Fifteen years ago there were more than 100 companies selling long-term care insurance and today there are only 15 or so. One of the primary reasons that the market has cleared tremendously with regard to long-term care is because those companies could not make money on it. Today’s insurance companies are now selling some hybrid products such as purchasing life insurance with a long-term care rider but you would need to purchase a significant amount of life insurance to get these benefits, and current policyholders who already maintained a long-term care insurance policy are seeing rates raised.
Long-term care insurance may be a crucial component of your healthcare plan after you retire. This provides potentially home care and nursing home care for those people who cannot perform activities of daily living such as dressing, bathing, and grooming. These are the activities that allow a person to live independently. The national average cost of a semi-private room in a nursing home is $82,000 according to Genworth Financials 2016 long-term care surveys.
If you have assets in your portfolio such as stocks or a home you may be a candidate for long-term care insurance. If you are extremely wealthy you may not even need long-term care insurance as you will be self-funded, but the costs of healthcare are only on the rise, and particularly as longevity numbers are increasing you may wish to consider how long-term care insurance may work in conjunction with your existing estate and retirement plan.
