You Can Only Make Two Mistakes with Long-Term Care Planning

There can be many reasons preventing someone from putting long-term care insurance in their retirement portfolio...conflicting priorities (would rather have that special vacation than pay the premiums), recent negative press (the bad is always stressed in the media, not the good), failure to realize the value of owning long-term care insurance and in denial that "I will never need it."

There are really only two potential mistakes that can be made:

Buying a policy, but never needing care
or
Not buying a policy, but needing care.

Based on the averages, you may be paying premiums for 20-30 years. Your out of pocket expenses would be roughly $34K- $51K. After 20 years without the purchase of a Long-Term Care insurance policy, if you needed to be placed in an assisted living facility the cost for one year of care could be over $160K. It is important to keep in mind that the average stay is three years. This would bring the total cost to $480K.

So the bottom line is: Which mistake would you rather make?

You can either make the mistake of buying a policy and never need the benefits
Or
You can choose to not buy a policy and spend far more out of pocket in a fraction of the time.

Consumer Library Resources for Long-Term Care Planning