Long Term Care: A Creative Way to Protect Against

The old adage “I am scared of getting old. I am scared of being ill,” often quoted by Ben Stein, reflects the uncertainty of the increased possibilities of ill health. Aging should be looked upon as a celebration by looking at birthdays as the start of a great new adventure and not the end of our youth due to illness or the complications associated with paying for this illness. Our current society thrusts upon us the high cost of nursing home and long term care expenses which to some are actually more frightening than death itself. One way of combatting the high cost of long term care is to look at insurance; however, the typical insurance policies have two major concerns for most people: 1) the nonguaranteed cost, allowing the premiums to increase due to the nonguarantees. These increases occurring when one needs the insurance the most and may no longer be able to afford it; 2) the fact that you may never need care which, statistically speaking, may be more accurate and thus an awful waste of money spent on premiums. The alternative to the nonguaranteed, annual premium approach is a hybrid of long term care and insurance in one package. The advantage of this asset based approach is not only does it provide a death benefit, but it also allows one to utilize the death benefit amount if one should need nursing home or home healthcare. The big advantages to this are: 1) premiums can never increase as they are fully guaranteed, and 2) if you never utilize the long term care, the cash will have grown tax-deferred, thus building substantial death benefits. The innovative approach to Asset Care, underwritten through State Life (owned by One America), is that the policy can be purchased on one life or on two lives, thus many times reducing the overall cost and thus increasing the benefits for both people. The amount of money withdrawn from the death benefit will be used and paid out for long term care benefits totally tax free. This benefit also includes adult daycare, hospice care, and even international travel care. In addition the monies repositioned into this policy on a self-insured basis of which most seniors are already utilizing grows at a gross crediting rate of 4%. If you have not explored asset based long term care, utilizing your self-insured dollars by repositioning them in order to gain maximum leverage in the event of a long term care need but at the same time protecting 100% of your repositioned money to be returned to you or your family in the event you do not need the long term care benefit, you may be missing out on protecting yourself and your family and providing the peace of mind as one gets older.