Chapter 9
Considering Your Long-Term Care Insurance Needs and Options
IN THIS CHAPTER
Discovering long-term care and your options for financing it
Looking at long-term care insurance
Financing your long-term care with personal assets
Choosing a combination policy
Many Americans in or nearing retirement have two great fears according to surveys: running out of money and needing long-term care (LTC) if they’re unable to care for themselves. These fears are related. After all, long-term care can be expensive, causing you to run out of money and placing a financial burden on your loved ones.
Fortunately, running out of money because of your need for long-term care isn’t inevitable. With a better understanding of long-term care and some planning, you can dramatically reduce the possibility of either of these fears coming true. Many people don’t plan properly, because long-term care financing options can be confusing. Also, long-term care insurance (LTCI) seems expensive, so folks put it off.
In this chapter, we define long-term care and explore the different ways to finance it. We also ...