Posted by Lauren Batalka on Fri, Oct 21, 2011
You’re probably hearing more and more about Long-Term Care Insurance, especially if you are a Baby Boomer. It’s important that you learn about all of your options while planning for your future. It’s equally important that you know whether or not your loved one has a policy if you are their caregiver.
Long-Term Care Insurance (LTCI) began in the early 1970’s, following the establishment of Medicare and Medicaid. The original policies covered care only in nursing homes. Over time, policies have evolved to provide easier qualification, payment for more diverse services, and benefits lasting for longer periods of time. Long-term care services are received in a variety of settings, including your home, adult day care programs, assisted living facilities, continuing care retirement communities, Alzheimer’s facilities, hospice facilities and skilled nursing facilities.
You are probably wondering why you would want to buy LTCI.
- Peace of Mind- LTCI can offer affordable protection by covering services to help provide quality care.
- Asset Protection- Retirement funds and life savings can easily diminish due to the high out of pocket cost of nursing homes, assisted living, and even home care. LTCI helps protect you from the need to utilize your assets for care needs.
- Burden- Most people don’t want to burden their spouse or children with the cost of care.
- Choice- With LTCI, you have a choice of care options. With Medicaid, the freedom of choice is lost, along with personal assets.
Who Should Consider Purchasing LTCI?
It’s difficult to predict how much care you will need in the future and whether or not you’ll have family or friends to help with your care needs. There are many factors to consider when looking into LTCI. Some people who might want to consider LTCI are:
- Those with significant assets and income to protect from the costs of long-term care services.
- Those who want to maintain their independence and not have to rely on family or friends for physical or financial support.
- Those who can afford to pay the premiums, even into retirement. Be sure to take into consideration the possibility of premium increases.
Should I wait?
Waiting to purchase LTCI may become an expensive decision. Most people don’t buy LTCI because the don’t understand that importance of planning for their future. Delaying your purchase of LTCI could result in ineligibility to due to health reasons. Some health factors that could deem you uninsurable include:
- Alzheimer’s Disease or other permanent cognitive impairment
- Malignant, inoperable, incurable, recurrent, and metastatic cancers
- Parkinson’s Disease
- HIV or AIDS
- Arthritis- Rheumatoid and osteoarthritis when degenerative or with functional limitations
- ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease)
- Strokes and TIAs (“mini strokes”)
- Diabetes with significant insulin use or complications
- Multiple Sclerosis
- Certain eating disorders and severe psychiatric conditions
- Current use of assistive devices- canes, walkers, wheelchairs
- Already receiving care at home, in assisted living, or nursing home
For more information about LTCI, visit:
National Clearing House for Long Term Care Information http://www.longtermcare.gov/LTC/Main_Site/index.aspx
National Association of Insurance Commissioners
http://www.naic.org
Federal Long-Term Care Insurance Program
www.ltcfeds.com
Home Helpers accepts Long-Term Care Insurance. We work closely with you and your insurance company to help cover some of the costs of home care. For more information about Home Helpers, click HERE.
Posted by Frank Esterle on Tue, Jan 11, 2011
A frequent challenge for children of seniors who are beginning to fail is how to help them with their finances without taking away their autonomy or getting into a tug-of-war over the issue. Concerns often arise when visiting children find that bills have not been paid, papers are in disorder, or even that utilities have been cut off. It's not unusual to find parents defrauded by predators or going on a spree on the Home Shopping Network.
All parents, children and the relationships between them come in different flavors. Some parents freely share financial information with their children and readily let them participate in bill paying and investment decisions. Others hold onto control as if their lives depended upon it -- and well it might, to the extent that they would lose their identity along with their checkbook. They may even suspect their children of wanting to take their money.
So there's no single answer for every situation. Following, however, are approaches that we have worked for many of our clients in the past:
- Offer to help with bill paying. Permit the senior to continue to control the checkbook, but schedule a monthly sit-down to go through all of the bills that have accumulated. The child can write out the checks, but permit the parent to sign them.
- Use the Internet. With on-line access to accounts, children can monitor them without stepping to take control. If unusual payments or transfers occur, children can step in quickly, rather than waiting to review monthly statements.
- Segregate accounts. Leave the senior in charge of the family checking account, but take control of investment accounts. This will leave only smaller amounts at risk, rather than the parent's entire estate.
- Make sure the parent does estate planning while competent. Through properly-executed durable powers of attorney and revocable living trusts, children can step in when needed.
- Play on parental responsibility. While it is contrary to the traditional parent-child relationship for the child to take over the parent's finances, it is consistent with such roles for the parent to take care of the child. Pitch the need to help with finances as a way to put the child's mind at ease, rather than as a response to the parent's increasing incapacity. This is something the parent can do for the child, rather than the other way around.
- If all else fails, it may be necessary for the child or children to seek court appointment as guardian or conservator over the parent's finances. While this gives them complete control, it removes the parent's right to make any financial or legal decisions. In addition, it involves legal costs, periodic reporting to the court and, in some instances, the necessity of seeking court approval for expenditures or estate and long-term care planning steps that could be carried out freely under a durable power of attorney or revocable living trust.
Just as there is no single answer for every family situation, it may be necessary to try various interventions to determine which works best. Or, one may work for a while, and then it may become necessary to take a more drastic step if the situation deteriorates.
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