Long Term Care

One of the biggest risks is an ongoing need for professional care in the later stages of life. Insurance solutions that protect against a significant long term care event are crucial to your and your familys’ future.

Whether for individuals, business owners, or executives, Dickenson & Associates can help you and your advisors analyze and select proper coverage. Understanding the risk of self-funding a long-term care event, the impact it can have on one’s assets and financial objectives, is critical.

Education and product selection are one of our specialties. Over the years we have continued to meet our clients’ needs by keeping informed of the changes to the long-term care insurance industry.

We believe that our experience and expertise set us apart from the rest and make us your best choice for helping to protect your future. You can depend on us to provide you with excellent service and quality long-term care insurance plans. Satisfying the needs of our clients is not only our priority – it is our commitment.

Many long-term care insurance plans are flexible and offer a variety of care options. Purchasers can customize the policy to meet their unique needs. We have several LTC insurance solutions; some providing a return of premium when no claims are paid and rate guarantees. The time to plan is now by educating yourself on the various options available.

Since many people purchase long-term care insurance 10, 20 or 30 years before receiving benefits, inflation protection is the most important option to consider. inflation allows the daily benefit you choose to keep up with the rising cost of care. You can increase your benefit by a given percent with either compound or simple inflation protection.

Unless your daily benefit increases over time, years from now you may find that it has not kept up with the rising cost of long-term care. Obviously, the younger you are when you buy a policy, the more important it is for you to think about adding inflation protection.


FAQs

Long-term care insurance is coverage that provides nursing home care, home health care, assisted living care or adult day care for individuals with a chronic or disabling condition that requires daily attention.

The need for long term care may result from being chronically ill, from a severe cognitive impairment or something as unexpected as an accident or injury. Long-term care insurance will provide monthly income to assist with these additional costs of care.

As with all insurance, cost is based on age, gender, and health status. The younger and healthier you are, the lower the premiums. In addition, where you live determines how much care services will cost and therefore the amount of protection you may need to purchase.
The recommended age to buy a Long-term care policy, assuming you are still in good health and eligible for coverage, is between 55 – 65.

This coverage provides choice, control, and dignity for families facing a diagnosis which is followed by a “plan of care”. With family members spread out across the country, it can be challenging to move loved ones. Most family members experiencing a care event would prefer to stay in their own home, or in their hometown where their support system is familiar.

In general, long-term care services can be quite expensive and are not covered by health insurance plans.

Long-term care insurance not only helps preserve assets in the event of a long-term care situation, but even more importantly it preserves your independence, allowing you to live where you wish. It will also maintain your spouse or partner’s standard of living, financial security, and peace of mind.

We encourage our clients to explore the value of planning for long term care as early as age 45 to be better prepared for this future expense.

Long-term care insurance typically covers things that Medicare would not, specifically extended home care, assisted living and nursing home care.

Many people do not qualify for Medicaid because their assets are too high therefore must pay for Long-term care expenses on their own. Then, once assets are low enough, they can qualify for Medicaid coverage, this is certainly not ideal.