“Let me ask you something,” I said. “I’m looking out at your fields. I see all your cows…”

“Yes, that’s everything I own,” he said.

“And out in that field is a rat hole somewhere, I’d assume; would that be correct?”

“Yep, that’d be correct,” he said.

“Then let’s consider the nursing home, a rat hole. Is that ok with you?”

“Yep, that sounds about right,” he laughed.

“Well, if you get sick and need to go into a nursing home,” I said, “you might have to sell off a fifth of your herd every year for five years until they’re all gone—or else you can set aside some of the milk now from some of the cows so that you can protect the whole herd.”

“OK,” he said. “I get it. You just want me to take a little bit of interest off some of my CDs and buy long-term care insurance so I don’t lose it all.”

He finally understood what I had been trying to tell him. He would be better off giving up some of the milk, or else he’d be risking the whole herd. Do you have a plan for long-term care insurance? If not, it might be time to seek out some advice on where to start, visit www.familywealthadvisory.com for information and resources.

The post The Cow and the Milk: A Tale of Long-Term Care Insurance appeared first on Distribution Land.

According to a May 7, 2012 survey, conducted by Harris Interactive for Nationwide Financial, nearly half of high-net-worth Americans who are close to retirement are “terrified” of what health care costs could do to their retirement plans. But 38 percent of those surveyed said that they haven’t discussed retirement health-care costs with a financial advisor, in part because they are unsure as to whether their advisor is knowledgeable about the issue. This is not a good sign.

To put it in perspective, several years of care can wipe out half a million dollars of life savings. “Well, it’s not going to happen to me,” you may think, but statistically, it could. The lifetime chance that someone who buys a policy at age 60 will use their policy before they die is 50 percent. A more responsible approach is to analyze the cost and look for ways to fund it*.

People may think they will need to pay for the cost of insurance out of their cash flow—and as a result, they worry that they won’t be able to go out to dinner or visit the grandkids or play a round of golf. But often they do have money, perhaps half a million or so, so the fact that they have assets is what raises the issue. If they had no money, then Medicaid could be their plan.

Ultimately, medical and long-term care should be considered and planned for.

insure-your-health-for-the-long-term-now

*Long term care probability or the risk you’ll need long term insurance. Copyright ? 1998 – 2014 AALTCI   http://www.aaltci.org/long-term-care-insurance/learning-center/probability-long-term-care.php

The post Medical and Long-Term Care – An Underestimated Need You Can’t Afford to Ignore appeared first on Distribution Land.