When you are sick, healthcare insurance is there to partner in your care. If you need care, you're going to get care. But what about the future care you will need? No one plans to need long-term care, but life circumstances can change rapidly. Will you be prepared? Consider these questions as you consider your future care.
Questions to Consider
- Who is the point person that's going to coordinate the care?
- When someone needs care, it's a stressful time for the family. Someone typically needs to take point, who would be that person and what are they doing today?
- It's going to get paid for, but how? For the majority of clients, Medicaid is not an answer and Medicare is very limited, so most people have to pay for it out of pocket.
Old School Method of Planning for Care
Most people have what I call "One day money" money they can get a hold of with out much difficulty ... but it's typically limited to how much. Then there is what I call "One week money"; money you can get a hold of within a week, usually investments and annuities. Getting this money can cause taxes with either it being qualified money or some type of gains . . . or it can cause losses by selling assets that wouldn't have normally been sold. Pulling out $50,000 in qualified money could result in a $20,000 tax bill . . . put that number in the back of your head when we talk more about the products. Then there is "One month/year money"; money you get a hold of by selling major assets, such as real estate or a business . . . same issues as the "One week money".
New School Method of Planning for Care
There is an alternate solution that can be of tremendous value. In the past there was only one product, individual LTCi, but the market has evolved tremendously, and now there are hybrid products. The question is are they right for you? You can take CD money sitting in a bank account, earning very little interest and make it more productive (Moneyguard) and make it so that your net worth stays the same. There are newer life insurance products that can be used to pay for extended care. We can also discuss the possibility of how you can have long term care insurance be deductible through and by your business? We can also have LTCi designed so that if you don't use it, it refunds your beneficiary the premiums you paid.
The key though, is awareness and planning. When there is no plan in place, then the plan is to improvise when something occurs. It's much easier to improvise, but the cost of having no plan can be much more expensive than planning ahead.
Contact us for a free consultation to discuss your Long-Term Insurance Care needs.