Preserve Your Dignity and Assets with the Right Plan

Retirement plans are different from long term care plans although some people consolidate them, which is a good thing. Some people’s retirement plans would consist of local and international travels, a cottage in the country, and a business venture among others. Yours, on the other hand, can also include a long term care insurance (LTCI) policy which will come very handy when you’re too old and weak to travel alone, when maintaining your house becomes burdensome, and when you can no longer carry out your personal needs. Contrary to what many people think, LTCI policies do not only cover medically necessary care. The fact of the matter is that this type of insurance product is not really intended for the sick but for those individuals who cannot perform their routine activities of daily living (ADLs) such as eating, bathing, dressing, toileting, continence, and transferring without assistance. Usually, it’s people with disabilities, chronic illnesses, and those who have been weakened by old age that need coverage from an LTCI policy. Unfortunately, most of them would wait for symptoms of an illness or change in health to manifest before they apply for an LTCI policy. So they end up being declined by LTCI carriers. Experts on the field of LTCI advise people to look into different ways to plan their future health care needs while they are young and nowhere near requiring serious care. If they wait until they are just a few years away from retiring before planning their LTC, they might never be able to secure an effective plan. Viable Long Term Care Plans Before lining up your options for LTC planning, here’s a list of what you should not consider: • Home selling – The housing market continues to downswing and you’ll be lucky to sell your house for $100,000. Unfortunately, this amount won’t even be enough for three years of care. • Retirement Money/Nest Egg – Nobody’s money is going to be enough for the cost of care as this grows approximately 5% each year. However, financial advisers have served a heads up about the fourfold increase of LTC costs slated in 2030. If you’re expecting to receive $2,000,000 around that time you can disregard this warning. • Medicare or Medicaid – Unless you only have a maximum of $2,000 in assets, Medicaid is not an option that you can take. But if you are willing to entrust all of your properties to the government just to qualify for Medicaid assistance, do it by all means. Medicare is worse than Medicaid because this program does not really provide LTC coverage unless you’ve acquired a catastrophic illness which requires different levels of medical care. After you’ve crossed out these things, you can start looking up helpful options such as LTCI policies, hybrid life insurance with LTC rider, and annuities among others. Long term care is a natural event in anybody’s life. It’s unlike natural calamities that come unexpectedly. Every one of us will need some level of care as we age so coming up with long term care plans should be the most natural thing.