Long Term Care Insurance: Weigh the cost of buying vs the potential costs if you don't.

Middle aged individuals who ponder Long Term Care Insurance usually think about the impact nursing home care will have on their retirement portfolios, or about the likelihood of ever needing nursing home care based on the family history.
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The most common belief, if you are close to your family, is that the kids will take you in when you need care. Some even tell us that their kids have said they will "never" let you go to a nursing home. Based on that promise, you think you have a plan in place.

Only about 3% of people over the age of 65 will actually be placed in a nursing home, but the stark truth is that six of every ten people over the age of 65 (The ratio for baby boomers is higher yet.) will need some form of extended care before they die. The majority of those needing care will be cared for at home at tremendous cost to your own spouse or children.

Buying Long Term Care insurance isn't entirely about you. It's about loving your family enough to take steps to keep them from suffering on your account. Usually the caregivers are middle aged women with jobs and children of their own. They often have to take time off of work or even quit their jobs to take care of aging parents.

Taking care of you can be devastating to those you love. Elder law attorney Harley Gordon reports that a care giver can easily spend four years of her life taking care of an ailing loved one. Add that to the years taken by child rearing, and a woman stands to lose about $25,500 in Social Security retirement benefits. In other words, when she gets old enough to retire, her Social Security will be less, partly because she lost work to take care of an ailing family member.

Those who unwittingly bring this physical, emotional, and financial suffering upon their families all have three things in common. 1. They don't expect to live long enough to need extended care; 2. they don't believe they will ever be that sick—it always happens to the other guy; 3. they lack a realistic awareness of the complex cost of taking care of an ailing adult.

The time to begin a dialogue with your family regarding a Long Term Care plan is while you are still in good health. If you wait until you actually need the care, it will be too late to plan, and the burden will be on the family. You need to decide how and where you would like to receive care and how you intend to pay for it.

Long term care insurance gives you options. It allows you to receive care in your home or in a family member's home—but without forcing them to neglect their own needs to take care of yours. Long Term Care insurance allows you to receive care at home, in an assisted living facility, or—if necessary—in a nursing home. It assures you of a way to protect the legacy you built while sparing your loved ones the guilt, pain and cost of having to manage your care on their own. No adult who loves their family and is financially and physically qualified to purchase LTCi should ignore this important part of senior planning.

Find a policy that covers a variety of services at a price you can afford. Get started now by filling out the simple quote request form.