For a long time, it was highly recommended by a large number of financial professionals and retirement specialists that you use long term care insurance to help prepare for the latter portion of your retirement. Things have changed recently, especially as the cost of care has gone up. Long term care insurance, in order to stay feasible, has had to increase in price. Now, fewer financial advisors do recommend it just because it has become more difficult for most to afford on their own.
That doesn’t mean long term care insurance cannot help, though. Statistics say that almost 60 percent of seniors will use long term care at some point in their life. This number is also a lot larger than it was a decade ago, when that number was right below 50 percent. This isn’t always permanent care. Sometimes, long term care only lasts for a few months after a hospital stay, for example. Still, more people than ever before will benefit from long term care insurance.
Having this type of insurance policy can help to offset the cost of care dramatically, especially if the right policy is chosen early on. There are a lot of different choices out there, so it’s important that you go over your options before you finalize something. Having an insurance agent that you know and trust will help here.
Long term care insurance makes the most sense for people that have assets that they want to protect. Some experts say that the threshold for this is at least $150,000 in assets, but again, this is a personal decision. People with lower assets may find it worthwhile, too.
With all of that said, the cost of long term care insurance has risen dramatically over the last few years. It is much more expensive to buy a long term care insurance policy now than it was ten years ago. With all of that said, if the cost of insurance is less than what you would spend on care itself, then it is still worth it. With the average nursing home stay in the United States coming in at about $92,000 per year, there’s a good chance that insurance will be less than this.
Ultimately, it’s up to you whether the cost of long term care insurance is worth it. Some people will weigh the pros and cons of the expense and determine that it really does make sense over the long haul to invest in their future like this. Whether it’s genetic factors, the sense of security that is brought, or the fact that the monthly cost spent on this insurance per month doesn’t impact their financial health in any way, it’s quite possible that purchasing long term care insurance is a no brainer.
These situations don’t happen all the time, though. Most people are not able to make this decision quite so easily. If you fall into this category, it is important to speak with a financial professional familiar with your background and goals. They will be able to give you much better, personalized advice regarding what’s best for your unique situation.
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