Long-Term Care Insurance (LTCI) can be a great addition to your overall asset protection strategy under the right circumstances. Below we define LTCI and how to use it as a retirement planning tool.
What is it?
Long-term care insurance (LTCI)
In return for your payment of premiums, a long-term care insurance (LTCI) policy will pay a selected dollar amount per day (for a selected period of time) for your skilled, intermediate, or custodial care in nursing homes and, sometimes, in alternative care settings, such as home health care.
Because Medicare and other forms of health insurance do not pay for custodial care, many nursing home residents have only three alternatives for paying their nursing home bills: their own assets (cash, investments), Medicaid, and LTCI.
In general, long-term care refers to a broad range of medical and personal services designed to provide ongoing care for people with chronic disabilities who have lost the ability to function independently.
The need for this care often arises when physical or mental impairments prevent one from performing certain basic activities, such as feeding, bathing, dressing, transferring, and toileting.
Long-term care may be divided into three levels:
• Skilled care--Continuous "around-the-clock" care designed to treat a medical condition. This care is ordered by a physician and performed by skilled medical personnel, such as registered nurses or professional therapists. A treatment plan is drawn up.
• Intermediate care--Intermittent nursing and rehabilitative care provided by registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, and nurse's aides under the supervision of a physician.
• Custodial care--Care designed to assist one perform the activities of daily living (such as bathing, eating, and dressing). It can be provided by someone without professional medical skills but is supervised by a physician.
Tip: Note that the preceding terms may be defined differently by Medicare.
How is LTCI useful as a protection planning tool?
The risk of contracting a chronic debilitating illness (and the resulting catastrophic medical bills incurred) is considered by many to be one type of risk best transferred to an insurance company through the purchase of LTCI.
A number of factors can increase your risk of requiring long-term care in the future. Naturally, your health status affects your likelihood of incurring a long stay in a nursing home. Indeed, people with chronic or degenerative medical conditions (such as rheumatoid arthritis, Alzheimer's disease, or Parkinson's disease) are more likely than the average person to require long-term nursing care. And because women usually outlive the men in their lives (if any), females stand a greater chance of requiring long-term nursing care.
However, if you already have a primary caregiver (like a spouse or child), your likelihood of needing a long stay in a nursing home will be less--particularly if you're a man. Because the cost of long-term care can be astronomical and may exhaust your life savings, purchasing LTCI should be considered as part of your overall asset protection strategy.
Example(s): Irene is a 75-year-old widow with two children, Donald and Maria. Irene owns her condominium apartment and has $200,000 in liquid assets. After enjoying independence much of her life, Irene suffers a stroke and now needs help with such things as bathing, dressing, and eating. Donald and Maria look into home health care and discover that it will cost $1,500 per week (or $78,000 per year). The money that Irene had hoped to pass on to her children will instead be spent on expenses that may otherwise have been covered by an LTCI policy.
Tip: Bear in mind, also, that purchasing an LTCI policy while you are still healthy helps you to maintain control over your assets until such time as you actually require care. This stands in contrast to most Medicaid planning tools. Medicaid planning can also enable your nursing home bills to be subsidized by a third party (the state); however, it often involves transferring your assets promptly to avoid Medicaid penalties. With LTCI, there is no need for you to divest yourself of assets years ahead of time.
The information in this newsletter is not intended as tax, legal, investment, or retirement advice or recommendations, and it may not be relied on for the ¬purpose of ¬avoiding any ¬federal tax penalties. You are encouraged to seek advice from an independent professional ¬advisor. The content is derived from sources believed to be accurate. Neither the information presented nor any opinion expressed constitutes a solicitation for the ¬purchase or sale of any security. This material was written and prepared by Broadridge Advisor Solutions. © 2019 Broadridge Investor Communication Solutions, Inc.
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