A huge mistake that many people make when considering LTC insurance is "over-quoting".
Most people do not need to buy coverage for 100% of the cost of the highest-possible cost of care (skilled nursing home), and even shorter benefit periods (3-4 years) will cover the vast majority of care needs. It's kind of like thinking, "If I can't afford a Mercedes, then I'll just wait for the bus." It shouldn't be a zero-sum, all-or-nothing decision - that's a HUGE mistake. A Malibu with cloth seats and a 4-cylinder is great transportation ... $3000 a month of LTC insurance benefits will pay for five hours of home care seven days a week, or 10 hours every-other day. It will cover more than 1/2 of a good Assisted Living Facility in most of the country, and provides a 33% "discount" to a $9000/month bill in a nursing home. LTC insurance claims data show that 60%+ of claims start at home. Guess what, about 60% of claims also END at home. Only about 20% of LTC insurance claims end in a nursing home. The average LTC insurance claim is less than four years, even less than three years for men. Cover that first before you worry about Alzheimer's care for 6+ years. If you only buy a 3-year policy (couples can "share" up to a total of 6 years for the price of 3 each), and if you do get Alzheimer's, you will still have much more private-pay flexibility than having nothing. We need to stop worrying about the cost of care in a facility where most of us are NOT likely to end up (especially with reasonable - and affordable - planning). We do need to worry about where we will get an extra $3000-$4000 a month to pay for part-time home care so our spouse can have a life, get a good night's sleep, stay healthy, etc., and so our adult kids can be care managers not caregivers. Home care comes first. Always. And this is also where families are personally and financially most at risk when someone they love needs care. Solve the part-time home care problem first.
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What does this have to do with LTC? Nothing ... but it's sports history and so much fun for true baseballs fans (excluding Indians'). A fantastic 7-game World Series, and an epic game 7. I'm a St. Louis boy, born and raised, and therefore a dyed-in-the-red Cardinals fan ... BUT I couldn't be happier for Chicago Cubs fans everywhere!!!
China Oceanwide will buy Genworth in a $2.7-billion deal which includes a $1.1-billion capital commitment to pay off debt and invest in the US life insurance business. “China Oceanwide is also aligned with Genworth’s long-term goals of serving the aging population in the U.S., and providing financial capabilities to those seeking home ownership.” I believe this is good news for Genworth policyholders and the LTC insurance marketplace overall. Readers should note that two other active LTC insurers are also now foreign-owned. John Hancock is owned by the Canadian insurance company Manulife, and Transamerica is owned by Dutch insurer AEGON.
The US life & LTC biz must and will remain a US-based subsidiary of China Oceanwide, subject to US federal and state regulators. In-force policies must all be honored by law. Click here for a link to the company's full press release: http://investor.genworth.com/investors/news-releases/archive/archive/2016/China-Oceanwide-To-Acquire-Genworth-Financial/default.aspx As an insurance broker who has sold LTC insurance since 1992, and who has focused exclusively on LTC insurance since 2000, I have been following the FLTCIP rate increase news since it is such a large player in the marketplace. The "average" increase for current policyholders is over 80%, with some as high as 125%!
Here's my take: Welcome to LTC insurance. The FLTCIP is basically having to realize the same increases, for the same reasons as the rest of the private LTC insurance marketplace. 125% is NOT an outlier. Several other companies including some of John Hancock's individual policies, and Genworth’s have had 80%-100%+ increases. Others have had those amounts as well cumulatively over 2 or 3 increases in the past 10 years .......... Another story that confuses "independent living" with long-term careThis was an interesting article about alternative retirement living up until the author started comparing it to assisted living and nursing homes. (Link to full CNBC article at the end of this post.) The only reasonable land-based analogy here is "independent living". Even mentioning assisted living, or worse nursing homes, is completely ridiculous. While a cruise ship is staffed for "medical care" that means, acute, temporary medical conditions, not long-term, custodial care. NO cruise ship will provide help for you to physically get out bed, bathe, dress, etc., the types of basic care services provided in assisted living. And NO cruise ship wants a long-term passenger with safety issues related to Alzheimer's or dementia. And if you're so poor off to be in a skilled nursing home, you probably can't even get on the ship. Here is a quote from today's CNBC article: A study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society found that when considered over a 20-year span, "cruises were comparably priced to assisted living centers and offered a better quality of life, "though land-based assisted living can vary greatly by facility, location and needs." And here's a quote from the source article linked in the quote above (published in 2004!), that itself is quoting an article (from 2004!) in a medical journal: "Elderly people often choose assisted living facilities, nursing homes, 24 hours a day home caregivers, or family support. Living on a cruise ship might be a better choice, says Lee Lindquist, instructor of medicine at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, and a geriatrician at Northwestern Memorial Hospital." Dr. Lindquist should lose her (his?) license, hospital privileges, and teaching post. While there are indeed people with canes, walkers, and wheelchairs on cruise ships, NONE of them are living there. And who is it helping them bathe and dress and use the toilet on board? Right, spouses or other family. If someone needs the degree of care provided in assisted living, they cannot "live" on a cruise ship. MAYBE they could take a vacation, but the ship's staff sure as heck is not going to provide any direct care services. BTW, getting "long-term care" in a Holiday Inn is just as ridiculous. Follow this link to the full article on-line:
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/07/26/ahoy-matey-more-folks-retiring-on-a-cruise-ship.html Another article on the high cost of health care in retirement, and again, these numbers all exclude the cost of long-term care.The Motley Fool does a good job of examining a couple of different studies on what we should expect to pay out of pocket for health care in retirement, and how even with estimates exceeding $240,000 over a 20-year retirement we may still be UNDER-estimating the cost. MOST of the costs are monthly premiums for Medicare Part B and Medicare Supplement insurance, plus an average of Medicare deductibles and co-payments. None of the studies cited include the cost of long-term care services. The Fool's advice: This is a well-done article that lays out facts and ways to approach the planning issues without relying on scare tactics.
Read the full article on-line by clicking HERE. http://www.fool.com/retirement/2016/07/03/warning-healthcare-costs-in-retirement-may-be-high.aspx It's not about the car keys ... it's about the money.New research suggests that aging parents have a "toxic combination" of low, or diminished, financial literacy but a high degree of confidence. "In short, the more disconnected the seniors became from reality, the more they believed they could do a grand job making decisions about their money and investments." Here's an excerpt from a Money magazine article about the cost of health care in retirement, and again, it is noted that the staggering numbers DO NOT include long-term care costs. "Total retirement health care expenses for that 45-year-old couple planning to retire at age 65 will come to $592,275 in today’s dollars and $1.6 million in future dollars ... " Click here for a link to the full article: https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/ll-pay-healthcare-retirement-160638391.html For about $160 a month that same 45-year-old couple can buy a LTC insurance policy that covers up to $432,000 of long-term care costs at age 69.
This idea (or the "Cruise ship vs. nursing home" variation) has been around on the internet and e-mail chains for years. But when my mom recently forwarded it to me from a group of her friends, it just set me off. Here's the e-mail ... my commentary follows: No nursing home for us. We'll be checking into a Holiday Inn! Please pardon my over-sensitivity to this old trope. I do realize it's really just a joke (as a "real" LTC planning idea it's truly a JOKE), but I meet far too many people on a daily basis who continue to turn a blind eye toward real, thoughtful, grown-up long-term care planning who take ideas like this as Conventional Wisdom, and they flippantly use it (or the "Cruise Ship vs. Nursing Home" variation) as a convenient way to allow themselves to shrug their shoulders at engaging in a personal, adult conversation about the topic. The real problem with this is two-fold:
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G. Stanley Hall anticipated the development of gerontology, and his critique of the marginalization of the elderly still resonates today.Granville Stanley Hall (2/1/1846 - 4/24/1924) was a pioneering American psychologist and educator. His interests focused on childhood development and evolutionary theory. Hall was the founder and first president of the American Psychological Association and the first president of Clark University ... After his retirement in 1920, Hall wrote [Senescence] a...volume on aging. This important account has been labeled “prophetic” in its recognition of an emerging “crisis of aging” in the 20th century, in which longer lifespan, narrowing family roles, and expulsion from the workforce combined to dramatically isolate the elderly and restrict their active participation in public life. Hall railed against this process, arguing that the wisdom conferred by old age meant that the elderly had valuable and creative contributions to make to society. Yet, the stigma of aging meant that, instead, many were engaged in the foolish pursuit of youth, trying to avoid being excluded from full participation in their communities. In the conclusion of the book, Hall expressed a tangible sense of personal anger against this form of discrimination. His stirring call for a better understanding of the aging process anticipated the development of gerontology, and his critique of the marginalization of the elderly still resonates today. Are you prepared - personally & financially - for the last, great stage of your life?
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