Planning for Long-Term Care in America

Does it pay to buy LTC Insurance? - USA Today Article

Article about the cost of LTC and the fact first year premiums are higher than the past.

Long-term care insurance - Apr. 24, 2012.

Organizations that help people find and transition to care growing

As more baby boomers are dealing with aging parents yet government resources to help are strained, more and more private organizations are helping people find care and transition to new living locations.

Here are a couple of examples of organizations that are providing this type of care:

1) Caring Transitions (www.caringtransitions.net). Caring Transitions is an organization that helps people move from one setting to another - whether it is with relatives, a smaller home or into skilled nursing or assisted living facilities. For those who have dealt with moving a new widow or widower into a new home, the amount of work and emotions involved are huge. Caring Transitions helps take the burden off family members during these difficult times.

2) Caregiver list (www.caregiverlist.com) is one of a number of organizations that helps people find care facilities and home caregivers. Caregiver lists also rates the quality of care and how much it costs. In addition, they provide caregiving training support and placement services for those who are caregivers, becoming a full service marketplace for care. Check out the educational videos they have http://www.caregiverlist.com/CaregivingVideos.aspx/ about how to provide certain types of care.

It's an exciting time for these types of businesses and demand is increasing for these services. Of course, only those fortunate enough to plan for the financial cost of care can take advantage of all the option!

For information on Caring Transitions, contact Erin Marcus at emarcus@caringtransitions.net. For information on Caregiver List, contact Ashley Graw at ashley@caregiverlist.com .

8 week NPR series to discuss issues related to family caregiving

More than 54 million americans now live in multi-generational households  - about double of the rate in 1980.

An 8 week special report on NFP entititled Family Matters will discuss the issues why this trend is occuring. Most families have not planned for long-term care and aren't anticipating this issue.  Here is a link to the firest episode  - look for more in the future:

http://www.npr.org/2012/04/17/150365158/one-roof-three-generations-many-decisions

 

Caregiving for loved ones the 'new normal' for boomers - CNN.com

Good article featuring Joan Lunden, former host of "Good Morning America" on planning for care.

Caregiving for loved ones the 'new normal' for boomers - CNN.com.

"Don't Grow Old Without It" - WSJ Article

Here's a great WSJ Article from Friday, April 6th in the personal finance section of the journal. One of the most comprehensive articles recently written on the topic.

How to Buy Long-Term-Care Insurance - WSJ.com.

USA Today discusses issues with LTCI Insurance

Article from USA Today about long-term care insurance, and the frustration that consumers are having with higher premiums.

The alternatives to traditional LTCI coverage are combination products and self insurance.  So, for all those trying to do smart planning take a deep breath and objectively consider all the options.

Long-term care insurance policy costs rising – USATODAY.com.

Terry Savage discusses long-term care insurance in a series of columns

Terry Savage, the financial columnist from the Chicago Sun-Times, has been a strong proponent of long-term care financing and long-term care insurance based on personal experience of being a caregiver.

Now, she has written two columns that address consumer concerns with long-term care insurance - specifically in-force rate increases and how to deal with them.

The first column, "How is a 90% long-term care rate increase okay?", discusses a 90% rate increase on a John Hancock client.  It mentions the shock of the policyholder when they got the increase and some of the issues related to the reasons for the increase, including the low interest rate environment.

The next column, published on March 20th, is entitled "How to handle soaring long-term care rates" and addresses ways to maintain coverage at a more reasonable price point.  One of the ways mentioned was the option John Hancock offers for keeping premiums the same simply by reducing the inflation coverage on a go-forward basis.

Given the importance of planning for long-term care, a key component of decided what do to when a rate increase occurs is to conduct an in-force policy audit, asking questions such as:

1) What would similar coverage cost today?

2) If I dropped coverage, how would I pay for care?

3) Can I adjust benefits on the existing plan?

Unexpected rate increases can be a shock for both the consumer who bought the plan and the advisor who sold the program.  However, taking a rational perspective and consider what to do now is probably more productive than allowing emotions to dominate any decisions.

What do you think?  Were the columns fair?  What advice would you give?

 

Long-term care insurance - what's next?

Now that Prudential has stopped offering individual LTC coverage, there are questions on what's next.  This article from the WSJ discusses Prudential's exit from individual (and discussing the fact they are focused on group sales).

Here's a link to the article

What do you think of their strategies they recommend?

It's tax time - don't forget the opportunity to deduct long-term care insurance premiums

With the demise of the CLASS act and stress on Medicare and Medicaid, what is the government doing to encourage planning for long-term care?

One of the things that is available are some tax advantages to buying long-term care insurance. For one thing, benefits from tax-qualified plans are paid tax-free. Although you can't pay long-term care premiums with pre-tax dollars through a cafeteria plan, there are several ways to deduct premiums, including being a business owner or paying premiums through a Health Savings Account (HSA).

Here's an article from MSN about the different ways to deduct premiums.

New care coordination programs work with or without LTC insurance

One of the many benefits of owning long-term care care insurance is the built in care coordination functionality - that helps families find, coordinate and manage care.  Now, these programs are becoming more robust with online capabilities.

Here is an article from the the WSJ about new services from organizations like the Genworth and the AARP.

Here is the service offered by Prudential and Univita . 

Genworth caregiving site and demo