Long Term Care Insurance Information

Should I invest instead of buying long-term care insurance?

If you're under 55, you might think that, since the likelihood of long-term care outlays is many years in the future, you could invest the money you might otherwise spend for long-term care insurance premiums. That way, if you do need long-term care, you could just draw upon that investment, and if not, you’d have money for your heirs, for a charitable donation, or for your own needs.

But this strategy leaves you vulnerable if you need long-term care services in your late 50s, 60s, or early 70s. And it might also leave you vulnerable if you need these services for a long time, even if you don’t need assistance until you’re in your 80s. Here’s why:

-Assume you’re 55 and won’t need long-term care for 30 years, when you’re 85.
-Assume you save $2,000 per year,(1) that you invest the savings, and that your investment grows at 5 percent per year, net after taxes.

After 30 years, your savings will have grown to $139,500.

-Assume today’s monthly cost of round-the-clock home health care grows, due to inflation, by only 3 percent per year, from $12,000 per month now to $28,300 per month then.

At that time, if all these assumptions prove to be true, your savings would be able to pay for five months of round-the-clock home care or maybe nine months of nursing home care; if you need more – say, because the cost of long-term care services grew faster than 3percent per year—you’d have to liquidate other assets that you hadn’t planned to liquidate, if you have them.

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