When making retirement plans, it’s essential to weigh all of your future investments’ potential downsides and upsides. Many people fail to account for the possibility that they or their spouses will require long-term health care. LTC can be extremely expensive, and even those with the best financial motives may find their plans disrupted as a result. There are three main ways to manage the risk of long-term healthcare costs.
Strategies to Manage the Risk of LTC
When clients have enough money, they may choose to self-insure and keep aside the budget for LTC costs without worrying about how a single incident will affect their overall wealth. Still, most people don’t have this option. Here are the best strategies to manage the risk of long-term healthcare costs.
Hybrid Life Insurance
These are long-term care insurance policies that also provide life insurance benefits in addition to LTC coverage. Hybrid Life Insurance Policies combine life insurance with long-term medical care insurance. If an LTC event occurs, the policyholder may take advantage of the LTC benefits without incurring any tax liability. Payments made under the LTC rider diminish the customer’s life insurance coverage if the client has an LTC claim. A life insurance policy’s final death benefit is tax-free if there is no LTC occurrence.
(Combination) Annuity-LTC policy
The Pension Protection Act (2006) allows clients to reinvest premium funds into their portfolios, providing them with a double benefit. The tax benefit withdrawals (i.e., higher after-tax funds) help meet the expenditures in an LTC incident. But there are drawbacks as well. You can also keep money in your portfolio instead of spending it on standard “pay-as-you-go” LTC insurance, which is a win-win. For a limited amount of time, annuity firms may give long-term care benefits (LTC), with the option of an extension if necessary.
Traditional Insurance Coverage
The most typical health insurance plan design is a “pay as you go” model. The insured pays an annual premium for long-term care insurance. In some cases, the client may pay a higher premium for a set amount of time, say ten years, and then no more payments are required. This is known as a “paid in full” alternative.
Inflation Protection
The benefit can be increased each year at a predetermined annual percentage, and the growth can be simple or compound. Young people need to think about this so that their coverage can stay up with inflation.
Benefit Duration
This strategy addresses how much long-term benefits will be paid from the beginning of a condition. This extends from 2 to 5 years or a lifetime. The longer the benefit period, the higher the premium will be. This option is particularly based on the client’s factors such as age and financial means.
Contact a Reliable Probate Attorney for All Your Needs
If you have questions about your probate situation, contact a trusted Diamond Bar estate planning attorney to schedule a consultation.