“Living Benefits”
What is wrong with life insurance?
Traditional life insurance has the drawback of covering only 1 emergency – your passing away. And with term insurance, the vast majority of policies will never be paid because they are outlived. But the leading causes of death in America are also the primary causes of disability, the need for long term care, and ultimately most cases of financial struggle.
Every 29 seconds someone suffers from a coronary event, and 45% of heart attack victims are under the age of 45.
Every 45 seconds someone suffers from a stroke.
The chance of developing cancer during your lifetime is 1 in 3 for women, and 1 in 2 for men.
Of all Americans who reach age 65, about 60% will eventually need some form of long term care.
There are so many challenges a family faces long before the worst possibility of losing a loved one. What is wrong with life insurance is that it doesn’t address all these risks.
What is wrong with disability insurance and long term care insurance?
Disability insurance is very important for the breadwinner of the family to have, for how many months can your family live without that income? And yet, disability insurance will never pay the full amount of the income, and often comes with waiting periods.
Long term care insurance is another valuable protection, because the costs of long term care are so high that it protects your assets from being depleted in the event you need this care. However, many people hesitate to get it because they don’t know for sure that they’ll use it. Or what if you have a heart attack or stroke, but recover enough that you do not trigger the long term care because you can still perform the activities of daily living?
A Comprehensive Solution
The solution to these shortcomings of traditional, separate insurance policies is to get one policy that will provide “Living Benefits” as well as death benefits.
It is now possible to get such a policy through a 150-year-old, A-rated mutual company. The one policy will pay in three ways:
· Acceleratd living benefits
· Retirement income benefit
· Death benefit.
We can design a policy to cover disability, chronic and terminal illness, and long term care. In addition, you will be able to access the value for retirement or other needs.
We all have multiple risks to insure against, and it is hard to know which one we will need first. A “Living Benefits” life insurance policy provides one combined, affordable solution to all of these needs.
Showing posts with label long term care. Show all posts
Showing posts with label long term care. Show all posts
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
We Can All Feel Lucky
Do You Feel Lucky?
My father has Parkinson’s disease, and his father before him had Parkinson’s disease.
In the words of Michael J. Fox, I am a lucky man. Fox titled his book “Lucky Man” because he felt he grew as a family man and human being because of his Parkinson’s disease. If you can believe it, he is grateful to the disease.
I may or may not get Parkinson’s disease, but I need to be aware of it. That awareness alone makes me grateful for what I have – a healthy family and time to enjoy with them.
Thinking Ahead
I am also lucky because my father acted in time to take care of himself. He did his research, and before he was at a stage in the disease where he would not be admitted, he and my mother moved into a life care community or a CCRC (continuing care retirement community) which offers three levels of living: independent, asssisted, and skilled nursing care. They are now ready for all the possible developments with the Parkinson’s.
Buying into the facility essentially provided them with long term care insurance. And now as his condition progresses it would become more difficult for him to buy into such insurance. They were wise to act when they did. They have secured their future care and peace of mind for our whole family.
Read the Warning Signs
Now I too am doing my research and will act before it is too late to secure my own family into their future, when I may or may not be able to do everything I can now. I am lucky to have such a clear warning sign in my family history.
Peace of Mind
We can all consider what is in our history that should be prompting us to act. But then, some things come without such clear warning signs, and we can all take steps to insure our family against those unknown events as well. My wish for you is that you have peace of mind about your family’s future, and you can enjoy each day you have with them, and feel lucky.
My father has Parkinson’s disease, and his father before him had Parkinson’s disease.
In the words of Michael J. Fox, I am a lucky man. Fox titled his book “Lucky Man” because he felt he grew as a family man and human being because of his Parkinson’s disease. If you can believe it, he is grateful to the disease.
I may or may not get Parkinson’s disease, but I need to be aware of it. That awareness alone makes me grateful for what I have – a healthy family and time to enjoy with them.
Thinking Ahead
I am also lucky because my father acted in time to take care of himself. He did his research, and before he was at a stage in the disease where he would not be admitted, he and my mother moved into a life care community or a CCRC (continuing care retirement community) which offers three levels of living: independent, asssisted, and skilled nursing care. They are now ready for all the possible developments with the Parkinson’s.
Buying into the facility essentially provided them with long term care insurance. And now as his condition progresses it would become more difficult for him to buy into such insurance. They were wise to act when they did. They have secured their future care and peace of mind for our whole family.
Read the Warning Signs
Now I too am doing my research and will act before it is too late to secure my own family into their future, when I may or may not be able to do everything I can now. I am lucky to have such a clear warning sign in my family history.
Peace of Mind
We can all consider what is in our history that should be prompting us to act. But then, some things come without such clear warning signs, and we can all take steps to insure our family against those unknown events as well. My wish for you is that you have peace of mind about your family’s future, and you can enjoy each day you have with them, and feel lucky.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Long Term Care
Who can benefit from Long Term Care Insurance?
In the 90’s my grandmother had to go to a nursing home, and had no choice in which home to go to because she had no long term care insurance. She used up all of her assets very quickly, and then was covered by Medicaid. She was never quite happy in the nursing home, and I always wished we had other choices available.
Long term care insurance is a tool for those who want to remain independent and desire the ability to choose the setting for their care. While it was begun in the early 80’s as nursing home insurance, it has changed a lot since then. Now the coverage includes not only nursing home care, but services in assisted living facilities and adult day care centers, as well as home health care, and respite care for the care giver.
As we live longer, more people will need some form of long term care. Yet most of this care is increasingly provided at home. Over 12 million Americans (of any age) need long term care, but only 2.4 million live in nursing homes. Further, younger people often have need of this care as well. It is estimated that 40% of the people receiving long term care are between ages 18 and 64.
What triggers long term care insurance? Usually a policy pays benefits when you cannot do two or more “Activities of Daily Living” (ADL’s), either because of old age, mental or physical illness, or injury. There are six activities of daily living, developed through years of research: eating, bathing, dressing, toileting, continence, and transferring (getting out of a chair or bed). Many policies also pay benefits for cognitive impairment – for example, if you develop Alzheimer’s disease, but can still perform the ADL’s.
If you have significant savings, long term care insurance is a way to protect those assets in the case that you need long term care. Consider the costs of care in a 2008 survey. In Seattle a room in a nursing home cost $277 a day, and the rest of the state averaged $189 per day. A one bedroom unit in an assisted living facility cost $3,340 per month in Seattle, and $2,890 in the rest of the state. A home health aid costs $22 per hour, or just over $45,000 per year. These costs could quickly consume a very healthy savings account.
When looking for long term care insurance, keep in mind these questions. What services are covered, and how much would be paid for each service? How long would the benefits last, and does the policy have a lifetime maximum benefit? Will it pay benefits based on expenses incurred, or a set dollar amount? How many days would you wait before benefits begin? Does the policy offer an inflation feature? Is there a waiver-of-premium provision for once you enter a care facility?
Then, based on your age, and family situation, you can map out your goals for long term care insurance with an insurance professional, and craft a policy that works best for you.
In the 90’s my grandmother had to go to a nursing home, and had no choice in which home to go to because she had no long term care insurance. She used up all of her assets very quickly, and then was covered by Medicaid. She was never quite happy in the nursing home, and I always wished we had other choices available.
Long term care insurance is a tool for those who want to remain independent and desire the ability to choose the setting for their care. While it was begun in the early 80’s as nursing home insurance, it has changed a lot since then. Now the coverage includes not only nursing home care, but services in assisted living facilities and adult day care centers, as well as home health care, and respite care for the care giver.
As we live longer, more people will need some form of long term care. Yet most of this care is increasingly provided at home. Over 12 million Americans (of any age) need long term care, but only 2.4 million live in nursing homes. Further, younger people often have need of this care as well. It is estimated that 40% of the people receiving long term care are between ages 18 and 64.
What triggers long term care insurance? Usually a policy pays benefits when you cannot do two or more “Activities of Daily Living” (ADL’s), either because of old age, mental or physical illness, or injury. There are six activities of daily living, developed through years of research: eating, bathing, dressing, toileting, continence, and transferring (getting out of a chair or bed). Many policies also pay benefits for cognitive impairment – for example, if you develop Alzheimer’s disease, but can still perform the ADL’s.
If you have significant savings, long term care insurance is a way to protect those assets in the case that you need long term care. Consider the costs of care in a 2008 survey. In Seattle a room in a nursing home cost $277 a day, and the rest of the state averaged $189 per day. A one bedroom unit in an assisted living facility cost $3,340 per month in Seattle, and $2,890 in the rest of the state. A home health aid costs $22 per hour, or just over $45,000 per year. These costs could quickly consume a very healthy savings account.
When looking for long term care insurance, keep in mind these questions. What services are covered, and how much would be paid for each service? How long would the benefits last, and does the policy have a lifetime maximum benefit? Will it pay benefits based on expenses incurred, or a set dollar amount? How many days would you wait before benefits begin? Does the policy offer an inflation feature? Is there a waiver-of-premium provision for once you enter a care facility?
Then, based on your age, and family situation, you can map out your goals for long term care insurance with an insurance professional, and craft a policy that works best for you.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
