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Finishing Well


Oct 26, 2019

If you look up the word “Love” and “Father” in Hebrew you’ll notice the Hebrew symbol for “household” in the middle of each. This week, Hans and Robby talk about the love and stewardship behind long-term care for the sake of your household.

 

Robby talks about a woman who told him about her mother’s declining health. Originally, she was going to have to take off work to take care of her mother. A few months ago, she was able to hire someone to help take care of her mother and it was a game-changer. She said she was able to have a healthy relationship with her mom again and both of their situations were so much better. 70% of couples over 65 will need some sort of long-term care option. Robby says if his friend’s mother had known the sacrifices that would be made to take care of her, she likely would’ve been interested in a long-term care policy before her health worsened.

 

This woman ended up using a short-term care policy she had bought a few years ago. The policy cost a little over $100 a month and resulted in her receiving $700/week to cover her daughter’s expenses and 52 weeks of care.

 

Robby talks about how many people fall and hurt themselves, including his relatives, as they get older. When this happens, they need significant time to heal. Medicare only pays for rehab a certain number of days which has put many of Robby’s friends in bad financial situations. Hans says 90% of people are without long-term care options and don’t realize they need it until it’s too late. Recently, he helped a couple use IRA money to offset expensive ALS care cost and also helped them purchase a life insurance policy for after he dies. Hans reassures listeners that if you’re in poor health and without long-term care insurance, there are other ways he can help.

 

Hans says most people buy long-term care insurance because they love their family and don’t want the burden of care to fall on their loved ones. Long-term care insurance can cover the expenses of a caretaker, and custodial care such as bathing, feeding, and dressing. This allows you to be there for the important part: your family’s emotional needs. Additionally, it releases your children for the guilt and shame many feel for not being able to adequately provide care for their parents by themselves.

 

Up next, Hans addresses some resources you can use to start tackling long-term care decisions. Hans wrote a workbook to put facts and figures in front of the reader and walk you through illustrations to demonstrate 10 or 12 policy options. These policies can cover everything from home health care and institutional care to providing indemnities (i.e. sending weekly checks to cover care needs, no receipts required). By meeting certain basic care or cognitive imperative conditions, you will qualify for your care benefits and simply receive the money to assist with care options. Hans wants listeners to know that they can get his book explaining these options a lot of different ways; by sending him an email, downloading the chapters from cardinalguide.com, or buying them from Amazon.

 

Hans then talks about hybrid policies, which are the merging of life insurance and long-term care options. These appeals to people who are afraid that they will pay into a long-term care policy and then die before receiving any money. Hybrid policies allow people to receive a tax-free death benefit early while still alive. Additionally, if never use your policy then your heirs will get the money you put in when you die. If you do use your long-term care options, then you can draw money from your hybrid policy for 4 years and your heirs will still get a small amount of money when you die. There are various ways to buy hybrids with single premiums and you can always customize them to meet your financial needs.

 

Robby quotes his old boss, saying: “If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.” Hans says this is relevant to the long-term care discussion because even though the insurance seems expensive to many now, it’s far cheaper than covering huge care expenses later on without insurance. Hans says insurance options can be purchased affordably by utilizing IRAs or moving similar assets around to help supplement costs. Long-term care is just a piece of a compressive retirement and financial plan, but to Hans, it’s the service he takes the most pride in because it helps his clients protect their families.

 

Learn more at CardinalGuide.com or call 919-535-8261. Hans can be reached at Hans@CardinalGuide.com.