Limited and Extended Care Planning Collective

The decision to move yourself or a loved one into long-term care can be a difficult one, and determining how to pay for long-term care can add unnecessary stress to a phase of life that’s already full of transitions. Understanding the costs you may encounter and developing a proactive plan to afford long-term care can help ease the burdens that accompany it.

What do you get when modernized Long Term Care Insurance products meet changing workplace needs and employee attitudes? An advantageous opportunity to grow your business, reach the middle market, and help protect more families from potential LTC needs.

Worksite benefits have long been a critical tool in helping employers attract top talent. What’s changed is that more employers want a variety of products to build benefit packages that are as diverse as today’s workforce – and there’s room for LTCi in this conversation.

Sure, you’ll face some challenges from decision-makers, but clearing hurdles is nothing new for seasoned LTC professionals. Here are three common objections that you can address with employers to change the way they think about LTCi.

As your parents age, there’s a good chance they will need long-term care. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, more than half of Americans turning 65 today will develop a disability serious enough that they will need daily help with the basic activities of living. Most will need care for less than two years, but 1 in 7 will need assistance for more than five years.

As tough as it might be to imagine your parents being unable to care for themselves, the thought of discussing this possibility with them probably seems even harder. But it’s important to talk to your parents sooner rather than later to develop a plan for long-term care if they ever need it. If you wait for an emergency to strike, emotions will be running high and you’ll likely have fewer options to deal with your parents’ need for care.

Chris Bor, LUTCF, CLU, ChFC, a loyal NAIFA member since 1998 and Immediate Past President of NAIFA-WA, testified at a hearing of the Washington State Senate Business, Financial Services & Trade Committee on the use of life insurance, annuities, and policy riders in long-term care planning. He gave an overview of a wide variety of LTC planning options and discussed the value of agents and advisors to consumers. Bor also serves as Vice-Chair of NAIFA's National Membership Committee.

NAIFA's Limited & Extended Care Planning Center hosted "Don't Be Scared of Long-Term Care," on Monday, October 31 to help kick off Long-Term Care Awareness Month. If you missed any of the sessions that day, or want to revisit particular talks, recordings of all eight presentations are now available to watch on-demand.

On Monday, October 31's "Don't Be Scared of Long-Term Care," NAIFA's Executive Director of Centers of Excellence, Carroll Golden, addressed the crisis of long-term care that is sneaking up on most Americans. "When we look at the cost of care, it’s only increasing and it’s increasing dramatically," she said at the Limited & Extended Care Planning Center's annual Impact Day.

We're kicking off November's Long-Term Care Awareness Month on Halloween, Monday, October 31 to get the message out that you don't need to be scared of long-term care conversations!

NAIFA's Limited & Extended Care Planning (LECP) Center is hosting "Don't Be Scared of Long-Term Care," a free, day-long virtual program from 9 am to 5 pm. Included are interactive sessions from industry leaders who will address the scariest of topics in the long-term care arena. 

The limited and extended care planning (LECP) marketplace is transforming apace with innovations in technology. The rise of 5G, the fifth-generation standard for broadband cellular networks, has revolutionized the way we handle LECP data, providing greater data speeds, more reliability, and massive network capacity.

NAIFA's Limited & Extended Care Planning Center is focused on bringing you comprehensive information to help your business thrive in the long-term care sector. Below are the most read and most relevant articles by professionals like you from this last quarter (April to June 2022), written by NAIFA and our dedicated partners.

Want to see more of this content, or have a suggestion of topics you would like to see discussed? Let us know at lecp@naifa.org.

Annuities and LTC Insurance: Two Case Studies in Planning

By NAIFA

Annuities can be an important part of long-term care planning, Tom Riekse, ChFC, CLU, CEBS, Managing Director at LTCi Partners, told attendees of NAIFA’s Limited and Extended Care Planning Center webinar. “Unfortunately, there has probably not been as much emphasis on how they can work together in a plan for care as there should be based on some of the great benefits available.”