Can you afford the risk?
A
single man, age 67, had just over a million dollars.
His trust advisor had actually advised him to buy long term care insurance,
but when they ran all the numbers and the client convinced
himself that he really didn't need to do
anything right now, he put it off. The trust
advisor tried to convince his client to buy five more
times.
After
this client took a long vacation in California, the
advisor called me to share a tale of woe. The
client had locked himself out of his condo and then decided to
climb up to his balcony to gain access. He fell
off the balcony, was hospitalized and then needed home
care. He was alone in California and really didn't
know anyone he could count on.
He
had a home health care agency come in to bathe him, cook
and clean, and administer physical therapy. The
client was very disappointed to learn his
Medicare supplement would not pay for his home
health care. He originally thought that he didn't
need long term care insurance because he had plenty of money, BUT ...
| When
it actually came time to pay for that needed
care, he wanted
an insurance plan to pay for it! |
It
doesn't matter how much money they've got, people are
used to insurance paying for this type of risk.
This is what they've got to understand. It's more
a matter of how painful it is to write out that check
out of their own checkbook when they actually need care
than it is to pay premiums along the way. People
with a considerable amount of wealth arrived at their
current financial position by being very careful with
their money and transferring their health care risks to
insurers.
That
client needed 24 hour care at $26/hour for 94 days.
That total came to $58,656. If it happened 10
years from now, the cost would be $90,995; in 20 years,
$148,220.
The
average stay in a nursing home is 876 days.
Today's $287 per day cost brings that to $251,412; in 10
years it will be $390,023; in 20 years it will be
$635,306. And that's only for an average stay.
What happens if the need for care goes on and on and on?
If
the worry is about depleting what you'll be leaving for
your loved ones and balancing that against maybe you
won't need care, we have an option for that as
well. It's about combining Long Term Care Insurance coverage with a
2nd to Die life insurance policy so that upon the death
of the second spouse all the money (plus interest) spent
on both insurances is returned to the heirs (and perhaps
a whole lot more). |
