How Much Does Long Term Care Insurance Cost?
How much does long term care insurance cost? The short answer is, “It depends.” In this blog series, you’ll learn about what affects the premium price of long term care insurance and what impacts those factors make on the benefits. The first step in determining the price of long term care insurance is to figure out what you want the policy to do for you.
Preparing for Retirement while Caregiving
Stan and Barb have two children - a daughter just starting college and a son in high school. Both Stan and Barb still work, but between the mortgage, costs of their daughter’s college, and their son’s swim team expenses, they don’t have a lot left over every month. Adding to their already busy schedule, Stan’s mother who lives nearby and is suffering from Alzheimer’s. Stan and Barb have taken over her lawn care, house cleaning, and shopping. They spend hours every week to keep her safe in her own home. However, they know that in the next 5 years or so she will need round-the-clock care. Stan and Barb did some research and learned the cost would be around $120,000 per year.
Life Insurance and Long Term Care
Now Stan and Barb want to make sure that if something happens to one of them, their children won’t have the same burden of time and money that they're dealing with now. When Barb called me, she said she was also worried that if she or Stan died, the mortgage would be too expensive for either of them to pay on one income. She knew life insurance could cover the cost but didn’t think they could afford both life insurance and long-term care insurance.
She and Stan were happy to learn that the same life insurance policy that would keep a roof over their family’s head if one of them died could cover long term care. Since they were both in their early 50s and reasonably healthy, they chose two permanent life insurance policies with “living benefits” that could cover long term care costs. Stan especially liked knowing that even if he passed away without needing long term care, his wife or children would be protected with a tax-free death benefit payment. Barb was relieved that their family would have a home. And both were glad their children wouldn’t have to make the same sacrifices that they were making to care for an ailing parent.
Next Steps:
Read the next post in this series to learn more about your long term care options.
What does your family need most from insurance? Give me a call to figure out what might fit you best.
