You will want to look for a good experienced insurance producer who deals a lot with long-term care insurance because they are the best ones to give you advice. But, there are a few terms that will help in your discussion with the insurance producer.
Understanding the following terms: Elimination Period, Term of Years or Pool of Money, and Asset-Based Long Term Care Insurance will help in obtaining a policy sufficient enough to meet your needs. Also knowing whether the policy has protection against inflation would be important, especially if you are purchasing the policy at a fairly young age.
In this Elder Law Minute, Wes Coulson, O’Fallon Illinois Elder Law attorney, discusses long-term care insurance contracts and what you should consider when looking for a policy.
What Should I Look For In A Long-Term Care Insurance Contract?
Transcript:
Hi, I’m Wes Coulson and this is your Elder Law Minute. One of the questions that I’m asked fairly often as an elder law attorney is: What should I look for in a good long-term care insurance policy? Well, my first answer is that you should look for a good experienced insurance producer who deals a lot with long-term care insurance because they are the best ones to give you advice. For now, let me just sort of introduce you to a few terms that I think will maybe help in your discussion with the insurance producer.
First is a thing called Elimination Period, and that is the amount of time that you have to need long-term care before the coverage kicks in. The shorter, the sooner it kicks in. The longer, the less expensive the insurance is.
Another thing is, what used to be called Term of Years and in modern policies is what’s referred to more as Pool of Money. Basically, that goes to the question of how long you are going to have this coverage in place. Again, the longer the better the coverage, the shorter the less expensive the coverage.
Another question is whether it has protection against inflation. This is one that especially if you’re getting this insurance fairly younger, that becomes really important because what may seem like good coverage relative to the cost of nursing home care now might not be when you need the care later.
Finally, let me mention a kind of different kind of coverage that presents an alternative. The most classic objection to long-term care insurance is: Boy, if I don’t wind up using it I’ve spent a lot of money for nothing. If you have that feeling, you might want to talk about something called Asset-based Long-Term Care Insurance, which is going to pay out whether it’s in the form of long-term care benefits, or if not, in the form of life insurance benefits, so you’re going to get your money back one way or the other. Requires more of an initial investment, but again something to think about.
So, by the way we can help you take a look at your policy to tell you whether what you have is sufficient to meet your needs. We’ll be happy to do that. Give us a call, come see us. Thanks.
For more information on Long-Term Care Insurance, visit these articles:
- When it comes to Long-Term Care – When you run out of money, you run out of options
- Asset-Based Long-Term Care Insurance
- Long-Term Care Insurance: What is the best age to buy it?
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