I'll Just Self-Insure Archives - Page 24 of 34 - Long Term Care Insurance Expert | Honey Leveen

Very Useful New Book by Phyllis Shelton

May 28, 2013 by Honey Leveen Leave a Comment

My good friend Phyllis Shelton has written a new book “Protecting your Family with Long-Term Care Insurance.”

Senior Market Advisor Magazine deemed Phyllis to be among the top ten professionals in the long-term care insurance industry nationally. She has been featured and quoted extensively by the mainstream media and is a nationally recognized speaker. I’ve known Phyllis for years consider her reputation beyond reproach. She uses folksy charm and down-home TN humor to convey technical information in an easy-to-understand, thorough manner.

To learn more about Phyllis, visit www.ltcconsultants.com

If you aim to be a superbly well-informed LTCi buyer, or you are a financial advisor who wants your thirst for detailed insight into LTCi products quenched in an entertaining manner, you will surely enjoy Phyllis’s latest book. Here’s the review I gave this book on Amazon.com:

“Phyllis Shelton is regarded as one of the most credible, trustworthy experts in the field of long-term care insurance (LTCi) today. This book lives up to this reputation. Ms. Shelton explains technical aspects of LTCi in an easy-to-understand fashion. The reader will learn how to understand LTCi comprehensively, on a deeper level than is possible from typical LTCi sales materials or media coverage. The info she gives is accurate and timely. This book is “must” reading for any consumer who wishes to make an informed, confident, empowered decision about LTCi. The book is enjoyable. Much of Ms. Shelton’s down to earth, TN humor is evident, and she uses many relevant, first-hand examples.”

Slapping the Houston Chronicle on Its Wrist

April 15, 2013 by Honey Leave a Comment

I’ve just emailed these comments to LM Sixel, reporter for the Houston Chronicle, regarding her most recent article.

I continue to fight the good fight!

Hi LM,
We met at the Starbucks, Meyerland, some years ago. RE your March 20 story, its wonderful, but again, you are ignoring the 5000 lb elephant in the room: long-term care (LTC) costs and paying for the fine places Cindy described. BTW good assisted living costs a heck of a lot more than $2K/mo. You covered financing through Veterans, but no other financial options. A small fraction will be eligible for Veterans assistance. Why have you again ignored more mainstream ways to finance highly probable, expensive LTC events?

I understand this whole area might be daunting and a learning curve for you, but your readers need information on how to pay for LTC. Journalists in the key papers in NYC, Chicago, LA, etc have all written about responsible LTC planning. It is an under-covered area that must be dealt with. Many Americans will be in woeful situations because they, like you, are sweeping the LTC planning conversation under the carpet. We’ve had no decent coverage of LTC planning in The Chronicle!

I can help you acquire your LTC learning curve in the most expeditious way possible, I promise! I know everyone who is anyone in the LTC planning industry nationwide. I can also help you bite off the interest areas in tasty morsels. You would be doing your readers a good service.

I hope you will take heed; the time is right and it is the right thing to do.

Sincere regards,
Honey Leveen 713 988 4671 or cell 713 447 6197

The 70 – 70 – 70 Problem

April 8, 2013 by Honey Leave a Comment

In a ground-breaking article in the Money Section of US News & World Report (Should Long-term Care Be an Entitlement?) March 25, 2013, Philip Moeller makes the familiar point that the older population that will need long-term care (LTC) is growing and that family members who have historically provided care are fewer in number and scattered all over the globe.

Visitors to this blog are familiar with the attempt to establish a national LTC insurance program (CLASS Act), which was abandoned because of the huge costs required to provide care for all seniors in need. The annual cost of LTC is currently estimated at $725 billion, $450 billion of which is in the form of unpaid care by loved ones. And 200 billion of the remaining 275 billion real dollars come from Medicaid, an entitlement rapidly approaching bankruptcy. Direct personal spending makes up almost all of the remaining $70+ billion, and a mere $7 billion comes from LTC insurance policies.

Bruce Chernof, one of the 15 members of the newly formed national committee to study the LTC crisis, cites a common shorthand for public thinking about long-term care, which he calls the “70-70-70” problem:

70 percent of the people over age 65 will need some of long-term care during their remaining lives.

70 percent of the public does not believe they will ever need such care.

70 percent of the public thinks that if they did need such care, it is already covered by their Medicare insurance. Medicare covers only acute short-term care needs, not long-term care.

This catchy slogan captures the “DENIAL” problem that I have written about extensively in this blog, and Mr. Chernof agrees with all LTC insurance professionals regarding the desperate need for educating the public on these statistics and the importance of reasonably priced LTC insurance. Each of us can educate the public every time we speak to a local group or association, write a blog or article, or make a one-to-one presentation to a prospective client.

Denial Pervades All Aspects of Life

April 1, 2013 by Honey Leave a Comment

Jim and I saw a wonderful film recently at the Jewish Film Festival in Houston, entitled The Flat.

After his German-born grandmother’s death, the filmmaker, his mother and the rest of his family must close her Tel Aviv flat. As the family dredges through grandmother’s belongings, the grandson discovers two five-, no make that ten-thousand-pound elephants in the room.

The first is that his grandparents were very friendly with a high-ranking Nazi and his wife before the war. After the war, perhaps as a gesture of wanting to regain normalcy, his grandparents actively resumed this friendship, and they apparently had no knowledge of the husband’s position in Hitler’s regime.

The grandson also discovers abundant evidence that his maternal great-grandmother was exterminated in a concentration camp. Not only was his mother never told about what happened to her grandmother, but she admitted that she never asked about about her grandmother, either.

The Flat is an award-winning film well worth Netflixing. Click here to see what Wikipedia says about it.

Why am I blogging about this? The family in the film was obviously in denial. Denial seems to be an inherent characteristic of human nature. Is it wise or healthy to live with the type of denial I describe above? No. Is it wise to disregard the facts and not plan responsibly for long-term care? No.

I advise readers to beware of the natural human tendency to avoid talking about the unpleasant aspects of reality. When it comes to avoidance of the harsh reality you might need expensive long-term care one day, this may be especially dangerous; I have seen the consequences too often.

A Third of Us Will Die With Dementia

March 29, 2013 by Honey Leave a Comment

A recent study cited on March 19, 2013, by Selena Gordon in US News and World Report found that one-third of US seniors die while suffering from Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia. Between 2000 and 2010, the rate of deaths from Alzheimer’s has risen 68% while deaths from other major diseases have decreased. The report attributes these divergent changes partially to the high level of government funding for research on heart disease, AIDS, etc., compared to much lower funding for Alzheimer’s.

Ms. Gordon’s article was based on a newly published study by the Alzheimer’s Association.

The physical, emotional and financial toll on families is enormous. In 2012, more than 15 million people were Alzheimer’s caregivers. They provided more than 17 billion hours of unpaid care that the Alzheimer’s group estimated was valued at $216 billion. And, of course, as the Baby Boomers age, the rate of Alzheimer’s and its death rate can only increase.

Nearly every American has been affected by this increasingly common disease, either through a family member or friend, and many are even serving as unpaid caregivers. Those all-to-rare victims of this dreaded disease who own long-term care insurance have purchased a wonderful gift for their loved ones – financial resources to provide professional care and thereby reduce the emotional and physical stress of struggling to provide care themselves.

Very Useful New Book by Phyllis Shelton

Slapping the Houston Chronicle on Its Wrist

The 70 – 70 – 70 Problem

Denial Pervades All Aspects of Life

A Third of Us Will Die With Dementia

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