Weekend Reading: Is Hybrid Long-Term Care Insurance Right for You?
This article appears as part of Casey Weade's Weekend Reading for Retirees series. Every Friday, Casey highlights four hand-picked articles on trending retirement topics and delivers them straight to your email inbox. Get on the list here.
Your future is unpredictable, and that’s the primary reason our team speaks with the families we work with about the importance of considering long-term care (LTC) insurance. If you end up needing it down the road, but don’t have a policy in place, the result could be a major loss to your lifelong savings.
READ THE ARTICLEThat being said, if you’re considering options for covering LTC insurance, one way is through a hybrid insurance policy. It’s a combination of life and LTC care insurance, and comes with several features you may not otherwise find with traditional LTC insurance or by self-insuring. Those include:
📌 No increase to insurance premiums: The policy cost can be “locked in” based on the initial purchase date.
📌 Substantial return of premium: While data says most will require some form of LTC in the future, if you don’t, your policy’s death benefit will pay back most of the money you spent to heirs tax-free!
📌 Leverage: If you’re self-insuring and set aside $150,000 for potential LTC expenses in the future, a hybrid insurance policy of the same amount could account for costs that exceed that $150,000.
📌 Purchasing with “inefficient” funds: If you have a permanent life insurance policy that no longer suits your needs, some hybrid LTC plans allow you to purchase a policy in one lump sum so you never have to worry about paying premiums again.
You don’t need long-term care insurance until you do, and by then, it could be too late. Give yourself (and your family) the peace of mind you deserve and evaluate all your insurance options to find the best fit for you.