Our employer is offering unum ltc insurance at a group rate. For a 47 year old, 4 yr coverage @ 4k, monthly premium is $20.30. When I chose the compounded option, monthly premium jumps to $59.10.
I called they company and they said it is compounded at 5% per year.
My other thought was to go with 8k coverage, no inflation for $44.00 per month.
Is there anyone out there who understands this stuff and would please give me any guidance?
Thank you!

Long-term care policies for seniors living in major metropolitan areas with high labor costs can expect to pay $167 per day for nursing home care. This translates into $61,000 per year. If a consumer purchases a policy that pays a fixed $100 per day, with an inflation rate of six percent per year, $100 per day will pay less than one-third of the daily cost in 12 years, and 14% of the cost in 24 years.

The math is easy. At six percent inflation the cost of nursing care will double every 12 years and the daily charge will become $354. In twenty-four years the same nursing charge will have grown to $708 daily. So a consumer who purchases today at age 56 a long-term care with a fixed benefit of $100 per day who requires nursing-home care at age 80 will have to pay more than 85% of the costs out of his or her own pocket.

The answer is to purchase compounded inflation protection that increases the benefit the policy will pay each year. Since health-care costs predictably will continue to inflate, the U.S. House Select Committee on Aging concluded that “without inflation protection, long-term care insurance policies are not a wise purchase.”

Five percent compounded inflation protection. Rather than increasing the daily benefit by five percent of the original benefit, this option increases the benefit by five percent compounded, meaning that each successive year’s benefits are increased by five percent over the previous year. The compounded option at 5% compounded per year will pay approximately $265 per day, after twenty years. This approach is the best option available, but given the historical, as well as anticipated, six percent inflation rate for long-term care costs, this plan does not keep pace with inflation.

Technorati Tags: Home care, Long Term Care Insurance, Unum LTC Insurance

I am 59 but diabetic. I think I run an above average chance of needing long-term care in the future. I do not want to exhaust all my savings and home to pay for nursing home care.

Inexpensive is a relative term. You should look into coverage as soon as possible. Underwriting guidelines have been tightening over the last 2 years and your diabetes might prove challenging. Get multiple quotes from a financial planner that specializes in LTCI and, of course, read “Insiders Secrets“.

Technorati Tags: Assisted living, long term care, Long Term Care Insurance, Nursing home

Late 30’s, 40’s, 50’s, or 60’s?

Most companies will not sell it to anyone under age 50. A good way to go, if you can, is to purchase a policy with a 10 year payment option during the last 10 years before retirement. Have it paid up before retirement while you’re still working and income is higher. It also protects you against future rate increases. Talk to a number of professionals as there are many plans out there with numerous options and be sure to read “Insiders Secrets“.

Technorati Tags: long term care insurance & retirement, Retirement Planning

Boomers Need to Protect Finances from Long-Term Care Costs

While scanning the internet today I came across another plea for Boomer’s to check out LTC insurance to protect their life savings.

• Those who have a family history of needing long-term care.
• Those who will have a retirement income that would not easily cover the cost
• of in-home nursing care or care at a facility of choice.

The cost of caring for our aging population and the personal experience of Boomer’s and their parents should sound the alarm bell when it comes to long term care.

Tags: retirement, long-term care, long term care insurance, financial planning

Technorati Tags: Baby Boomer, financial planning, long term care, ltc insurance, Retirement Planning

The Fed Will Not be Helping

Every 7 seconds another person turns fifty in the United States. Right now there are more people living on earth than in recorded history. In America the fastest growing segment of the population is over 80. History is being made as more people are becoming old and living longer than ever before. Hopefully, you will live long enough to become one of them. If you live that long, however, you will run the financial risks associated with aging. What risk? The risk of having an extended care need. In fact, many people have them now. Hospital care and modern medicine have gotten so good at managing chronic illnesses that more people live longer with impaired health.

Why am I telling you this?

I tell you this because you are in danger and don’t even know it. You are swimming in the financial deep end of the pool and don’t even know it. In reality, seven out of 10 couples will experience a long term care need in their lifetime and most of them will have to pay for care out of their own pockets. This is the first reason why you should educate yourself about long term health care insurance and the number one reason you don’t. The sad truth is you are most likely in denial.

There is no magic genie in a bottle that is going to rescue you. The hard, cold truth is you will be financing your aging expenses yourself. With outlays running as high as $70,000 a year in 2008 this is nothing to take lightly.

More denial and another reason to seriously look at long term care insurance and getting educated about your choices.

One day in the future long term health care insurance will be as typical as automotive or life insurance but for the here and now it’s an unusual idea. It is also an idea no one wants - after all who wants to imagine they’re ever going to need health care assistance. The denial of needing care is thick and lasting.

I bet right now, if I asked you “who do you know who has a long term care need” you could probably come up with a name or two. As for me I can name several. My father who was in a nursing home for 8 months; my Aunt who is in the last stages of Alzheimer’s, my other Aunt who has been diagnosed with Vascular Dementia or Parkinson’s (they aren’t quite sure). If I had asked each of them “will you have a long term care need in your lifetime?” they all would have said no. Another reason you don’t have long term care insurance - you deny this is ever going to be your story. The truth is you can’t predict the future.

Now you may never have a long term care need but in reality seven out of 10 couples do. My father did and my mother hasn’t. My Aunt’s have but my Uncle’s haven’t. This is denial reason number four. You take it for granted that everything is a-okay and will stay that way. The reality is that when a spouse gets sick the other has to start writing the checks and while one bottoms out physically the other bottoms out financially.

I can hear your thoughts – but the government will be helping me; they’ll pay for everything. Yeah, right. The government is slowly bankrupting itself as it is. With over 80 million baby boomer’s headed for retirement the social services are going to be strained on every level, state, federal, county. Furthermore Medicare does not pay for long term care. You have a limited number of days of Medicare coverage, lifetime caps and co-pays. If it does pay for long term care you have to be in need of skilled care. The truth is that Medicaid is the largest payor. What is Medicaid? It is medical welfare. How do you get it? You qualify through poverty. You spend your money until you qualify. Reason number five: you deny your risk of entering poverty in order to qualify for government help. Ouch!

Oh, I can hear your thoughts – but my kids will take care of me. Are you aware that as of 2008 the money and time lost to care giving is more than 80 billion dollars a year. By denying the risks and costs of aging you are throwing the weight of consequence on your children, their jobs and their lifestyle. This is not a solution this is denial and reason number six.

The last reason you don’t have long term health care insurance is because you don’t care enough about yourself. You owe it to yourself to plan for your life, lifestyle and financial future. Whether long term care insurance is the solution for you is unknown but what is known all of us are living longer and because of this you will face financial risks never before faced; financial risks that can literally wipe you out. Get educated today so you don’t become a statistic tomorrow.

P.S As an ex-agent and former long term care insurance specialist I invite you to learn what agents won’t tell you and companies hope you’ll never find out. Get the leaked chapters or read “Insider’s Secrets“.

Technorati Tags: long term care, Long Term Care Insurance, medicaid planning, Medicare

Hillary Clinton may be closing out her campaign - who knows really - but at least she speaks sense, or as I like to say “cents”.

In a talk directed to female voters Senator Clinton, her daughter Chelsea and her mother, Dorothy Rodham, discussed ideas for helping working families. Mrs. Clinton suggested an experiment between the federal and state governments to fund paid family leave, arguing that most people can’t afford to take the unpaid leave allowed under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act.

Her proposal calls for a $3,000 tax credit to an individual with substantial long-term care needs or their caregivers, a tax credit to cover 75 percent of long-term care insurance premiums and expansion of the Family and Medical Leave Act to cover employers with 25 or more workers. She also called for seven guaranteed sick days for full-time workers.

Her proposal is critical to families everywhere who are now facing and who will face the daunting task of caring for their family members.

For years there has been lobbying to make long term care insurance premiums tax deductible or at the very minimum provide some kind of tax incentive.

While I may be a voice in the wilderness I want to say “Thanks Hillary”. As a side-note and postscript I’ve yet to hear any of the male candidates talk about long term care. Could it be that since most of the caregivers are women that men don’t fully appreciate the consequences?

Technorati Tags: long term care, Long Term Care Insurance, paid family leave, Senator Clinton, tax credit

Wanted to make a quick post. I found an alternate source for information on long term care insurance. I think this would also be a good resource.

As a side-note I read an incredible article about how nursing homes are going under because the government reimbursement is so low. Watch for this in the next day or two where I’ll reveal the details of this very sad yet important problem.

Baby boomer’s - watch out; most of you haven’t even retired by the system is collapsing all around you.

As an ex-agent and long term care insurance specialist I know a lot about the inside of insurance companies and insurance contracts.

If you think the tallest buildings in the biggest cities, which are insurance companies, are there because they don’t control the money think again. Insurance companies specialize in the ‘fine print’. They use terms that very few people really understand and have hidden loopholes in every contract. This is why they are so powerful - they control the contract. This is exactly why I wrote “Insiders Secrets”.

Think I’m making this up? I recently watched an ABC News report that tells the sad tale of a LTC insurance consumer who purchased a policy in good faith but when she made her claim and moved to her daughters house the company stopped paying. Why? They said that the services were for her home only.

Long term care insurance is 1) a complicated contract that is rarely explained to consumers, 2) something that everyone should be thinking about and 3) the last investment anyone wants to make. Until, of course, it’s too late.

You might be wondering why and ex-insurance agent who is now a consumer advocate exposing insurance industry secrets would even talk about LTC and LTCi or mention that you should be researching it and considering it.

Well, it’s quite simple - I’ve met a lot of people and heard a lot of (sad) stories. Ask yourself the same question I’m asking myself right this moment: Who do I know that has a long term care need? For me, my father for 8 months before he died (including a bill right around $50,000). My Aunt Thelma whom I love dearly and suffers from the advanced stages of Alzheimers, my Aunt Susan who has a Parkinsonian-Frankenstein something that nobody really knows what it is dilema, my Uncle Lou who is 90 and needs help with just about everything…

Now you may be thinking I’m jaded with personal stories but in actuality just about everyone can think of someone who needs some care and if not you’re either too young or fantastically blessed. Most of us don’t drop dead, we linger on with chronic diseases that are managed by drugs (this is why Big Pharma is big and getting bigger all the time).

Long term care insurance has the wrong name. It should be called Retirement Insurance; it keeps your money from imploding in on itself destroying your income, lifestyle and security.

Technorati Tags: retirement insurance

Long term care is a big issue. The U.S. government (in particular) doesn’t want to talk about this but the truth is more money is going out than coming in. Interestingly enough, however, there is a Federal Long Term Care Insurance Plan. What are they seeing that you and I are missing. The never ending horizon of baby boomers headed “over the hill”.

People need to plan for their own security. Just a few years ago Congress passed tougher laws on hiding assets making it harder for people to qualify for Medicaid (which is medical welfare).

Long term care insurance can be the best investment you make in “insuring” your retirement income and lifestyle but if you do it wrong then it could be your biggest financial disaster.

That’s why I wrote Insider Secrets to Long Term Care Insurance; the Ultimate Consumer Buying Guide.

Over the next coming weeks and months I’ll be exposing interesting information on the insurance industry and help you learn the “insider secrets” that keep you from getting ripped off.

Until then,…

Technorati Tags: Consumer Guide, Long Term Care Insurance, Medicaid, Medicare, Retirement Planning