Thursday, August 20, 2015

LTCi Partnership Refresher, 2015 edition

So, it's that time again for my bi-annual Long Term Care refresher course (actually, I'm a few months early, but figured better safe than sorry, given southwest Ohio January weather). As usual, I was fortunate to have as my instructor LTCi master Ray Copenheaver, who's likely forgotten more about LTCi than I'll ever learn.

And also as usual, there were a few interesting gems. For example:

■ A company called LifeCare Funding (?) is developing (has developed?) a program to use existing life insurance plans to buy long term care policies, essentially viaticating one to pay for the other. Interesting.

■ Section 884 of the 2010 Pension Protection Act includes a provision that allows one to "invest" into tax advantaged annuities that have tax-free withdrawals for long term care expenses.

■ There's a new, industry-wide effort to get more folks thinking about long term care insurance. Called 3in4needMore, it's a website with some great resources, including videos and calculators to help you figure out your own long term care needs.

■ I was surprised to learn that about 1.5 million Americans are currently receiving care in skilled nursing facilities, and another 900,000 in Assisted Living.

Why was I surprised? Because I really expected those numbers to be much higher. On the other hand, over 11 million folks are receiving at least some level of long term care at home.

Thanks, Ray!
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