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.
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