Planing Now For Aging Parents To Head Off Problems Later
Sooner or later we end up with aging parents. And with that comes an entire array of problems we need to deal with. We’ll probably need to provide some type of assistance on a regular basis, whether we live nearby or not. It could be finding them a housekeeper, or making sure they get to doctor appointments on time.
Frequently it gets to the point that much more than temporary and occasional help is necessary. If your parent has a terminal or progressive condition that mandates round the clock care, what options are available? To everyone involved? What if you’re an only child, or the only child in the family who can provide this type of help?
Blood might be thicker than water, but not all children are willing or able to step up and provide this level of care. If you’re married with your own family, this also needs to be taken into consideration. Your entire family needs to be on board with this idea. Even with one dissenter, there will be serious problems. Yes, it’s true: not everyone always wants grandma to move in. Your kids may not want to give up their family room to turn it into a bedroom.
Will the family all have responsibilities? No one can be there all day long. Not everyone wants to readjust their life permanently if it means a major sacrifice.
Besides the major issue of having someone move in, what are some of the other considerations to be aware of and discussed? Is she bedridden? Does she have convulsions, need special medication, special food, or help getting to the bathroom? What if she’s incontinent? Who changes her and the sheets?
Everyone needs to be on the same page here. Even though it’s your parent, you can’t possibly be expected to be there 24 hours a day. You need help. Will your spouse help you? Normally, wives have enough to do. They don’t want the additional burden of caring for someone else. When someone gets to the point that they are unable to live by themselves, this is a huge amount of work when they move in. Cooking, cleaning, medications, bathing, and even the additional expense can be more than some families can deal with.
Be proactive. Long before your parents reach old age, have honest discussions about what they expect and how these expectations might be met. They might just assume that their kids will take care of them when the time comes, no matter what. It might be a shock and disappointment to learn that other options might need to be discussed when the time comes.
For more information on how Long Term Care Insurance can help prepare us as we age. Also you can get a long term care insurance quote. We represent 20 of the top LTCi providers. This gives you tremendous options.
Understanding The Rising Cost Of Health Care
The rising cost of health care should be examined closely these days. Almost nobody who has looked at the problem will say that there certainly isn’t a need for reform of the current health care system, because it certainly is in need of such reform. However, understanding what factors go into creating increases in costs for health care needs to be examined carefully in order to accomplish meaningful reform.
The factors that go into making up health care costs can be varied. There seems to be a literal universe of such factors, with one such being that it can cost private industry billions of dollars to create and then market a new prescription drug. The cost of such development has to be recouped and it is usually always the users of those drugs that end up paying for it in the end.
Also, it seems that our skill and ability to invent and innovate also helps to contribute to rising costs. For sure, we all love the fact that we now have super-precise MRI scanners that can help a physician closely examine just about any internal issue that we may be experiencing, but these machines are not cheap, and they help to increase overall costs in the system.
For example, consider that a patient — who has been educated to believe that it is only an MRI that can be truly diagnostic — demands high-technology screening (such as is found with an MRI scanner) be done in order to get to the root of this problem. It just may be that a lower-cost CAT scanner might do just as well, but patients are now trained to believe that is the MRI alone that is effective.
On the physician front, many doctors who maintain their credentials at one hospital or another are also eager to have the hospital bring in the latest technologies, though those technologies may not be actually be that much more effective than the older technologies already in the hospital. Replacing a CAT suite with a new MRI suite can run millions of dollars, and guess who ends up paying?
People themselves are also to blame for rising costs. Our dietary and lifestyle habits — in which we are eating more than ever and working out less than ever — are leading to an epidemic of obesity in this country. Health problems emanating from such obesity are manifold and plenty, and the cost to provide health care to an increasingly unhealthy population are rising more and more each year.
These are just a few reasons for why the rising cost of health care has now come to the forefront and along with it the need to reform the system. Whether the current proposals put forth by the government will make a difference is still up for debate, but what is not is the fact that some sort of reform is necessary to get a handle on such costs.
For more information on how Long Term Care Insurance can help prepare us as we age. Also you can get a long term care insurance quote. We represent 20 of the top LTCi providers. This gives you tremendous options.
Who Will Pay Your Long Term Care Bills?
I always like to ask my clients, “Will your financial planner be willing to pay your long term care bills, will they have access to good quality Home Health Care Providers?” Many lawyers and advisors are now reluctant to recommend against Long Term Care Insurance for fear of law suits later on, from children, when hundreds of thousands of dollars were required to pay for their parents long term care bills. Planners who fail to recommend coverage are more times than not, unaware of the real RISK of needing care one day.
The senior has now become the GREATEST financial risk that Americans face today. The majority of them are unaware of it because let’s face it: No One wants to think about needing Long Term Care. It is going to happen to someone else! Long term care bills are the biggest reason for financial failures among seniors today. Yet there are a lot of Financial Planners and Investment advisers who will say that you don’t need Long Term Care Insurance.
If you already have a lot of money, perhaps you don’t! The question is: Would it be a smart decision to have this coverage? What we are seeing today are many Financial Planners split on the subject of LTC Insurance. You will hear some say that if you have any resources you should not be without it, that it is an integral part of financial planning, while others think if you have enough money you should self-insure. Who is right?
Every financial adviser I talk with would recommend long term care coverage if he knew in advance that his client would need several years of long term care. Do the math. In a state where long term care bills are averaging $170 per day, and the average premium is $4000 a year for a couple, aged 60, and they live another 20 years, they have paid out $80,000 in premiums for the peace of mind that they will not go broke. Without the insurance, they could end up paying over $80,000 in less than two years for ONE OF THEM on the advice from a Financial Planner telling them that they DON’T NEED IT! It must be concluded that Financial advisers who recommend against LTC Insurance figure you are not going to need care since they would recommend you obtain coverage if they knew you were going to have to spend several hundred thousand dollars. You should find out from the adviser what is the BASIS for their prediction? Also, be aware that advisers are sales people. They are in the business of making you money.
If you purchase Long Term Care Insurance, you have less money for them to manage! The decision is yours. At this point in your life, are you more interested in making a few more thousand dollars a year or are you more interested in protecting what you have already earned from the most DEVASTATING financial risk that people face in America today? One of the biggest financial mistakes a person can make today is needing Long Term Care and having no coverage! Is this a mistake you want to take a chance on making? Seek out a LTC Insurance Specialist to help you make the best informed decision for you and your family. Remember, your Financial Planner or adviser is not going to pay your long term care bills. You will!
Before you go out and buy a policy go to Long Term Care Insurance, ask questions and request a long term care insurance quote. We represent 20 of the top LTCi providers. This gives you tremendous options. Don’t reprint this exact article. Instead, reprint a free unique content version of this same article.
Linking Reverse Mortgages And Long-Term Care Insurance
As individuals age, the question of how to pay for their expenses in the troubling situation where they cannot take care of themselves comes up. Millions of seniors across America are beginning to look at the future and the possibility their children will have to pay the costs of their care, and some are doing something about it. Typically, it will come down to two choices for seniors. They can either go with long-term care insurance policies that will help keep them afloat financially while they are getting long-term care. The other option is they can look into a reverse mortgage to help finance their needs. The options of a reverse mortgage and long-term care insurance are becoming the two main ways seniors are paying for their own long-term care.
A reverse mortgage is a loan that is made to individuals 62 years and over in the United States, which is used to release home equity on a property in one large lump sum, or multiple payments. The homeowner is not obligated to repay the loan until they die, the home is sold or they leave into a nursing home.
For a typical mortgage, the owner of the house will pay a monthly payment to the lender, whereas in a reverse mortgage, the home owner makes no payments and all interest is added to the lien on the property. Now, it may seem odd that there are no payments on the reverse mortgage, but the way that the loan is paid off is that if the home owner moves, goes into a nursing home or dies, is from the proceeds in the sale of the house, or in the event the heirs refinance the estate of the homeowner. If the proceeds of the sale exceed the amount of the loan, the owner of the house gets the difference. In the case of the heirs, they would receive the difference. If the sale does not pay off the loan, then the bank will absorb the difference.
This option is becoming very popular with some seniors when they have to choose between reverse mortgages and long-term care insurance because they get a lot of the money upfront, which can then be applied to savings. The draw back is that it could severely effect the inheritance that you may want to leave behind. Long-term care insurance is an inexpensive way to insure that your family is taken care of.
Conclusion For many seniors, the possibility of their children paying out of their own pocket to take care of them is simply too much to bear. As a result, seniors will look at the options of reverse mortgages and long-term care insurance to find a way that they can pay their own way through either a loan or a government program. In the case of reverse mortgages, they will be able to get a loan that they will not have to pay back until they die or move, and even then the loan is paid off on the sale of the home. This allows them to get the money up front to help pay for their own long-term care at home. It is of little surprise it has become such a popular trend for seniors looking for a way to pay their own way.
Before you go out and buy a policy go to Long Term Care Insurance, ask questions and request a long term care insurance quote. We represent 20 of the top LTCi providers. This gives you tremendous options.
The Advantages To Long term Care Insurance Policies
Long-term care insurance is insurance that may be added to a patient’s current medical insurance coverage. It can be included in non-public health care insurance or government provided insurance, Medicaid or Medicare.
Long term care insurance covers services that are separate from health insurance policies which help with the payments of doctor appointments, surgery stays, or prescriptions. Long term care insurance is specially for services to help the patient with in-home care. They would need assistance with daily living wishes like meal preparation, feeding, transferring, toileting, or dressing. This might entail paying for a service to have somebody to come and perform these requirements like cooking and cleaning of the home for the patient.
The majority of folks who would need the service are elderly. They might not be physically able to perform their needs or they may have cognitive impairment like Parkinson’s illness or Alzheimer’s. Some youngsters may qualify if oldsters need extra help with a disable child. This would be a type of cessation care.
Long term medical insurance also includes coverage for patients who would need to moved from their home into a care home. Other examples are assisted living facilities and adult day cares.
Advantages to purchasing a long-term care insurance plan include providing the patient with extra economic security in the time they are least able to care for themselves. Paying for a caregiver to come to the home can be very costly, and an insurance policy covers most costs. Medicare plans pay for a big portion of in-home care.
A second benefit is that these insurance plans are tax deductible, and businesses which pay for an employees premiums also benefit from tax reductions.
Tax-qualified are the kinds of policies which are most commonly available. There are limitations in which a person must qualify for these services. They must need in-home care for more than 90 days. The patient must also need help in 2 areas of aided daily living. Examples are assistance with meal preparation, feeding, washing, transferring from a chair to bed, continence, light housekeeping, driving to perfom errands, and reminding of medicines. The plan also desires to ordered by the physician. The patient purchasing an insurance plan is not taxed.
The rates of these insurance plans are based totally on several factors. Insurance companies will look at a patient’s age, the advantage of these services to the patient, the length of service, and the patient’s health rating. There are many types of discounts available to such as deductions for couples buying individual policies. This would apply not only to married men and women but to those that meet the factors living together and sharing basic living expenses.
there are several folks who would benefit from long term care insurance because when the time comes a person can’t handle their regular obligations, it helps seriously financially at these times. It provides families the comfort that they are able to provide somebody to take care of their loved one when they don’t seem to be able to. These plans also help in being tax deductible to the client.
Before you go out and buy a policy go to Long Term Care Insurance, ask questions and request a long term care insurance quote. We represent 20 of the top LTCi providers. This gives you tremendous options.
How To Know If You Are Getting A Sufficient Long-Term Policy
There are several long-term life insurance policies and sometimes it is difficult for the common man to arrive at a conclusion as to which is most fitted to him. Most elderly and conservatives prefer to have a simple and straight forward, Good long-term life insurance Policy which they can obviously understand. It might be prudent for us to study three types of insurance to arrive at the best and in these tricky times.
First, there is the Term life insurance Policy with a limited period of validity of maximum 30 years. Many clients seem sad with the thirty year limitation and to surmount this problem, they wish to go in for a Regular long term life insurance policy which pays you double and also gives cash value benefits. Unfortunately many can’t see that this type of policy is more costly in comparison to the term life assurance policy thanks to the regular and compulsory premium payments each month.
The Regular long term insurance plans claim that they are resplendent with inbuilt system for further savings. Most folks prefer to enter with a deal with an insurance supplier which is straightforward and easily explainable to his parents and children, and also ready to understand obviously himself. These men would do well to spend a little time on introspection and study the edges that a long-term Life Policy can bestow on them.. A decision to switch policies, how ever must be their own.
Today the Net throws opens many a door on the subject. A multitude of info is waiting only to be tapped. If you wade judiciously through the Net, you can find a miles better alternative choice to even a term life insurance policy, which, you will hold, for the present, in high esteem. With a little effort, you’ll be able to find an inexpensive Term life assurance Policy with the features to fit your purse and satisfaction.
Always make sure that you keep your dossier on your last health check up with details of your sugar, B. P, cholesterol, & weight graph handy as it might facilitate you to easily bargain with the insurance firms on-line. This will also permit the insurers to evaluate your needs better & quicker in order to offer you the most reasonable rates it might be provident to remember that policies that have a basic of $ 50, 000, $250, 000 $ one, 000, 000 always give the most interesting rates.
My recommendation to you would be to forget the insurer’s agent and rely on the internet that may throw open a flood gate of options for policies, periods, conditions and quotes that will definitely help you to study and speed up your action.
Then again, there is one more facet to be affordability of the long term life insurance Policies. An one time yearly subscription can get you a down sized premium and if your employer agrees to pay the premium direct to the insurance firm, this also accounts for a further discount.
All said and done, the earlier you go for a reasonable term life insurance policy, the better.
Before you go out and buy a policy go to Long Term Care Insurance, ask questions and request a long term care insurance quote. We represent 20 of the top LTCi providers. This gives you tremendous options.
What To Look For In A Long Term Care Insurance Company?
What do I look for in a good company? You know that you should buy long term care insurance, but where should you look and which company should you consider? A lot of advisers either sell one company’s policy, or they only sell a few policies a year, or truthfully, they really don’t know. So what do you look for in a good company?
We’ve all heard that any insurance policy is only as good as the company standing behind it, but what does that mean? It means that the company must meet the standards of an excellent and superior rating. In order to achieve a rating like this a company must meet certain requirements. Look for:
Financially sound companies Committed companies with a large client base Claims paying history Length of time selling LTC insurance History of rate increases
They all sort of blend into one another, but let’s look at them in detail:
Financially Sound Companies Check their ratings with the companies that rate the strength of insurance companies. Generally you can get a good flavor of the company’s financial strength by looking at their A.M. Best rating. If you want to back up your findings, you can by looking at Standard & Poor, Moody’s, Fitch, Duff & Phelps or Weiss Research, A.M. Best usually gives a very good overview of the companies strength and the companies don’t have to join the rating service in order to be rated.
Where do I get this? Updates are published monthly, quarterly and annually and can be found in any public library. In addition, you can usually find the ratings on each company’s web site. Do this first and then ask your agent.
Committed Companies With A Large Client Base “The theory of large numbers” works here. The larger the client base the better buffer you have against rate increases. As claims come in the companies need to financially spread these over their client base. If larger claims come in than forecasted then the company has to decide whether to absorb this into its projected cost of business or to pass this along to policy holders in the form of a premium rate increase. Companies who have made a commitment to this line of business normally do not raise premiums. A smaller, uncommitted company may be more inclined to do this.
Where do I get this? The company web site should have their policyholder information readily available. Also the agent representing the company should have their marketing materials, approved by the state where you live, that give policyholder information. In addition, you can get more information from the rating agencies, A.M. Best etc.
Claims Paying History Sometimes a good financial rating may not tell the whole story. Some companies with good ratings have been known to deny or delay paying claims in health insurance. If they use that same practice in other areas, then there is a good chance it will do so for long term care insurance claims. Also, it is important to ask how many claims have been paid since they started selling LTC insurance.
Where do I get this? Call your state insurance department for information on the complaints filed about specific companies. If this isn’t available then sometimes you need to use your own judgment based on size and reputation of the company. A well-known company is less likely to risk bad publicity for this type of action.
Length Of Time Selling LTC Insurance The Company that you choose should have been selling long term care insurance since the early’90′s. If they haven’t then they probably have not been in the business long enough to have experienced enough claims. Without good claims experience then a company can’t tell if they have set their premium rates correctly. You do not want a company to find out that they set them wrong to begin with and you are the recipient of a “rate adjustment”.
Where do I get this? Once again if you look at the same sources from the above items you will find this information. The state approved company marketing materials will have this information as well as an informed LTC insurance agent. History Of Rate Increases Any company that has ever had a rate increase to its existing clients should not be a company for primary consideration. There are always exceptions to this especially when it comes to health issues and the need for coverage from a company that specializes in these problems.
Where do I get this? You can always contact your state department of insurance and ask them, or ask your agent. However, a sure fire way to do it is to ask your agent for the first page of the long-term care insurance personal worksheet for that particular company. This is a part of their application and will always show their rate increase history.
Finally! Now we know what to look for in a good company. The ideal company will be very large and financially sound. It will have a lot of long term care insurance clients and will have sold these policies since the early’90′s. In addition it will not have any complaints with your state insurance department concerning the payment of claims. And finally, the ideal company will have a good reputation and will not have ever raised rates to their existing clients in any state.
Before you go out and buy a policy go to Long Term Care Insurance, ask questions and request a long term care insurance quote. We represent 20 of the top LTCi providers. This gives you tremendous options.
Selecting The Best long-Term Care Insurance Policy
There are several long-term life insurance policies and occasionally it is tough for the common man to arrive at a conclusion as to which is most suitable to him. Most elderly and conservatives wish to have a straightforward and straight forward, Good long term life assurance Policy which they can clearly understand. It might be prudent for us to study 3 types of insurance to arrive at the most effective and in these tough times.
First off consider the Term life assurance Policy which covers you for a period of 30 years. Often this is a negative issue with most clients. Majority of folk are attracted to Regular long term Insurance which not only pays you double but has an offer in the form of cash value benefit. One point that frequently escapes the attention of interested clients is that the premium payments are monthly in this example. This is a compulsory issue and therefore makes this policy rather expensive.
The Regular long-term insurance policies claim that they’re resplendent with built-in system for further savings. Most folks prefer to enter with a deal with an insurance provider which is easy and easily explainable to his mom and dad and youngsters, and also able to understand clearly himself. These men would do well to spend a bit of time on introspection and study the benefits that a long-term Life Policy can bestow on them.. A call to change policies, how ever must be their own.
Today the internet throws opens many a door on the topic. A multitude of information is waiting only to be tapped. If you wade judiciously through the Net, you’ll be able to find a much better alternative choice to even a term life insurance policy, which, you will hold, for the moment, in high esteem. With a little effort, you can find an inexpensive Term life assurance Policy with the features to suit your purse and satisfaction.
Always ensure that you keep your dossier on your last health check up with details of your sugar, B. P, cholesterol, & weight graph handy as it would help you to simply bargain with the insurance companies on-line. This can also permit the insurers to assess your needs better & quicker so as to offer you the best rates it might be prudent to recollect that policies with a basic of $ fifty, 000, $250, 000 $ 1, 000, 000 always give the most reasonable rates.
If you are dependent only on your insurance agent for information referring to policies, there’s a chance he’d leave out certain urgent issues pertaining to them. Also you can be the judge of what suits you the most from the sea of information presented to you on the net. Policy periods, quotes premiums etc are all discussed extensively there.
The long run insurance programmes carry another advantage i. E. If you can pay the premium for the whole year you stand to avail a reduction on this amount. If you’re not in a position to pay yourself, the next step would be to convince your employer to pay it for you immediately to the company.
All said and done, the earlier you go for an inexpensive term life assurance policy, the better.
Before you go out and buy a policy go to Long Term Care Insurance, ask questions and request a long term care insurance quote. We represent 20 of the top LTCi providers. This gives you tremendous options.
Do I Continue Paying LCTi Premiums While Receiving Benefits?
This is a common question for those who have been paying their LCTi Premiums, but are about to collect on them. Heaven forbid that you may need to start collecting benefits abruptly because of an accident, illness or surgery, but in the event this happens, you will want to collect on your benefits while you are still in the process of paying your premiums. It is an excellent question and a very important one because it will dictate when you begin receiving the benefits of long-term care from your LCTi premiums.
The truth is that once you want to begin receiving the benefits of your LCTi program, you will need to fill out a waiver of premium, which will then allow you to stop paying your premiums once the time comes that you are eligible for them and you have finished the waiting period.
There is a very important point to remember when you waive your LCTi premiums, and that is that not all premiums may be waived. Depending on the LCTi plan, you may waive your LCTi premiums for nursing home care, but not for home care, while other plans waive both premiums. It is important you know which applies to you and how your coverage provider will respond to the request.
Once you have recovered, in the case of surgery, an illness, or accident, you can begin paying premiums again as your benefits will cease at that point. If you are using the long-term care insurance federal program, you do not pay premiums after the first day of the month after you have completed your mandatory waiting period. At that point, you will begin receiving the benefits of the program again.
While all LCTi premiums providers will provide you with your benefits when you stop the premiums, you should make sure you find out how that will work, what you will be entitled to and what may not be covered by the plan you have stopped paying premiums into. Generally, it will be universal across the board, but there is not harm in checking to see the minor details and fine print on the insurance forms. This will save you from headaches later on, down the road.
Conclusion Paying your LCTi premiums allow you to collect on the benefits of the LCTi coverage plan later on. However, knowing if you still pay your premiums while you are receiving benefits has become a common question for many individuals. The fact of the matter is that no, you will not be paying your premiums while you collect your benefits, but you will have to fill out a waiver of premium form, as well as go through the waiting period before you receive the benefits. Once this is done, you will begin receiving your benefits until the point comes where you have recovered and are able to begin paying premiums once again. As stated, find out what your benefits will entitle you to so you are not left with something that may not work for your current long-term care situation.
You should just ask for help from an insurance representative who specializes in long term care insurance to answer any questions.
Before you go out and buy a policy go to Long Term Care Insurance, ask questions and request a long term care insurance quote. We represent 20 of the top LTCi providers. This gives you tremendous options.
How Does Long Term Care Insurance Work?
How does long term care insurance work? This is a question I hear almost every day. Many people still do not understand how LTCi works. Due to the heightened awareness of Long Term Care Insurance over the past several years, most people realize that this coverage is an important part of their financial planning.
When you purchase LTC you are simply purchasing a pool of money to be used at a later date. We all hope to live to be 101 and pass away in our sleep. Unfortunately this is not often the case. There is almost 70% chance that one person in a couple will need Long Term Care at some point in their lives. For a single person there is a 40% chance of needing Long Term Care. Your pool of money is equal to your daily $ amount times your benefit period. Thus, if you select 4 year plan with a daily $ amount of $150, your pool of coverage is $219,000 ($150 X ‘s 365 days = $54,750 X 4 years = $219,000). Keep in mind, even though you have selected a 4-year plan, the policy can last much longer than 4 years. The policy will last as long as you have money in your pool of coverage. It works just like your checking account. As you receive care, the cost of the care comes out of your pool of money. Instead of you writing out the checks, the insurance company now acts as your bank and pays for your care from your pool of coverage. Thus, lets say you need homecare and the cost is only $120 a day, instead of the $150 a day you purchased. The other $30 a day is not lost it stays in your pool of money giving you 5 years of coverage instead of 4 years. If you are in a situation where you are receiving the full $150 a day, but you are only receiving care only 4 days a week, your pool of money would last 7 years instead of 4 years under this regimen.
Now let’s assume, you purchase this policy today with $150 daily coverage, but you do not need care until 10 years down the road.Due to inflation, the $150 is not going to stretch far enough. Therefore, it is recommended to purchase an inflation protection option at the time you purchase coverage. With a 5% simple inflation option (which is recommended for people over age 65) the coverage grows and doubles every 20 years. Thus, the $150 you started with would grow to $225 in 10 years and $300 in 20 years. With a 5% compound inflation option, (recommended for people age 65 and under) your coverage grows and doubles every–.3 years. Keep in mind , your pool of money is also growing and doubling over time, to offset the high rate of inflation.
When it is time to receive coverage under your Long Term Care policy, you are responsible for your elimination period. This is similar to the deductible in your auto insurance policy. It is the number of days before benefits begin. Common elimination periods are 30, 60 and 90 days, with the 90-day being the least expensive.
Long Term Care is not as confusing as many people make it out to be. Hopefully this article will make it a little easier to understand the question “How does long term care insurance work?”. The bottom line is, going without this important coverage could easily wipe out your life savings. Remember, when you are looking into this coverage for yourself, you are simply purchasing a pool of money to pay for your future Long Term Care expenses.
Before you go out and buy a policy go to Long Term Care Insurance, ask questions and request a long term care insurance quote. We represent 20 of the top LTCi providers. This gives you tremendous options.
