Long-Term Care Planning/ Life Insurance

As the oldest Baby Boomers begin to wind through their 60s, one of the biggest concerns may not be outliving your income, but outliving your good health. It is human nature not to worry about an event until it actually happens.

For seniors, home health care can cost $50,000 or more per year1, and nursing home care can run as high as $80,0002 per year. These high costs reflect a truth that the need for long term care could be considered the most catastrophic unexpected event that could happen in your later years. Does your retirement income plan account for this kind of possibility? Would you be prepared for upwards of twice that number as a married couple?

Considering that you have to exhaust virtually all of your financial means before Medicaid will pay for long-term care, and neither your employer group nor major medical insurance will cover it, it’s critically important to begin the process of planning ahead in order to be adequately prepared for these potential expenses.

At Bussenger Financial, we can help you to evaluate your situation and determine if purchasing a long-term care insurance policy may be the right move to help secure your financial future and provide you with the comfort peace of mind you deserve out of your retirement.

1 Genworth 2013 Cost of Care Survey: Home Care Providers, Adult Day Health Care Facilities, Assisted Living Facilities and Nursing Homes

2 MetLife: The 2011 Market Survey of Long-Term Care Costs

Life insurance isn’t put in place for those who have passed away—it is in place for those who are left behind. It’s there to help you ensure that your family is provided for, your children’s educational needs are taken care of and that they wont have to worry about their future. When shopping for life insurance, consider potential needs such as replacing your income so your family can maintain its current standard of living, as well as paying for all of your funeral and estate costs. A general rule of thumb is that you should seek coverage somewhere in between five and seven times your gross annual income. As far as the various types of policies are concerned, they can generally be placed into one of two categories: Term and Permanent life insurance.

Term insurance generally provides coverage for a specified period of time and pays out a specified amount of coverage to your beneficiary or beneficiaries only if you die within that allotted time period. In a level premium term policy you pay the same amount of premium from the first day of the policy until the term ends.

A permanent insurance policy, on the other hand, will stay permanently in effect for the rest of your life so long as premiums continue to be paid. We can help you determine whether a term or permanent policy best suits your individual needs.

To schedule a time to discuss your financial future, contact us by email at [email protected] or give us a call at (224) 655-2426 today!