Specialized care when you need it
Most people don’t accurately plan for long-term care as one of their major retirement expenses. We not only help you protect your assets from being depleted, we also help you potentially relieve the pressure on family members to provide your care.
Our integrated wealth planning approach takes into account your entire financial situation when recommending long-term care options. When you work with a dedicated financial advisor, you'll have a team of specialists, including insurance professionals working on your behalf.
Life insurance options
Life insurance riders
Another way to purchase long-term care insurance is by adding a rider to a permanent life insurance policy. The policy represents two separate coverages and your premium is split up to pay for both.
A long-term care rider typically pays benefits when the insured is not able to perform two out of six basic Activities of Daily Living (ADLs). Activities of Daily Living include: eating, bathing, getting dressed, toileting, transferring and continence.
A long-term care rider should not be confused with an "accelerated death benefit" which is a popular feature of many life insurance policies. Accelerated death benefits pay part of the death benefit for terminal illness or doctor-certified, terminal, long-term care confinement while the insured is alive. Since very little long-term care could be certified as terminal, this policy feature is a poor substitute for long-term care insurance.
Hybrid policies
Still another way to purchase long-term care insurance is through an "either/or" feature in life insurance. If you need long-term care, you receive stipulated benefits. If you receive all the benefits before death, the policy expires. If not, after your death, your benificiaries receive any remaining benefits.
An advantage of this type of insurance is a guaranteed benefit since everyone eventually dies. You can purchase this type of policy with periodic premiums for the life of the policy or with a single premium of $50,000 or more.
A disadvantage of this type of insurance is that, because the policy needs to cover the morbidity risk of long-term insurance as well as the mortality risk of death, the premiums are much higher than an equivalent stand-alone, long-term care insurance policy.
Another disadvantage is that underwriting standards for life insurance are more strict than standards for long-term care insurance. Many who qualify for long-term care insurance are denied coverage for life insurance.
Insights
5 myths about long-term care insurance
For those who reach age 65, close to 70 percent will need long-term care in their lifetimes.
Healthcare costs in retirement
Learn how to prepare for healthcare costs in retirement.
