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The Bad News About Long Term Care Insurance

June 21, 2018 by Honey Leveen Leave a Comment

Isn’t that an eye-catching headline? It’s human nature to be drawn to bad news, addressing or even causing panic in the general public. And the media knows it, which is why they are motivated to share the very worst-case scenarios without exploring more common experiences.

Selling the Bad News

Here’s a short story that NBC recently ran, highlighting a couple’s worst dreams coming true. Their Long Term Care insurance (LTCi) premiums experienced noteworthy rate hikes. The couple’s story creates sympathy and also promotes fear among an uninformed public that would likely benefit from the benefits of LTCi coverage.

The story shared is absolutely true and the situation is difficult for the featured couple.

BUT IT’S NOT THE WHOLE STORY

Here are some facts that they forgot to share:

Older policies (written before 1996) were very robust and fully-featured. And yes, the rates charged were based on estimates that have proven to be faulty.
Holders of these older policies sometimes need to downgrade benefits to offset rising premiums. However, even with downgraded coverage, they still have higher benefits than a comparable policy has today.

How to Spread the Good News

Perhaps another reason for poor media coverage is due to a shortage of trained LTCi specialists. Before stories like the one from NBC is publicized, it would be helpful to get some insights from the industry experts, who were (of course) not consulted for this article. My clients know how to contact me with any and all questions about their policies. If they receive a rate hike notice, we have an honest conversation including:

What caused the rate hike?
Is likely to happen again and, if so, how often?
Can they afford to maintain their current coverage?
What is the most effective strategy going forward?

A respected colleague, Margie Barrie, wrote this piece that gives an informed response to the rate hikes some of her clients have experienced. The industry has gathered better data over decades of experience. Companies now know that once we purchase our LTCi policy, almost nobody ever drops it. More people than anticipated are collecting from their LTCi, for longer lengths of time.

In that article, Barrie also addresses the possibility of future rate hikes. On older policies, they could be more likely. But we can always find ways to ameliorate them, if necessary.

You Get to Decide

When you see some bad news about LTCi, please reach out to someone you trust to give you the full story. My clients rely on me for the truth.

If you’re ready to begin this conversation, let’s get started! Click here to receive your no-obligation quote for your personal LTCi policy.

Curing Alzheimer’s – Part 2 (See It. Acknowledge It.)

June 14, 2018 by Honey Leveen Leave a Comment

In my last blog post, I shared insights on the current challenges in funding research to support curing Alzheimer’s disease. You’d think that funding would be the biggest step in the treatment process. It’s not.

In order to develop and properly test potential cures, scientists need a viable population of test subjects to study. As Karen Ellen Foley wrote (Quartz, May 20, 2018), it’s incredibly hard to gather these patients. Once a patient appears to have the symptoms of Alzheimer’s, they have usually passed the stage where it can be treated. The damage to the neurons is irreversible and not suitable for testing new cures.

Recognizing Symptoms is Critical to Curing Alzheimer’s

In addition to the late timing of symptoms, there is another complication to the diagnosis process. Not only is it hard to recognize the slow shift in behavior, but patients are often surrounded by family and friends who would rather not admit that their loved one is in need of medical care.

Foley describes a gentleman whose early Alzheimer’s symptoms started in the mid-2000’s. He knew something was wrong because fixing things around the house became difficult and names of friends slipped his mind. He couldn’t remember how to cut his wife’s hair, which he’d been doing throughout their marriage. This man and his wife saw he was having problems and refused to admit it could be serious.

Ten years later, his behavior finally got extreme enough that his wife insisted he see a doctor. For ten years, he was allowed to ignore his medical condition. For ten years, he avoided treatment. And why? They were both afraid how the diagnosis would change their lives. The disease didn’t care. It continued to escalate, with or without their acceptance.

The great majority of my clients refuse to acknowledge how incapacitated they are by dementia, and their families often go out of their way to continue the ruse and deny the obvious.

We have had several dementia sufferers among the members of my Rotary club. Even with my vast experience with my clients who are cognitively impaired, I don’t always notice every case. Alzheimer’s disease is easy to cover up, at least in early-to-mid stages.

Know the Signs

A tell-tell sign of dementia is sometimes a vacuous or a scowling expression. I sometimes misinterpret their mood as, “I don’t want to talk with you”. Message received. I leave them alone. Only later, when I learn of their diagnosis, I can connect the dots. Withdrawal is a classic sign of dementia.

I’ve attended enough Alzheimer’s disease (AD) presentations to know that faulty business decisions are another primary indicator of AD. I’ve had more than one client who insisted they were able to manage their business affairs. When they fall behind in paying their bills, it looks like simple forgetfulness. When one of those bills is their Long Term Care insurance (LTCi) premium, the results are catastrophic.

The Enabling Spouse

In an attempt to keep things feeling “normal”, the spouse will often avoid stepping in to help their loved one. They don’t take over the paying of bills. They make excuses and pretend nothing is wrong.

They still allow their spouse to drive!

The thought of this is terrifying to me. I have a friend who has a dementia diagnosis. She is still highly functional, and still driving, despite the fact that she’s already had a couple of accidents!

I’ve blogged about age-related, normal cognitive decline. This is not what I’m describing, yet this is what people want to believe is happening.

Admitting you have dementia is difficult and requires an honest conversation. Maybe multiple conversations. It creates the possibility for earlier intervention and a life of more grace and dignity. It will allow for more open relationships with friends and family members and reduce stress for the patient and family.

Advance planning for long term care (LTC) is the best way to ensure dignity, options, choices, grace. When you’re ready to explore your options, click here for your personal quote.

Curing Alzheimer’s – Part 1 (Funding the Research is Tricky)

June 1, 2018 by Honey Leveen Leave a Comment

Dementia is the umbrella term for the symptoms some older adults experience as they slowly lose their sense of self and their cognitive abilities. Alzheimer’s disease causes about 60% – 80% of dementia. In the United States, someone is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s every 66 seconds. When do we get to the task of curing Alzheimer’s?

By the year 2050, we expect to live past 80. We see the need for a cure continue to grow, but the funding for research of Alzheimer’s is shrinking.

Before they can even test potential cures, scientists must be able to identify appropriate test subjects. I’ve written past blogs about the importance of early diagnosis. Once patients are fully symptomatic, curing Alzheimer patients become less likely. So the focus of Alzheimer’s research is finding people in the early stages of the disease.

3 Hurdles to Curing Alzheimer’s

Health and Science reporter, Katherine Ellen Foley, shares the 3 major challenges in getting new drugs to market:

Doctors can’t see evidence of the disease until it’s too advanced to cure. By the time cognitive issues show up, the neurons have already been damaged beyond repair. The drugs simply do not exist to reverse the conditions that may have been building over the last 10-20 years.
There are no reliable tests for the early stages. There is a danger in prescribing Alzheimer’s medication to someone suffering memory loss due to other forms of dementia or aging. However, scientists have identified the amyloid plaques that cause all the damage and are in the earliest stages of creating a blood test to find these early markers.
Scientists can’t gather enough test asymptomatic test subjects for an effective long-term study. The good news is that researchers are now working with the Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer Network. These people are genetically guaranteed to show Alzheimer’s symptoms in their 40s and 50s. While this is only a sliver of the population (only about 1% of all Alzheimer’s patients), it’s a good starting place.

Pharmaceutical Companies Don’t See the ROI

Of course, all of this research requires funding. Historically, the pharmaceutical industry has been behind a lot of medical research, expecting to recover costs through future drug sales.

Many studies have found early lifestyle choices (diet, exercise, social engagement) to play a role in reducing the risk for developing Alzheimer’s. As Foley reports, “Without the promise of a big payoff, it’s doubtful pharmaceutical companies will fund studies to explore lifestyle interventions.”

We are banking on the research efforts in the science community to find some practical results for curing Alzheimer’s disease. With or without the medication, it is important that we each prepare for our own lifestyles in our later years. I’m happy to report that my clients with Long Term Care insurance (LTCi) have built their own safety net that will enable them and their family members some peace of mind.

Click here to receive your customized quote for your own LTCi policy.

Retirees Don’t Want to Spend Their Retirement Savings On Care

May 10, 2018 by Honey Leveen 1 Comment

There’s yet another piece of research out telling us that retirees are unwilling to pay for long term care (LTC), even when they have more than enough in retirement savings. They are reluctant to “spend down” their accumulated wealth, “even when assets are plentiful or when there is guaranteed income available to ensure that retirees will not run out of money.”

Lori Lucas, president and CEO of the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI), points to all the financial uncertainty of retirement. These pensioners may be “afraid of facing catastrophic health care costs if they need to stay in a long-term care facility for a prolonged period.”

Ironically, the monthly cost of a LTC insurance (LTCi) premium would go a long way to relieve that uncertainty.

You can read the detailed study here, “Asset Decumulation or Asset Preservation? What Guides Retirement Spending?”

They Won’t Dip In to Their Retirement Savings

I spoke with a home care agency owner who sees this all the time. He said that 75% of his clients who own long-term care insurance (LTCi) would not be getting much-needed care without their LTCi benefits. Even though they lived in million dollar homes with abundant financial resources, they’d rather not spend the money. Despite their ability to pay, they would rather do without the care were it not for their LTCi benefits. They just don’t want to “spend down” their retirement savings.

If you scroll through the comments on my Testimonials page, you’ll see many adult children confirming that their highly affluent parent would not have consented to needed care if they didn’t own LTC insurance.

Here’s another blog I did about highly affluent people who just don’t like to spend money.

LTC insurance helps people access high quality care, it’s that simple! Click here to receive your free customized quote.

LTC Planning: What’s Scaring the Financial Advisors?

May 5, 2018 by Honey Leveen Leave a Comment

Planning for the future requires some expert advice. Financial advisors assist their clients in achieving their goals for retirement, travel and even providing for their children. What about planning for the inevitable costs of medical treatment and long term care?

Jamie Hopkins shares my passion of planning for security in our retirement years. He talks about some important gaps in the retirement planning industry in this article (Forbes, April 2018). He shines a light on a downside of specialization I frequently see. “While 94% of advisors reported that their clients are waiting too long to plan for long-term care, only 26% of these advisors stated that they discussed long-term care planning with their clients.”

Financial Advisors Avoid the Hard Conversation

And why are these advisors avoiding this important conversation? Mostly because it is simply outside of their specialty.

“…many advisors reported that they don’t like bringing up the topic because they believe their clients see it as depressing, overly complicated, and time consuming.”

Apparently, these financial advisors are uncomfortable with the difficult conversations required to create a holistic retirement plan for their clients.

I am in complete agreement with Jamie Hopkins! He also presents some practical and creative solutions for your consideration. Yes. A thousand times: YES!

Are you curious about the cost of your own long term care solution? Click here to receive your own free, personalized quote.

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