LONG TERM CARE INSURANCE
Dying Too Soon or
Living Too Long--What Are The
Alternatives?
OK, so you thought you would
die before now. But you're 60, 65, 70, 75, 80, 85 and
you're still going strong. You will be blessed if you keep
going until you pop and go.
But, guess what, every year
you live, you achieve a greater life expectancy.
The odds are that, sooner or
later, you will become incapacitated and someone will have
to take care of you, either at home, in an assisted living
facility or in a nursing home.
Now, if you are fortunate
enough to have accumulated very substantial assets (at
least you had them before the melt-down), you can pay your
way with no strain. Or can you?
If you live and live and live
until there is nothing left for your spouse, your children
or your favorite charity you may have a problem.
We can do a life insurance
settlement with your life insurance and get a chunk of
cash--then get Long Term Care
Insurance,
or, better still, long term care
insurance and annuity life income.
Long Term Care
Insurance (LTC) will help protect your assets. Why
spend your hard earned savings?
Long term care costs are exploding
The average cost of a private
nursing room approaches $75,000 per year in many states and
is almost $200,000 in another state(1).
Put another way, you will
deplete $500,000 in 2.5 to 6.6 years, depending on where
you live.
WOW!!
You'd better be loaded if you
don't own LTC!
"Consider a couple age 65,
there is an 81% chance that one of them makes it to 85;
there is a 25% chance that one of them makes it to 97.
(2)
When you factor in that
"nearly half of persons over age 85 have Alzheimers
Disease"(3) and that "the average duration of Alzheimers
Disease from diagnosis to death is 8 years, but can be as
much as 20"(4) it becomes something to give close attention
to.
Especially when"more than
50% of Americans
are expected to need some form of care in their
lifetime"(5) and "72% of women who reach 65 will develop
two or more disabilities that require long term care".
(6)
Now, I watched my Dad decline
from a brilliant, vigorous man of 88 to dead one month shy
of 90 from Alzheimers Disease.
To see him gradually lose his
faculties was heart-breakiing. First, he lost his sense of
smell, then his taste, his hearing left him and he started
trying to run away. He was badly frustrated and pretty soon
my Mom and the woman she had to help her could not handle
him so she put him in the nursing home.
Soon he was unable to walk
and they put him in a chair with a tray for his food. In no
time he could not feed himself and could not speak. Then he
could not see and even refused to eat when fed. Finally, he
clamped his jaws together and starved himself to
death.
When I think back now, I
realize this rapid decline started when we sold his cattle
herd. Had we kept just a few of his beloved Angus he would
have had something to do that he dearly loved.
The lesson for you
and me:
Retire if you must but be
sure you have a hobby or something to do so you stay busy
and involved!
Not long after my Dad died my
Mom had a stroke.
Even after several weeks of
therapy several times, she was unable to walk or care for
herself. We hired help to take care of her 24 hours a day
for seven years.
We spent $613,200 of family
treasure to take care of her in a substandard way--she had
to smell the cigarettes smoke from her nurses in the back
room, ate the ill- prepared food they gave her, rarely had
a visitor--most of her friends had already died--but she
got to stay at home.
I had started the nursing
home in our hometown and had run it for almost 20 years. I
knew my Mom would have been vastly better off in the
nursing home but my brother and sister outvoted me so she
stayed at home.
When my Mom and Dad were
living, the really great companies had not started writing
long term care insurance.
I bought some LTC for them,
but when I checked on the strength of the company, I was
not confident the company would be able to pay claims so we
cancelled.
Now, you have
a choice of large, strong companies you can be confident
will still be there when you have a claim.
So, now, let's see if you
want to do a life settlement with your life insurance and
see if we can get you qualified for long term care
insurance or for an annuity.
Call or email me--Tom
Shelton, CLU, ChFC
256-343-1231
________________________
(1)Care Scout 3/2007 (2)"Retire Rich", Fortune Mag 6/2006
(3)-(6) Alzheimers Association Fact Sheet and Facts and
Figures 2007.
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