The Long Term Care Risk Jeopardises Boomer's Retirements

Since October 2007 the S&P 500 has fallen from 1552 to 666 and with that precipitous drop have come Boomer's smooth retirement dreams.  Thousands of wood-be retirees are having to postpone their retirement as the nest-egg they were banking on drawing off of has been cut in half causing much stress.  This past week however brings a ray of hope as the DOW Jones closed above 8000 for the first time in 2 months and the S&P 500 above 800.  Hopefully this recent rise will continue to last but I worry that the huge amount of debt that Obama and the Democrats are proposing will almost have to create major inflation as they shift our problems directly in the laps of our kids generation.  Attempting to fix the problem with the same thing that got us here in the first place (people spending money they don't have) is not sustainable and certainly not the "Change" he promised.  I could be wrong and often are, but if I'm right and the politicians insist on spending money we simply don't have, then inflation could keep the markets in a Dow 7000 to 9500 range for a long-long time.  This brings me to the major point of today's blog of the long term care risk and the lack of funds for many Baby-Boomer's to pay for the care them selves and "self'-insure" their LTC risk.

The US News and World Report had a good article yesterday on the LTC risk on people's retirements and found research that most are not prepared to handle this approaching problem.

About 64 percent of Americans are at risk for not being financially prepared to maintain their standard of living in retirement, according to a new Center for Retirement Research at Boston College study underwritten by Nationwide. The estimate was recently updated to include the possibility of long-term care costs, which caused a spike in the number of unprepared households.

 As people continue to live longer with advances in medicine leading the charge, the need for long term care before death will increases and the problem of how to pay for it will loom-large.  Planning with the long term care insurance tool may be an option if you can afford the premiums and have decent current health.  At LTCtree we work with most all of the blue-chip long term care insurance carriers and help our clients shop them for the best deal on the market.  The best deal varies from company to company due to a multitude of factors such as:

1. State you live in.
2. Current medical conditions. (companies actuarial risk data on certain conditions varies quit often)
3. The benefits you choose for example, some companies change much more for an unlimited policy benefit period.
4. Your age
5. Marital status or partner status.  Some give partner discounts some don't. 

and so on.

If you're curious and would like us to mail you your customised quotes fill in the form below.  Thanks for reading our blog today...we really appreciate it.