what is the cost to insure this risk? What is the cost of purchasing a long-term care insurance policy as a hedge against the risk of needing long-term care? If the couple is in good health, they may be able to purchase a State Partnership long-term care insurance policy with a $210 daily benefit, a five-year benefit period and 5% compound inflation protection for a standard rate annual premium of approximately $2200/year per person. The couple would pay a total of $132,000 over 30 years to insure themselves against the $2.27 million in long-term care costs.

To be totally honest and fair, you can even take into account the lost investment opportunity on the premium. Assuming an after-tax rate of return of 4%, they would lose an additional $124,000 of investment return, bringing the true lifetime cost of purchasing long-term care insurance policies to $256,000 when paying for 30 years.

In conclusion, when most high net worth individuals understand the true cost of their choices, they see that long-term care insurance is an extremely cost-effective hedging strategy. It is important for the individual to understand the financial impact a long-term care event brings to brings to their retirement. That is when you see the real value of long-term care insurance.

For more information, consult with a Long-Term Care Specialist who has been trained in Long-Term care Financing and Planning. Visit http://www.LongTermCareInsurancePros.com and request a Free, No Obligation Consultation with Dane Petchul, LTCP, CLTC

Long-Term Care Insurance-What are Your Options?

The aging of America is bringing the topic of Long-Term care to the forefront. There is more in the news about the aging baby boomers and who will be available to provide 78 million seniors with home health care. We are not even talking about room in assisted living or nursing facilities.

The reality of the situation is who is going to pay for long-term care when it is needed. What are your choices and do they fit in with your own long-term care planning?

Medicare

Sometimes Medicare will pay for 20 days at a nursing home for recuperation and rehabilitation after a hospital stay and it picks up part of the cost for an additional 80 days. It does not cover custodial care that you need when you can't bathe, eat, dress or get around with help-or when you need supervision because of Alzheimer's disease or other forms of dementia.

Medicaid or Medi-Cal (in California)

This is a welfare program which is run jointly by the Federal government and the states and is for people with few assets and low income. This program kicks in when a person's assets are $2000 or less. Under a new Federal law, residents that purchase Long-Term Care Partnership plans from private insurers can qualify for Medicaid even if they have assets totaling more that $2000.00.

Savings and Assets (Private Pay)

You can self-insure which means you are responsible to pay for your long-term care if you have the financial means to do so primarily from your existing assets.

The national average daily rate for a private room in a nursing home is $213 or $77,745 annually. The national average, private pay monthly base rate for an individual residing in an assisted living community is $2969. or $35,628 annually.

Long-Term care planning must be put into place to make sure there are funds to cover these costs and still maintain the lifestyle of the spouse not in need of these services.

Long-Term Care Insurance

Long-Term Care insurance increases the family's leverage to choose the care it wants and provides peace of mind about getting the care. Not all facilities accept Medicaid patients and those that do may limit the number of spaces available because Medicaid pays at a discounted rate.

Long-Term care insurance pays for home care, assisted living and nursing home care. A policy with options for home health care and assisted living are useful as more people favor staying in their own homes as long as they can.

A Long-Term care Specialist can help design a plan that is specific for your own needs. For some, long-term care insurance may serve as a supplement to other savings and retirement planning.

It is important to add the inflation protection feature especially for younger buyers who may not claim benefits for many years.

Before purchasing a policy, make sure that the premium is affordable even when you retire. It is a bad strategy to purchase a plan and then let it lapse because you cannot afford the premium. It doesn't make sense to purchase long-term care insurance if it is not affordable.

Use the expertise of a Long-Term Care Specialist to simplify the process and help you compare different carriers and the different options available from the carriers as well as design a plan that will be affordable now and through your non-income producing years.

Before you purchase a long-term care policy, consult with Dane Petchul, LTCP, CLTC, a Long-Term Care Specialist. You will receive a free, no obligation quote with the costs and benefits appropriate for you and your family.

Long-Term Care Insurance and Adult Day Care Services

How are adult day care centers related to long-term care insurance? This service is a blessing to those looking for respite care for an aging parent or loved one.

What happens when you are still working, raising teenagers and now you have a parent that just needs help that you cannot provide on a daily basis without putting a tremendous strain on yourself as well as your family and work schedule.

Hooray, here comes the Adult Day Care Centers to the rescue. The services they provide are really fantastic. Of course, it is not free unless the participant qualifies for Medicaid which is about $2000.00 in assets.

Here is where Long-Term Care insurance comes into play. These services are covered by many long-term care insurance policies.

The bottom line is that you will be able to keep your family member at home longer. They will receive help during the day and you can avoid the guilt of placing them in institutional care.

It may be time to consider choosing an adult day program when someone you know appears unable to provide himself or herself with any structure for daily activities, is isolated from others for more than a few hours a day and misses companionship, cannot be safely left alone at home or lives with someone who works outside the home or needs regular time away from home for other reasons.

It is important to check out the Adult Day Care Centers in your area to see exactly what services they offer and if they meet your needs.

The services offered may include supervision, meals and snacks, group and individual activities, formal exercise, inter generational programming, health monitoring, caregiver support ,group nursing services, transportation, therapeutic art activities, therapeutic music programs, therapeutic programming with pets, podiatry, hair care, manicures, health care, medication management, shower/bath, medical evaluation, therapeutic dance activities, specialized diets, horticulture therapy, reminiscence therapy, physical therapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy and massage therapy.

Consult with Dane Petchul, LTCP, CLTC, an independent long-term care insurance specialist before purchasing a policy. With no obligation, a plan will be designed with your specific needs in mind. He will make sure that adult day care services will be provided in the policy. For more information and a free Ebook on long-term care, visit: http://www.longtermcareinsurancepros.com/