Comprehensive long-term care planning is crucial to ensure you have the essential support and resources as you age. Long-term care extends beyond a mere place or condition; it represents a transformative experience that influences both you and those care about. 

A well-crafted plan is designed to maintain your safety at home and within the community, safeguarding the physical, emotional, and financial well-being of your loved ones.

Initial long-term care requirements often involve fundamental services such as housekeeping, shopping, transportation, and meal preparation. While family, friends, or community services may address these needs, an effective plan prioritizes these considerations.

As demands progress beyond informal custodial services, a considerate plan covering the expenses of Home Care Aids and skilled professionals becomes both prudent and essential.

Utilizing our financial and accounting expertise, along with our network of legal and financial planning professionals, we specialize in assisting you in safeguarding your assets and income during long-term care planning.

Our approach focuses on ensuring your access to vital services without the necessity of liquidating assets or diverting income from your lifestyle plans. We delve into caregiving resources, their associated costs, and their impact on your retirement and estate planning. Crucially, from a financial standpoint, we analyze how inflation, asset allocation, or potential income changes may affect your requirements. Based on this assessment, we offer recommendations on optimizing your resources.

We provide expert guidance to navigate the multitude of care options, aiming for you to receive care at home or in your community. Our focus is on ensuring the well-being of your family—physically, emotionally, and financially. We assess self-funding, examining its impact on retirement income and assets, alongside exploring Medicaid, Medicare, and private insurance options. This includes evaluating potential Medicaid spend-downs and income considerations for you and your spouse (depending on your home state), as well as the costs of community and private services.

Additionally, we dispel myths about the perceived high and increasing costs of LTC insurance. Various insurance options exist beyond the traditional "pay as you go" plan, offering solutions with guaranteed premiums or a return on policy investment, whether or not LTC services are utilized. Some provide cash benefits for family care, funds for home alterations, and coverage for family members to become certified to provide care.

We thoroughly discuss alternatives for covering LTC service costs, assessing your income and assets. We consider strategic asset allocation to keep pace with rising health and custodial care expenses. After all, just as we save for retirement, why not plan for future care needs?

The long-term care insurance industry faced challenges in its early stages, particularly with the miscalculation of lapse rates for LTCi policies. The actuaries, lacking historical data, initially assumed a lapse rate similar to whole life policies. However, the reality was that fewer individuals allowed their LTCi policies to lapse compared to other insurances.

In response, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), committed to public protection, implemented rules and requirements to prevent such miscalculations. One crucial requirement is that all LTCi policies must offer a compounding inflation option. From my experience, this has often provided more than sufficient coverage for many clients. Refer to my stories in the FAQ for insights, particularly the question, "Have any of your clients had a significant need for long-term care services?"

Actually, the numbers are staggering. In fact, it has been reported that there is a 91% chance that 1 or both members of a 65-year-old couple will need LTC.

Truth is, I could go on and on with the statistics that are legitimate but only serve to frighten people. However that is the purpose of what we do! We plan ahead to prevent the financial calamity and negative effects LTC needs can bring upon a family. Planning today will save a whole lot of heartache down the road.  

Yes, my own grandmother, though she wisely purchased a long-term care insurance policy in the 80s!  As she aged and needed skilled care that progressed beyond my mom's abilities, the policy allowed her to move to an assisted living facility, ensuring quality care while the family visited regularly, and spent quality time with her.

Another couple I worked with purchased $150/day protection nearly 20 years ago, which, with inflation protection, now provides over $400/day coverage. The wife's memory care costs of $10,000/month and the husband's $6,000/month for assisted living are fully covered. This insurance, purchased many years ago and at a younger age, cost around $275/month. The result is that it safeguarded their assets and now ensures passing them down to their daughters and grandchildren. The policy, purchased after the early industry challenges, has been adjusted slightly over time. However it now provides comprehensive care at a fraction of the cost they would have incurred without it.