Can I Afford to Self-Insure Against the Risk?

Often people think they can save the money that they would have spent on long-term care insurance premiums and simply invest it to meet their future long-term care needs. Although this sounds good in theory, several problems exist. First, a long-term care plan must be a plan you can depend on to actually meet your future needs, not one that might possibly meet those needs. It is impossible to save enough money, even with interest, to equal the benefits that could be paid out under an Unlimited LTCI policy. Even under optimum conditions, your savings would barely provide 1 year of long-term care. And you could never enjoy that money, because it would always have to remain in reserves should a long-term care need arise.

When trying to put this idea into practical application, several factors must happen to insure its success.

    • You can never miss a savings payment to your investment fund.
    • You must consistently receive a high enough return on your money for sustained growth.
    • You must make sure you don’t need care until you have enough money saved to pay for it.

Even if you could guarantee all of the conditions above you still would not be able to put enough money away (even with a great rate of return) to pay for an extended long-term care stay that lasted much over a year.

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Just to show you an example, below is a 52 yr old. with an average rate of return of 6%. Here we have shown you how much money you could save by putting your annual premiums aside.

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Hypothetical Annual Premium of $1,465.00(1).

Premium Savings at 6%

Annual Cost of Care

31% Tax Bracket

AGE

5% inflation

$1,721.00

52

$51,100.00

$3,513.25

53

$53,655.00

$5,379.70

54

$56,337.75

$7,323.42

55

$59,154.64

$9,347.61

56

$62,112.37

$11,455.60

57

$65,217.99

$13,650.86

58

$68,478.89

$15,937.01

59

$71,902.83

$18,317.80

60

$75,497.97

$20,797.15

61

$79,272.87

$23,379.16

62

$83,236.52

$26,068.05

63

$87,398.34

$28,868.27

64

$91,768.26

$31,784.42

65

$96,356.67

$34,821.29

66

$101,174.50

$37,983.89

67

$106,233.23

$41,277.43

68

$111,544.89

$44,707.31

69

$117,122.14

$48,279.19

70

$122,978.24

$51,998.95

71

$129,127.15

$55,872.71

72

$135,583.51

$59,906.84

73

$142,362.69

$64,107.98

74

$149,480.82

$68,483.05

75

$156,954.86

$73,039.25

76

$164,802.61

$77,784.08

77

$173,042.74

$82,725.34

78

$181,694.87

$87,871.17

79

$190,779.62

$93,230.03

80

$200,318.60

After 28 years of saving, you have accumulated approximately enough money to pay for only 6 months of care.

If you were faced with the average 3.1 Year Long Term Care stay(2), even under the optimal saving conditions shown above, you would have ($527,757.62) of exposure.

Every year in addition to the average 3.1 Year Stay will cost you an additional $200,318.60/Per Year

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Education About Long-Term Care