Long-term care: An uncomfortable but necessary conversation
It’s not something people want to think about, but most acknowledge that long-term care should be a part of their retirement planning.
The problem isn’t just that they don’t want to think about it — it’s that more than half of people don’t think about it at all, even while conceding the topic’s importance. And while nearly half of people say they have plans to pay for long-term care through insurance policies, less than a quarter of them actually have such coverage, according to data this week from Transamerica’s Extended Care Report.
It can be hard enough for people to think about retirement on its own — but throw in the concepts of mortality and dependent care, and it’s a topic that they will actively put out of mind. Add in the cost of care, or even long-term care insurance, and the subject becomes both scary and expensive.
Financial advisors say they tend to broach the subject with clients as early as their 40s, a time when some already have experience caring for parents.
“Long-term care is the hardest risk to protect clients against, because the options are expensive no matter what path is pursued,” Kevin Brady, vice president at Wealthspire, said in an email. Conversations about it start when clients are in their 50s or early 60s, when insurance is “comparably affordable and health events are less likely to be problematic,” he said.
“Most people prefer not to rely on their children or family to support them should they need LTC. This is part of why having some amount of LTC coverage is the goal, relative to what they can afford,” Brady said.
Elder care is also a subject that many advisors have firsthand experience with.
Advisor Marguerita Cheng’s dad was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease before she gave birth to
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