Seven tips for buying Long Term Care Insurance

I just ran across a good article from US News and World Report on a few basic steps one can take when buying long term care insurance .  It gave me an idea to discuss and give our readers a few details that are not mentioned too often:

1. Know your needs and the cost of care in your area.  Research long-term care costs in your area because it can vary greatly in different areas of the country. You can get average costs by state and metropolitan area through MetLife's survey of nursing home and assisted living facilities. Call a few facilities in your area to research the costs.

2. Cover all bases and care settings.  Only consider policies that will pay for care across a range of settings: a nursing homes, home care, assisted living facilities, adult day care, and hospice.

3. Hedge against future medical care inflation.  The inflation protection rider will about double your cost in most cases but don't buy a long term care insurance policy without it if you are under age 72.   Be sure to buy a policy that provides not less than 5% compound inflation protection because LTC costs are growing at least that fast.

4. Save money to delay.  If you can afford to cover part of the elimination period with your own money (the length of time after a qualifying event before your coverage kicks in) you will reduce your premium if you take a higher deductible such as 90 days.

5. Check home care and assisted living provisions. The specific nursing home services covered are for the most part standard across different policies and companies; not so the services for home care and assisted living facilities especially with the bottom-feeder companies. Carefully review this section of the policy to review the percentage it will pay for these two important benefits.

6. Review credentials and financial ratings. Only buy a long term care insurance policy from an established company with a high financial ratings at least 10 years selling this type of insurance.  You can research a company's financial stability at ratings agencies like A.M Best or Standard & Poor's .

7. Call LTCtree for help.  If you have questions about an LTC policy or if you're trying to decide whether long-term care insurance is a good fit, we are independent brokers who work for all the blue-chip carriers.  Also, your local State Insurance Insurance Department can provide free advice and information.

Thanks for reading our blog, hope you found some useful info here.  Fill out the form below and we'll mail you out your quotes.