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Medicare Open Enrollment is here. October 15th to December 7th.
​Check out this great infographic, and let us know if we can help you with any of your Medicare questions! 
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Good advice from Kaiser Health News: Hold off on genetic testing until AFTER you buy LTC insurance (or life or disability). You must disclose the existence of the testing and any known results on an application and results can be used to deny or limit coverage.
Looking forward, LTC insurance is more secure and reliable than ever.CLICK HERE to read my new article on why LTC insurance remains a valuable insurance product with a future that should be much more stable than in the past.
Here is a link to an excellent article from Forbes.com that provides valuable, even critical, context to any discussion of long-term care planning and funding your plan with LTC insurance. In many ways a recent Wall Street Journal article simply re-packages old news in a new emotional wrapper since LTC insurance rate increases have been under way across the industry for more than 10 years. It also gets a couple of very important things wrong - including the fact that there are many options for dealing with a rate increase other than just walking away from the coverage. "The WSJ piece essentially falls into the 'bad news sells' category of reporting ... Its “Woe is me!” theme actually pushes people away from doing quality long-term care planning. Instead of lamenting past missteps, the article could have emphasized some of the new techniques for building effective and sustainable solutions to the budding long-term care crisis." "Aging in place" is an oft-quoted ideal for seniors of all ages and stages. But it takes a lot of personal, professional, and community resources to do so. The Villages movement seeks to expand the idea by helping people "age in community".
NPR looked at the "village" movement for seniors last month in a four part series. Villages are groups of seniors living in the community who come together to offer support and companionship to each other as they "age in place". For an annual fee, Villages provide volunteers and vetted professional services like handymen, as well as sponsoring events, arranging assistance for members, and other services suited to each unique "village". CLICK HERE to read - or listen to the stories!  We have moved our St. Louis office! We love our new space with room to grow.
You will find us at: 8229 Clayton Rd., Suite 200B (2nd floor) St. Louis, MO 63117 We are in Richmond Heights, just west of Brentwood Blvd., directly across from the Galleria's Clayton Rd. entrance. If you remember the Scholarshop, we're next door, just left of the old location. Our phone number and e-mail addresses stay the same. We are pleased to be sharing a suite with Allstate agent Matt Stark and his team. Matt has attended CLTC continuing education training with Bill Comfort in the past and we are thankful for many other personal and professional connections that should make this a great new location for our business and all of our clients, agents, and advisor partners. Give us a call and schedule a time to stop by and see us! "I know people who refuse to visit a family member in the nursing home. They say it’s too difficult to see Grandpa that way. They’d prefer to remember him the way he was, not the way he is now. They mention the sights and smells and it disturbs them. I understand those sentiments. But I believe it’s a mistake not to go." Here is a beautiful, personal essay on living with and loving someone with dementia. The "new thinking" on caring for people with dementia is a shift from exclusively a "tragedy" narrative to one that honors, respects, and continues to celebrate the life that the person is still living. Life's different with dementia, but it's still a life and it can still be a good life. This essay not only illustrates that this is possible, but it also shows us with personal examples how to do it. Greg Lhamon is a friend and a client and one of the best radio and media executives I know ... He's also a wonderful writer and a die-hard Cardinals baseball fan. CLICK HERE or on the link or photo below to read Greg's story...  “Long-term care, for most people, is a home care problem,” said Bill Comfort, who owns Comfort Long Term Care, a brokerage based in St. Louis and Durham, N.C." Check out this excellent article on using Partnership LTC insurance to design meaningful and affordable LTC insurance coverage - especially for care at home. CLICK HERE to read the full article.
A recent column in the National Law Review on long-term care planning and the importance of LTC insurance states unequivocally: "An advisor experienced in long-term care is an important part of every advisory team." "The Sooner the Better: Planning With Long-Term Care Insurance", makes a simple case for buying LTC insurance as soon as possible. And that all comprehensive estate plans should include a detailed discussion of LTC insurance. Want to know how to identify an experienced LTC specialist? Read our 5-Tips by clicking the button below:
Penn Treaty Network America LTC insurance company will now go into liquidation. A Pennsylvania court gave the PA Department of Insurance final approval to liquidate the LTCI company on March 1st. Benefits will still be payable if premiums continue to be paid on-time, but according to the PA DOI about 50% of policyholders may have their benefits limited. Liquidation means that the claims liabilities now fall to individual states' insurance "guarantee funds" which most commonly limit total benefits to $300,000. A few states are slightly higher and a couple - including Missouri - have a cap of only $100,000 for LTC insurance. Note that in most cases you would be covered by your state of residence at the time of liquidation (March 1, 2017), NOT the state where you bought the policy. While this insurance company failure is being reported as the largest financially in US history, it's important to note that Penn Treaty's policyholders account for only one-percent (1%) of all LTC insurance policyholders in-force, and that along with grossly under-pricing its overly-liberal policy benefits, Penn Treaty accepted people with health risks that no other insurance company would consider. My general advice to Penn Treaty policyholders: Keep your coverage, especially if you are older or uninsurable and cannot replace your coverage. Even if you could qualify for a replacement, you may be better off keeping Penn Treaty on a limited basis. Contact us for a policy/coverage review. According to the PA DOI, Policyholders with questions about policies, claims, or related to liquidation should call Policyholder Services at: 1-800-362-0700.
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