Long Term care
LONG TERM CARE FACT:
70% of People reaching the age of 65 years will require Long Term Care at some point in their lives.
For the most part, the majority illnesses and injuries are brief in nature, and require only a limited period of recovery. But what happens when you are afflicted by a more serious disease or injury that calls for extended recuperation? It could happen to anyone, but those in the 65-and-over age bracket are especially susceptible.
We have all witnessed parents, friends and co-workers who have suffered life changing events. Their whole world changes overnight. For most families, they struggle with the increased cost of medical care. These costs are in addition to their on-going household expenses.
I have personally witnessed two friends, my mother-in-law, and my business partner struggle with his father, needing residential care for the remainder of their lives. Thank goodness, each one had a long-term care policy to absorb the high costs of residential care. I am happy to say that each one of them allowed me to provide that policy. All were healthy and living a good life when they purchased the policy. In the back of everyone’s mind was this thought: I will never need it.
An older friend never wanted to plan for this possibility. He said he had plenty of money. Sadly, he suffered a stroke which left him unable to use his arms. He had very little use of his legs but his mind was still sharp for a 91-year-old. He didn’t want to be housed in a facility and had no immediate family to support him. As his trustee, we jointly made the decision to keep him in his home with 24/7 care. A hospital bed and everything that goes with it was put in his living room as the bedrooms were all upstairs. Round the clock caregivers cost him $20,000 a month. He lived another three years. The total cost of care was $720,000.
He was the exception as most of us cannot afford $20,000 a month for caregivers. When you consider the potential financial hit, it makes sense to explore a long-term-care policy. Instead of expensive traditional policies, I suggest a specialized life insurance policy with a long-term-care rider built in it. A traditional long-term-care policy is medically underwritten. The life insurance policy is underwritten based on mortality (how long one is projected to live). Clients of mine who were not approved for the traditional policy, were approved for the specialized life policy.