Protecting your most important asset: Your family The agenda… Why a plan for long-term care must be considered and what the consequences are if you don’t Developing a plan to protect your family and finances What will pay for that plan My goals are to… Give you insight into the consequences your needing care over a period of years could have, not on you, but those you love Speak to the consequences an illness will have on your best thought out retirement plan Discuss the options for protecting both your family and finances should you need care over a period of time Living a long life could well be in your future… Planning for it is now a necessity I believe that reasonable people… Understand they could live a long life Believe that it’s possible they could become frail and need care if they age Are willing to consider taking action if they understand that needing care could have serious consequences to their family and retirement portfolio That said, I’ve had clients tell me… “That’s true but…” “What if I don’t live a long life? Very few in my family made it past their 70’s” Or… “Even if I do live a long life, what if I don’t need care? Everyone in my family was healthy until the day they died” To which I have responded… You very well may be right… The risk of dying at an early age may be high and or… The risk of needing care may be low because of your family history But have you thought about the consequences to those you love if you ever did live a long life and needed care over a period of years? Not that it will happen to you, but here’s what causes the need for extended care… A chronic debilitating medical condition Is an illness or illnesses that can be managed, not cured. They compromise your ability to get through the most basic daily functions A cognitive impairment Is a marked deterioration in your intellect making it difficult if not impossible for you to safely interact with your environment Both conditions require custodial, not medical, care 11 …and here’s what they do to the emotional and physical wellbeing of your family… By definition, long-term care is a safety issue which means that providing care or supervising movement quickly becomes all consuming This 24 hour responsibility has a direct impact on the caregiver’s emotional and physical wellbeing which inevitably… Forces a child to step in causing her to reorientate her life Put simply, if you ever need care over a period of years your life won’t end… Someone else’s life will likely end A thought… Did you notice there was no mention about nursing home care? That’s because the real damage to the family begins not when a placement is made… But when the decision is made to keep the person they love at home Does anyone know why families struggle, often against the odds, to keep someone at home? Because making a placement breaks your heart How a plan can protect your family The plan has 2 objectives The first is to allow you to remain in the community without risking the emotional and physical wellbeing of those who will provide your care The second is to preserve your retirement plan so it can execute for the purposes you intended which generally include Generating income to support your lifestyle Minimizing taxes Insuring the financial viability of your surviving spouse Paying for your plan… How paying for care can impact your retirement portfolio During working years… A portfolio is created and funded that will accomplish two critical goals… Help defray the cost of college And assure lifestyle during retirement During working years your ability to guarantee there will be enough income to fund the portfolio as well as meet normal expenses… Is guaranteed by an insurance portfolio Asset Portfolio & Income Protection Portfolio Automobile Auto insurance Family Life & health insurance Wealth More life insurance House Home owners insurance Salary Disability income The question at retirement becomes… What is protecting your retirement portfolio which will be generating income? Alan & Camille are 43 years old. They have 2 children… Their combined income is $200,000 per year The house is worth $850,000. It has a mortgage of $200,000 Their retirement portfolio is just under $500,000 One child is in private school, the other in college In addition they belong to a club, have modest credit card debt and purchase a car every 5 years Alan dies suddenly of a heart attack What has been allocated from the retirement portfolio and/or equity in the house to pay for the continuing obligations his wife will face? Nothing… Alan purchased life insurance Alan didn’t think he would die during working years. In fact, statistically he was correct He knew, however, that even though the risk might be low, the consequences would be catastrophic to his family Alan purchased life insurance for the same reason everyone purchases life insurance… He loved his family The couple make it to 78… Their house is paid off and worth $1,500,000. Their portfolio, worth $1,500,000, generates $75,000. When added to their social security they gross $100,000 per year His passion is golf. Camille rides horses. Both love to travel and they have a house in Florida They have a child who has not made the best decisions and are helping to pay for their grandchildren’s education Camille is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s What has been allocated from the retirement portfolio and their income to pay for her care over the next 8 to 10 years? All of it Where else can the funds come from? Alan is now faced with how to pay for his wife’s custodial care. He looks into… Medicare, but finds it won't pay for custodial care The VA, but again is told it’s not an option given his assets and income Medicaid and this time he learns it will pay for custodial care, but almost exclusively in a nursing home. Alan promises himself it’s the last option but wants to know what would happen if he needed the program. He finds out… That to qualify for benefits he would have to give his assets away The problem is that they consist of low cost based investments and qualified funds the gifting of which would create substantial taxes. In other words… Medicaid is not free In an effort to preserve his income and assets he provides the care himself creating an unintended consequence that will end up devastating his children… His heath starts to fail to the point where a child has no choice but to step in and assist What does that do to her health and the relationship with siblings who do not help out? Camille has Alzheimer’s… Her husband and children suffer from it Finding the right solution: Looking at long-term care insurance as an essential tool which protects your family and retirement portfolio How many believe the product protects them if they need care over a period of years? It doesn’t It protects your family… It allows your spouse to maintain her relationship with you as a spouse who supervises rather than provides care And by doing so… It allows your children to maintain their lives which has the added benefit of… Keeping them close by keeping them apart …and it makes this possible not by protecting assets, but rather by providing a stream of income which pays for that care And that creates… The Cascade Effect By paying for care… Your primary source of income generated by your retirement portfolio is guaranteed which means… Your ability to support your lifestyle which includes commitments to your family and community is guaranteed Since care is covered it guarantees that investments which were not allocated to pay for care remain in place. This has two desired results… It eliminates unnecessary taxes and… Preserves your estate for your surviving spouse and children who may depend on an inheritance “But I’ve been told I have enough assets to pay for the cost of long-term care” From this point, I would like you to consider that income, not assets pay for care $1,000,000 = $50,000 $1,500,000 = $75,000 $2,000,000 = $100,000 $2,500,000 = $125,000 And most if not all of that income is committed to lifestyle Take a sheet of paper… Draw a line down the middle… On the left write: “Estimated Income” On the right: “Estimated Expenses” Your income is $85,000 What do you think your expenses are? Where is the income going to come from to pay for care? One more thought about using assets to pay for care… Taxes on liquidating low cost based assets and qualified funds What if the market is down when assets have to be sold? How much of your portfolio is liquid What happens to income if assets have to be used? “Maybe, but I’ve been told that if I need care I won’t have much of a lifestyle, so the money saved can be used to pay for care” It stopped being your lifestyle, the day you got married and had children Some final thoughts… Successful people who love someone, purchase life insurance not because they think they are going to die during working years They buy it because of the consequences to those they love if they ever did Successful people who love someone purchase long-term care insurance not because they expect to need care… They buy it because of the consequences to those they love if they ever did