During this season of giving, you may want to think about providing comfort, safety, security or well-being for yourself or your loved ones. If you are concerned about your healthcare or a long term illness, exploring insurance that ameliorates this worry may be a wise action. None of us like to think about catastrophes or loss of our independence. If we address the issue before the incident, there will be a better sense of security for ourselves and our loved ones. Protecting yourself is a present to you and your loved ones.
You can acquire this protection for yourself, your parents, or children through a long term care insurance policy (LTCI) or a life insurance policy. The LTCI covers home care, assisted living or nursing facility costs. You pay a premium each year for this insurance and hope you never have to use the policy. Similar to paying for homeowner’s insurance. These policies often have inflation built into the amount of daily costs that are covered. If you buy a policy that pays $300 per day for care in 2016 with 3% inflation factor, the policy, in 2026, would cover about $400 per day .
If you buy a life insurance policy with a LTC rider, it will cover you for home care, assisted living or nursing facility costs. The bills paid from the life insurance policy will be deducted from the death benefit.
For example, if you bought $300,000 of life insurance, each month the policy could provide you with 2% of the death benefit or up to $6,000 per month. If you needed care for 2 years (24 months), that means the cost of $144,000 would reduce your death benefit to $156,000. Although the life insurance policy with the LTC rider may not cover the cost of care for as long a period as the LTCI, you will probably have money from the death benefit to leave to your survivors.
In thinking about these policies as a gift, children may consider contributing so much each year to the premium cost for the parents’ policy. This will not only bring relief to the parents but also to the children who otherwise may need to be the caretakers in the future. If parents have a policy or can pay for long term care costs from savings, a gift to children for this coverage is another idea for a holiday gift.
If you want to learn more about your LTCI options, check out Nationwide’s interactive website with videos at http://bit.ly/2hmQAi9 to get you started, and then call our office (315-637-5153) for an appointment.