Weekend Reading: Long-Term Care Planning Protects You and Your Family
This article appears as part of Casey Weade's Weekend Reading for Retirees series. Every Friday, Casey highlights four hand-picked articles on trending retirement topics and delivers them straight to your email inbox. Get on the list here.
f one of your main retirement concerns is maintaining a retirement income that lasts your lifetime, a vital factor in securing your financial future is factoring in the unknowns. In the event of a major health challenge or deteriorating health down the road, long-term care (LTC) can help alleviate mounting health care expenses where traditional health care coverage often falls short.
READ THE ARTICLEHere are four options to obtain LTC:
📌 Self-funding: If you’re in the 30 percent group of retirees who don’t need LTC in the future, this option would pay off. However, it can also be a risky strategy and may deplete retirement savings.
📌 Long-term care insurance: You pay a monthly premium for coverage, but there is no payout if the policy goes unused. There is also no death benefit for beneficiaries.
📌 Life insurance: Certain life insurance policies, such as indexed universal life (IUL) and universal life (UL), allow you to tap into the death benefit to cover LTC costs. Here, unused LTC features still provide a death benefit to beneficiaries.
📌 Fixed indexed annuities (FIA): FIAs with an income rider can include LTC benefits. A lump sum is paid to the insurance company, and after a specified period, an income stream begins. LTC benefits result in a double payout, but there are limitations.
If you’re waiting for the right time to seek long-term care insurance, consider making it a priority now. One unexpected event can have a massive impact on your retirement security, and there’s more than one LTC solution.