Long-Term Care Insurance

There are 3 basic ways to pay for long-term care: governmental assistance, long-term care insurance, and personal savings.

There is no magic crystal ball to KNOW if someday you’ll require long-term care.  However, it’s likely when you consider that people are living longer.  Many people elect to go with long-term care insurance for the peace of mind of knowing that they won’t put burdens on family members and they won’t drain their assets.

Long-term care insurance will typically cover both in-home care and care received at a specialized facility such as assisted living facilities and nursing homes.

Most long-term care insurance today is bundled with life insurance. Since both coverages are mainly affected by age, the earlier you start shopping the better. Starting in your 40s and 50s is the best time to start. You can still purchase policies in your 60s but be aware that you’ll pay more the longer you wait.

There are qualifying criteria for the policy to start paying out. You must have severe cognitive impairment or be unable to perform 2 of the 6 daily living activities. Typically, long-term care insurance policies have an elimination period. This is the “deductible” for your policy. Most policies have a 90 day elimination period. After the 90 days of meeting the criteria, the policy will begin paying out benefits.