Now is a great time to take a comprehensive look at your retirement plan. Sure. Look at the balances in your retirment accounts. But let us encourage you to broaden your perspective a little. In addition to considering your future income, housing and health care needs, please consider your end of life options for paying for long term care. Long term care is not health care. Health care is for acute illnesses that can be relieved or cured. Long term care is for illnesses that have no cure, like alzheimers and parkinsons disease.
If you haven’t considered long term care issues during retirement, then your financial planner most likely has neglected a very important aspect of your plan. We can help.
Most planners consider retirement income needs, needs for housing, food, travel and health care needs. Those plans are usually well developed. You even may have considered the value of leaving a legacy for your family, your church, alma mater, civic organization or community. The economic crisis may have you concerned about realizing all of your goals and obligations, which means that now is a great time to reassess.
Even though your assets have been diminished with recent economic crisis, now is a good time to assess the value of long term care insurance along with your other considerations. Long term care insurance protects your retirement nest egg from the significant financial drain that long term care expenses can impose.
Long term care insurance covers expenses for caring for someone who can’t perform normal daily routines, like eating, bathing, dressing, toileting, transferring (walking) and continence. The issue relates to the costs, which can be upwards of $100,000 per year, and which would rapidly diminish most retirement assets that otherwise would be used by a spouse or for establishing that legacy we talked about.
The issues are very real. They can be complex. Even your financial planner may need some support. We’re happy to work with financial specialists to help them understand the value of long term care planning.
Meanwhile, please consider long term care in your retirement planning. Ask one of the Haas brothers for their ideas about the issue. Not only are they educated and experienced with the challenges, they offer strong connections to the professionals advisors you may need to help with your overall retirement plans.