Kids Really Do Want to Take Care Of Aging Parents

Clients I work with sometimes say, “My kids will take care  of me when the time comes.” Here is a  situation where Claire really did want to take care of Elizabeth, her mother.

Claire and Elizabeth lived in the same town only about 15 minutes from one another. Claire was fully prepared to care for Elizabeth. In fact, Claire asked Elizabeth to move in with her and her husband. Claire understood and accepted that she would be providing hands-on care and was physically and emotionally able to help with the care Elizabeth
required including bathing, dressing, eating, and toileting.

What Claire and Elizabeth did not understand was the enormity of caregiving. Here is how the 168 hours (24 hours X 7 days = 168 hours) or one week unfolded.

$149.89*

Quick and honest answers to the question, “How much does long-term care insurance cost?” are hard to come by, in part because long-term care insurance is
medically underwritten. Eligibility and rates depend upon health and age.
And policy design can be complex. And in order to identify the best policy
match and value, three or four insurance carriers must be compared.

I purchased my long-term care insurance when I was age 48. I wish I had bought at
a younger age. I could have saved a lot of money.

The Perfect Age to Purchase Long-Term Care Insurance

Determining the perfect age to purchase long-term care insurance
is not solely a mathematical decision.

One of the first questions clients ask us is, “When is the best
time to buy long-term care insurance?” These clients are asking “How old should
I be when I purchase my policy? And, can I wait a few more years to think about
this issue?”

I am Healthy as a Horse

 

 How do you deny your eventual need for long-term care?

“I am as healthy as a horse, long-term care won’t be an issue for me,” or, “My parents didn’t need long-term care.” 

We hear both these comments from clients when discussing the risk of needing long-term care. “I won’t need long-term care because I am in great health and I take care of myself,” when in fact, the opposite is true. The longer our healthy clients live, the more likely it is that they will need care. Healthy clients in their fifties and sixties will likely live to their nineties and will require care in their advanced years because they will live a very long life. These clients feel so healthy compared to their peers they simply cannot imagine the realistic future.

Will Waiting One More Day Cost a Half a Million Dollars? The Reverse Lottery; The Need for Long-Term Care Insurance.

We know. You just can’t deal with it now. The kids are in college, retirements need to be funded and who wants to think about long-term care anyway. It might not happen and even it does, you’ll just have to deal with it when it happens …. 

There are big problems with this thinking: