How To Decide If I Need Long-Term Care Insurance

Long Term Care Insurance is a product that is not fun to buy by any means, but as many other important life-planning strategies it may be a necessary evil if you'd like to protect your nest-egg that you've worked so hard to protect.  A recent AARP study found estimates that a 65 yr old person in good health will pay between $2,000-$3,000/yr for a policy that covers home health care, assisted living, and nursing-home care, with inflation protection built in to the plan.  Of course premiums can vary from those numbers based on how much coverage you choose and current health status.  TheStreet.com reported in an article recently that:

"...the average cost of a private room in a nursing home is more than $75,000 per year -- a cost burden that family members often have to carry, and which will almost certainly increase in years to come."  The article goes on to quote: Vincent Barbera, director of financial planning at TGS Financial Advisers, offers a rule of thumb for clients: Those between the ages of 55 and 65 with $500,000 to $1.5 million in assets should consider long-term care insurance.

If you have less than 500K in assets LTC Insurance might not be a good fit and if you have over $1.5 million you could probably self-insure the cost, however some of my most wealthy clients with 5-Million plus still buy the insurance because it's a smart business decision to trans fer that risk.

For those who do buy long term care insurance be sure to buy inflation protection, either a 5% Simple for people 70 to 75 years and 5% compound for anyone under 69.  Another foundation of a solid LTC plan is the number of years of benefits.  Most choose 3-5 years of coverage and unless you are just worried to death that you will need LTC beyond the norm of 3yrs an unlimited benefit period might not be a good idea because of the higher cost.

Our company is a long term care insurance brokerage company and we work with most all the top carriers; when shopping for long term care insurance be sure to get quotes from 5 different such as Genworth Financial to ensure you're are getting the best deal for certain companies have better rates than others in certain age ranges.  Take a second to fill out the form below if you would like to see how much a long term care insurance plan will cost.