Longevity Planning 101: Long-term care costs
Longevity planning, here and at other institutions, has one main theme: people are living longer than ever before. We’ve written about it several times on our blog and a quick web search will garner thousands of results that say the same thing. It’s not just living longer that needs to be discussed, it’s thriving for as long as possible.
Early years of retirement are fairly affordable
The golden years of retirement can be fairly low-cost. Money is often set aside for things like travel and recreation. Barring any major medical events, retirees in their early years generally may be fairly healthy as well. Prescription drugs and health-related costs might stay reasonable, allowing your clients to enjoy this period of life they’ve worked so hard for.
It’s the years after these “golden years” that can be more sinister, however. Failing to plan for long-term care (LTC) may have major impacts on the financial health of your clients. Thankfully there are affordable ways to pay for LTC costs through insurance or specialized accounts.
Long Term Care Costs: How much and what’s covered?
Your clients might be curious what’s all covered or what is all necessary in their long term costs to help them pick a plan that sits well with them. The market offers several options, but generally it can cover everything from in-home assistance, to training family members on how to take care of your client, to end of life and hospice care. Some even offer “Adult day care” that gets the elederly out and about instead of confining them to a room.
What’s included in a LTC package isn’t as important as making sure that your clients have the money to pay for it or have purchased something to help cover the costs. LTC, without insurance and even with medicare, isn’t very affordable. Assuming that your clients are average, middle-class Americans, it’s likely they’ll need assistance in paying for their long-term care.
There are extraneous factors that should be considered that are not part of LTC insurance as well. Little things that aren’t covered often add up or big expenses, like making a home aging in place friendly, are likely not covered by insurance and will need to be paid out of pocket. Make sure you consider all aspects and think about as many scenarios as possible when planning for LTC costs, your clients are counting on it.