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Today we're talking about something that most women in their forties and fifties don't really think about until they're forced to, which is long-term care.
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My guest, Suzanne learned firsthand how important this is during her years in the sandwich generation juggling her own life.
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While helping her parents through extended illnesses, that experience opened her eyes to what families go through when there isn't a clear plan in place.
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And it's exactly why she's so passionate about teaching women what long-term care actually is in simple human language.
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Long before they're in the crisis mode.
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So today we're breaking it down, what long-term care means, why it matters, the biggest misconceptions, and how to start thinking about this now so you can protect your future self and your family.
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Welcome to the next chapter podcast.
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No shortcuts, no cheat sheets, no abridged versions, just the real deal, honest conversations, expert insights and practical strategies to help you take the lead in your next chapter.
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I'm Andrea Hecht, certified life coach, mom and midlife navigator.
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Here to help you find your roadmap back to Joy, the journey of you so you can stop waiting for some day and start.
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Living now because midlife isn't the end of your story.
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It's your time to take center stage.
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Let's go.
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Your next chapter starts now.
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Hi, Suzanne.
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I'm so excited that you're here to talk about a topic that I don't know if many of us really know about or really think about, which is long-term care insurance.
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And so I'm excited you're here to break this all down for us in simple terms and let us know why this is so important for us.
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So welcome.
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Thank you so much for having me, Andrea.
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I really appreciate it.
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I know that you're extremely passionate about educating others, but where did this passion kind of start from? I know you've had your own personal experience with, you know, the sandwich generation experience, so can you kind of paint a picture for us how it Sure all started? Sure.
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So I'm an only child and my parents were on the older side when they had me for the time.
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I mean now it wouldn't be considered older, but they were 36 and 42 when they had me.
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So in my mind I was always thinking, okay, well when I'm this age, they're gonna be that age.
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And I was always just, it was on my mind from the time I was young because, you know, like I said, they were older parents comparatively.
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And so I always worried about it.
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And then, when I was 33, my son was 15 months old, my mom fell and broke her hip.
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And when that happened, she did something to her spinal cord that impacted her hands so that she couldn't really write very well.
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And so.
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At that point, in addition to helping her, just kinda overseeing her care, I took over my parents' finances.
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So in some ways it was kind of lucky because I knew everything that was going on.
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There wasn't the mystery that a lot of people have.
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But it was very hard for my mom because she was always the one who paid the bills and she didn't like giving up the control, even though she trusted me.
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And, I took that very, very seriously.
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I wanted to make sure that I did the best I could for them when I was handling things.
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So.
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At that point, I started kind of in the caregiving oversight of caregiving type role, and then she kept having additional health issues, and then a few years later, my dad all of a sudden, had a stroke.
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And then a few years later, it all of a sudden became end stage dementia.
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So it was about an eight year period where both my parents was like, let's see.
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It was, I guess, how many years was it? Several years.
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Just like three years.
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Just my mom.
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And then five years, both of them.
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Luckily, I lived close by, so it wasn't an issue of having to get on a plane or anything like that, so that made it easier.
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But I was juggling things with my son and then my parents.
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I had stopped working.
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So it was pretty much my full-time job was going back and forth.
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And my dad had long-term care insurance, but my mom couldn't get it because she had diabetes.
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So that really, I could see the impact that had.
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And there'd be times where she wouldn't wanna get a caregiver because she was afraid of running outta money.
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And would drive me crazy because she really needed it, but she didn't wanna get, you know, so the worry was there.
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So I, I saw it play out in real time and at a younger age than most people see it.
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So just going through all that really had a big impact on me and wanting to be able to help other people in similar situations.
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Unfortunately I can't take away the heartbreak and just the difficulty that it, you have when you see a loved one declining or having health issues.
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But I knew that if I could help with the financial piece of it, then at least that would take away a little bit of the stress.
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So once I realized that I could help people with entrepreneur insurance and as I dug into the different products that were available, I just got so excited about it because it's, there's some, I'll talk about it a little bit later, but there are some really, really great options that most people don't even know about.
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So I feel like I'm keeping this secret right, and I wanted to shout it out to the world and I wish I were an influencer so I could have big profile, big, you know, big platform to be able to teach people about it because there's just, It's something that's, that's could happen to anyone at any time, and it's not just for old people, you know? Mm-hmm.
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It could be a lot of different scenarios where you find yourself needing care and the idea that there's a way that you can keep it from ruining your financial situation.
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So when all those things kind of clicked in my head, I just got kind of obsessed with the idea of, of trying to teach people about it.
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And to deal with an issue that's really not very pleasant, like there's no way around it.
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Right there, you know, people age and things happen.
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Or like you said, it doesn't have to just be aging.
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It could be some kind of illness or a fall, whatever it is, right? And to be prepared and to take your own personal experience and then now make this your mission and the work that you do in supporting others you've been through it yourself, right? So you can put yourself in their shoes.
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And so can you kind of just explain to us really what is long term? Care insurance.
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Sure.
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Just in the simplest terms.
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Okay.
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Well, so as far as what, when we talk about long-term care, what we're talking about is a situation where somebody can't get through the day safely.
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So if you think about what you do every day that you don't ever, you just take for granted.
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You get up and you get out of bed, you go to the bathroom, you take a shower, you get dressed, you eat.
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Then throughout the day, you're maintaining continence.
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You're just, those are things that we just all do, and we don't even ever give it a thought.
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But let's say somebody went skiing and they broke two legs in an arm and they're single, so they don't have anyone living with them.
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And until they recover, how are they gonna get outta bed? How are they gonna get to the bathroom? Like they would need to hire a person to come and help them, and they wouldn't need a doctor or a nurse because it's not medical.
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So they call it custodial care.
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So it's, that's the big thing where there's a misconception because people think, well, health insurance would cover it, or Medicare would cover it if you're over 65, but.
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The kind of care that you talk about when you talk about long-term care.
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It's not the things that a doctor or a nurse would do, it's just something you need another person, some kind of a caregiver to help you.
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And so it's not reimbursed, it's not covered by any insurance that you already have.
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So the idea is if you're gonna be in this situation, and it's expected to last at least 90 days, so we're not talking about a sprained ankle where it's just a a short time, but we're talking about something that's a significant event either.
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Brought on by an accident or illness, or if you have a severe cognitive impairment and you're not safe to home and you need somebody to be there to keep you safe.
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That's where we talk about a long-term care situation, and that's where long-term care insurance comes in.
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So let's say the single person who goes has a skiing accident, they need to hire a caregiver, and let's say it costs them $7,000 a month.
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Not many people have an extra $7,000 just sitting around..
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And so the idea that you have this dedicated source of funds that's available to you if something happens.
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The newer kinds.
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I can get into more details about this, but the newer kinds of policies have a benefit where if you never need any care, there's some a death benefit that goes to your beneficiaries.
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I think that it's important to note that long-term care, when you think about it, and we spoke at the beginning of the conversation about the sandwich generation, but the ski accident that you're talking about, it doesn't have to be someone that we think when you think long-term care, it's not just.
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For the elderly, right? It's for anyone that needs care.
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You said custodial care, some kind of caregiver at any age feeling, right? And so I think that that's an important piece to highlight.
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And then, can you go over like what it covers and what it doesn't? Sure.
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So in order to, if you have a policy in order to trigger a claim, you have to show that either have a severe cognitive impairment or that you can't do two out of the six activities of daily living, which are those things that we talked about.
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You know, the getting outta bed, the bathing, the dressing.
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Mm-hmm.
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Things like that.
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So assuming that either you have the cognitive impairment or you can't do two outta the six activities of daily living, then that would, and it's expected that whatever is going on, whether it's an illness or an accident, it's expected to last at least 90 days.
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Then that would trigger a claim if you have long-term care insurance.
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And when that happens, you would get money to cover a caregiver.
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Now that caregiver could do things like prepare murals for you and do housekeeping and do.
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Pretty much whatever you need around the house.
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But if you didn't trigger the claim, you wouldn't be able to be eligible to get the money in the first place.
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So if someone says, I can't drive, I can't cook, I can't pay my bills, I can't, those are certain things that people have trouble with that wouldn't trigger the claim.
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But if you do trigger the claim, then those things can fall into what.
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Can be covered, if that makes sense.
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Like once you trigger the claim, then the person who comes to help you can do lots of things for you.
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So with the triggering the claim, just to clarify what type of documentation, because it's like you're saying you can't just say, I can't get out of bed, I can't cook, I can't pay my bills because Right.
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You know, someone could feel that, but what kind of documentation is actually needed? The insurance company will usually send out a nurse to do an assessment to see what your situation is and they'll wanna see your medical records.
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For example, you have a dementia diagnosis.
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That would be something that would play in, or if your doctor has a record that you're reporting to them that you can't get outta bed or you can't be safe, or you've fallen a bunch of times because you're unsteady.
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Mm-hmm.
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So it's sort of a combination of the doctor's records and then somebody coming out and doing an assessment.
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One thing that's kind of tricky sometimes is that sometimes, especially with dementia, sometimes people have a good day when they have dementia.
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They might rise to the occasion of having someone come and they might seem like they're okay.
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So it can be really tricky.
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Yeah.
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Um because most people, I mean, as humans, we don't wanna admit that we need help with things, right.
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We wanna be tough and we wanna act like we're an independent and we can do the things themselves.
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So sometimes there's a struggle to get the qualification in place because the person might be, you know, they're not realizing that they need to be vulnerable and they need to let.
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Whoever's assessing them know, yes, I'm having problems.
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Right.
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It's who wants to, yeah.
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Asking for support is, people see it as a sign of weakness.
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Right.
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I always say it's a sign of strength.
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But just she, by human nature, you said like no one wants to look vulnerable or quote unquote week.
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You have to really prepare for the whole process of when you get to the stage of trying to start a claim, that's one thing people have to understand that they shouldn't.
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I'm not suggesting at all that people should put an act on or, right.
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Of course not.
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Yeah.
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But don't hide the fact that you need help.
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The whole point you've been paying into this policy so that you could get help when you needed it.
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So just be forthcoming and don't be so proud.
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Like there's a lot of, I think it's a generational thing too.
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I think a lot of people are very proud and they don't wanna admit.
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They can't do something and it's, and it's understandable who wants to say that, but of course.,
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But yeah.
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So it's been, but like you said, if you're paying into it, you want to be able to access it.
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Right.
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And that's the whole point.
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Can you kind of talk about the different types,, or levels of care? So most people start at home.
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Getting home care especially people with long-term care insurance, because when you have it, you have the choice of where you wanna get care.
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So a lot of times people will get home care if that gets to the point where they need either 24 hour care or, or they just don't like being lonely.
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They might wanna go to assisted living.
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That's another thing.
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There's also adult daycare that they have, which, you know, for someone who, let's say.
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You've got a family member living at home and they've got dementia or they need, they've got some challenges, but you need to work during the day.
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You know, there is adult daycare where they can go and have activities and be social.
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So that's something that's pretty popular.
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When someone's got dementia and they're not safe being home, then like my dad was in that situation.
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Then memory care.
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Comes along where it's a lock unit, they're secure.
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You know, it keeps them safe from wandering or from from getting into themselves in trouble.
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And there are true nursing homes, but most of the people in nursing homes are on Medicaid.
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Mm-hmm.
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Which is what happens when somebody is down to basically $2,000 of assets and they don't have any more money and they need care.
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Then they would apply for Medicaid and.
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The state and the, the federal government kind of work together to provide the coverage for that.
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And in that scenario, someone's usually put into a nursing home and they need care and they don't have any say over where they go, um mm-hmm.
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Because, or award of the state and any income they have goes to the state.
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The whole point of getting long-term care insurance is to avoid being in that situation.
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Of having to spend your assets down to nothing and then not having anything to leave as a legacy and, and not having choice as to where you would be.
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So you expressed also, it's important to understand what the choices are, but also you expressed that there are different types of long-term care insurance and one that has the death benefit.
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You shared with me before, but can you kind of explain to the listeners the different products? Right, so for the.
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Long-term care started around 40 or so years ago.
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It at first started just to cover nursing homes, and there really wasn't assisted living a long time ago.
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That wasn't a, that wasn't really a thing yet.
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But so it started off for nursing home coverage and then it expanded, but it's, it eventually got to be comprehensive to cover all the different types of care, but.
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At its core, a traditional long-term care policy, it's kind of like paying a car insurance policy.
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You, get a bill every month or every year, however you decide to pay it.
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But you, you pay it until you either go on claim or pass away.
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So you're looking at paying it forever.
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And the premiums are not guaranteed level, so they will increase.
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You just don't know when or by how much.
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And if you never need any care, then there's not any cash value.
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There's not a death benefit.
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So a lot of people didn't like that because, partially because people are in denial about ever thinking that they could possibly need care.
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But it's, there are some people who don't ever need it.
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Some people pass without needing it or, you know, things happen.
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So people didn't like the idea that it was use it or lose it.
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Because you pay money in for all these years, and then if you never use it, then you, you've paid money if for something you're not using.
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Now, granted, with our car insurance and our homeowner's insurance, we kind of do the same thing, but with this type of insurance, it's just different you already pay some, you know, life insurance and medical insurance, and so people maybe just think that you're already, like, that stuff is covered.
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Right.
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But like you said, at the top of the conversation, it's not right.
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In any event, people didn't like the fact that there wasn't any kind of death benefit or cash value.
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So the newer kinds, now this is going back, you know, 30 some years, but they're still quote unquote, considered newer.
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They're referred to as either asset based or hybrid or linked benefit, but this is the time, time where you've got either an, it's typically an insurance policy, but sometimes an annuity.
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But basically you've got an insurance policy and then in addition to that, you have a second bucket of money that's sort of tagged, you know, like tied onto the insurance policy.
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So if you need care, the fir, there's like two buckets of money.
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The first bucket of the life insurance part that gets paid out first.
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If you go on claim, and if that runs out, there's a second bucket that kicks in that continues on for a certain however you design the plan.
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But if you never need any care at all, the money that's in the life insurance bucket gets paid.
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Your def, your beneficiaries tax free.
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So it's a life insurance policy.
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So when you design a policy, you know, okay, this is how much I'm gonna pay in.
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And here are some different scenarios.
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One scenario is, I never need care.
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Here's the amount of money that goes to my beneficiaries.
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Or if I do need care, here's the total bucket of money I have available.
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Or if I only need a little bit of care and there's still money left in the life insurance bucket, whatever's left goes to my beneficiaries, and the premiums are guaranteed level.
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So even if you pay it over time, it can never increase.
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So it really answers a lot of the objections that people have with the traditional,, you know exactly what's gonna happen when you're going into it.
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There's not any surprise element to it, I wanna fix rate mortgage.
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I don't want adjustable rate mortgage.
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I don't wanna have a surprise that I was budgeting for a certain amount of money and then all of a sudden it goes up and I can't afford it.
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And then like for the people with the traditional policies when they first came out, there were a lot of bad assumptions made by the actuaries.
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And so they price the policies way too low.
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And so they, there've been all these big increases and people have been complaining about how awful long-term care is because it's a bait and switch and there's all these things, but people knew that it wasn't, the premiums weren't level, so it's not like they didn't know that the premiums were gonna go up.
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But they did go up a lot because they were priced so low.
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And then there were so many claims that came in that companies needed more money to keep up with the claims.
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People have this idea about long-term care insurance, that it's terrible and evil.
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It's a scam because of the old policies and they're not basing it on what actually is available today, which, you know, it is more money that you put in than when compared to traditional.
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But the idea that it's an asset that you have that's got cash value and money's gonna come back either way, whether you have a care event or not.
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So there's not that same gambling kind of feeling like, okay, well maybe I'll get money back and maybe I won't.
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It's the protection and the idea that you said that there is, asset value is really helpful.
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I'm curious 'cause that is very helpful to explain all of that how the eligibility works and why health matters.
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And then a little bit about, what age can you start applying great questions.
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Um, so your health does matter because they do look at your health to determine whether or not you qualify.
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With the traditional policies, they're the strictest because you're putting in the least amount of money, so you don't have to have perfect health, but you have to have, maybe you could take a few medicines, other than just a very plain, you know, clean profile of health.
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With the asset base, there's a lot more leniency because you're putting in more of your own money.
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So if someone's had cancer but they've wasn't a high, very high grade and that they're, they haven't had any recurrence for a number of years, that's certainly something that comes into play.
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People with diabetes now are able, depending on their circumstances, able to get coverage.
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There's just a whole range of different products that are available.
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And now there's a new product came out last month that's gonna be a lot more lenient for folks.
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With something like an autoimmune disease has been keeping people from getting coverage.
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There's a new policy that's now available for people with that situation, or someone who's had cancer more recently, but is not currently in treatment.
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The products are evolving to the point where you might think that, oh, I, there's no way I'd ever qualify.
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But actually you might be able to.
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And just to say one thing that I do with clients is that if, assuming that they have anything other than just a normal, let's say someone takes like a thyroid medication, just something run of the mill, I don't worry about it, but if someone says, I had cancer or have an autoimmune disease, or I have diabetes or different things, what I do is I get their information and I go anonymously to the companies and I say, here's this person's profile.
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Would you consider coverage? And I do that with all the companies.
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And then they come back and they say no, or yes, or maybe, or you know, so they give me an idea ahead of time.
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And that's really important because with long-term care insurance, if you get declined, there's some companies that won't consider you if you have that in your profile.
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So it's really important to do the work on the front end and find out and have someone reputable and willing to do the work like you.
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But you know, so if, if you ever go to someone for long-term care insurance and they don't ask you about your health and they just say.
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You should apply for X, Y, Z product.
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Run away from them.
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Don't.
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Yeah, don't do that.
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Make sure they ask you about your health and you find out because you wanna know, what your chances are of qualifying and if there might be one company that says yes and one that says no.
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It's better to know that ahead of time.
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And then in terms of the age, there's one company that starts as early as 30.
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I would say if you can do it at 40, that's amazing.
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If you can't, I would say 50, 55 ish is great.
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But there are still options for somebody.
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It's not a great option, but there's still a product all the way up to 87 but I would say the sweet spot's probably 45 to 55.
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It doesn't mean that older is not possible, but your health is a factor.
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So the longer you wait, the more likely something's to ha is to happen with your health that would cause you to have a problem qualifying.
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That's very helpful information and that's why I wanted to bring you on because many of the members of my community are at that kind of like sweet spot and this might not be something on their radar because it is an additional expense.
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It's a very important one.
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But something else that you need to consider in your budget with if kids are going off to college or the expenses of kids and all of that.
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I'm curious also some misconceptions you see people having around this long-term care.
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I would say the biggest one is that people think Medicare covers it.
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What Medicare does is if someone's in the hospital for three days, let's say somebody has a stroke and they're in the hospital, and then they need to go to rehab after the hospital, Medicare will cover the first 20 days a hundred percent, and then after that days 21 to 100.
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If you progress with your physical therapy, then Medicare will cover 80%, but you still have to cover some of it.
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And then after the hundredth day, you're on your own.
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So let's say someone had a stroke, like I said, and after the a hundred days, they still are not able to care for themselves, the family of that person, or that person's gonna have to figure out how they're gonna have care, so that cost is not gonna be covered by their Medicare.
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You know, something like that happens or someone has a dementia diagnosis and they need care for 10 years.
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There can be really or catastrophic accident.
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There are things that can happen and they're not covered by either Medicare or health insurance, and it can just devastate your financial situation very quickly.
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I would say that's probably the biggest misconception.
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I think the other one would be people thinking about the policies only in terms of the older policies where it's the use it or lose it, and so they don't like it.
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Not knowing about all the flexibility.
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I mean the, the one of the reasons I get so excited about this is the ability I have to design a plan for someone where there are just so many different variables.
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Like we can say, okay, well you wanna make one.
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You don't like writing checks for these payments.
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You just wanna make it a lump sum.
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You can write a check one time.
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You can do it over five years, 10 years, 20 years to 95, you can use money.
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If someone inherits an IRA from a parent, they now have to take that money out in 10 years.
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You used to be able to stretch it out your whole life.
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That's money you're gonna have to take out in 10 years.
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You can use that to fund a policy.
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You can take money from an old life insurance policy that's not serving you and and exchange the cash value for a policy.
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There are like all these different options and you can do it over time.
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And business owners can take deductions for premiums because long-term care insurance is treated like health insurance under the tax code.
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So I don't think many people know that, that they can take some deductions or that there's this flexibility in how you design a plan.
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So someone thinks, oh, it's expensive, I can't afford it.
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Well, there are a lot of different ways of doing it and then within the policies themselves are all these different features someone can say, I only have this much money to spend.
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What could I get for this? Or I wanna have this much money when I'm 83.
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What would that be? The bottom line is you have to work with someone that you trust and that is reputable and that it's not just, okay, let's get the coverage and what's the lowest rate, but that you really need to think about what makes sense, again, long term and right.
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And thinking about all the different components that go into it.
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But I don't think it's possible.
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I mean, I guess it is po Maybe there's some people who have, who are superhuman and they can do all these different things, but to be a financial advisor and manage a busy practice and then also keep up with all the different changes and all the little nuances that happen.
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It's pretty much a full-time job to keep track of the different policy types and the changes and the rules, and the nuances that are involved with it.
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So if you go to someone who just dabbles in long-term care, I don't think you're gonna get the same result as if you go to somebody who specializes in it and can tell you, okay, well you know, with this company, you have to use an agency for care at home, but this company you can pay a family member or this company, you can have an unlimited benefit, or this company, there's no waiting period to start.
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There's just a lot of different moving pieces and new companies are coming into the market.
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There's a lot of education that goes around it.
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Again, that's why I wanted to have this conversation because this is just the tip of the iceberg.
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But then once you actually make the commitment to purchase a policy that you have to make sure that you are walking through every step of the process and understanding what your needs really are currently and long term and, and understanding all of it.
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all I can say is a work with a specialist.
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Don't just go to somebody who does a case here and there.
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'cause I don't think the result will be the same.
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So speaking of working with, a specialist, I wanted to, get into a little bit.
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We talked about kind of the ideal age that you think,, and what affects the cost of an eligibility, but what are some simple first steps that someone can take if our listeners are now interested in pursuing, this type of insurance? I'm happy to talk with anyone.
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The way I work for this is, if I write a policy, I get paid a commission from the insurance company.
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So I don't charge the client anything for my time to have a consultation, to look at different options, work through.
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So there's no obligation and there's no cost just to having a conversation with me or with, someone else who's in the field.
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Call them up and, just have a discussion and say, here's my situation.
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Does this make sense? If somebody, is paycheck to paycheck and they don't have enough money to put into a policy, I don't wanna see them taking money away from things that they need.
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So I'll tell someone I don't think this is the right thing, you gotta look at the big picture and figure out what's right.
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But I think just reaching out to a specialist and just having a consultation and just learning about how it works and then seeing whether based on their health and based on their financial situation.
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Is this something to look at? And so that's what I would say.
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I frequently do webinars 'cause I just, I love teaching people about this.
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It ranges from someone not even knowing that there's such a thing as long-term care insurance to just not understanding all the different.
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Products that are available.
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For whatever reason, the industry doesn't really I don't know.
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I don't think they advertise.
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I don't feel like there's a lot of information out in the public and, and when I see people in Facebook groups, saying, should I get long-term care insurance? It's just so polarizing.
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I mean, some people say, oh, it's a scam.
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It's terrible.
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My parent had it and they never used it, and it was terrible.
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People say, oh, it's such a godsend, it saved our family.
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There's a lot of just differing opinions and, and the overall, I'd say it gets pretty bad press.
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But when you look at the numbers, I mean, you know, to put in $120,000 to then in 30 years from now to have a benefit of over a million dollars of unique care.
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Then to get let's say 144 back as a death benefit, if you don't need it, I mean, you're, you're losing the opportunity cost to invest the money.
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Mm-hmm.
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So that is the downside of it.
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But if you've got assets that you're designating for care the leverage you get you put money into a policy and all of a sudden you just immediately have, you know, could be like four or five times the amount of money you have available for care.
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Like I got a policy where, day one I for putting in a thousand dollars, I'm doing it like a thousand a month for 10 years.
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Day one, my available benefits were over 500,000.
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So God forbid something happened right away, I could have that pool of money available.
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And oftentimes people say, oh, I'm just gonna sell fund.
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I'm gonna do better.
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I'm gonna invest the money.
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I don't know anyone who can take a thousand dollars and make it turn into $500,000 overnight.
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Guaranteed.
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Some people just, they don't believe in insurance and they just think that they can do better investing it.
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But for those that can, I think, and we will link in the show notes how people can get in touch with you.
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The idea is to find someone that you trust and to start the conversation, right, and to see what the options are, and to have someone that listens and cares and wants to really help you understand it.
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I'm curious the message that you really want the listeners to hear.
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if you wanna have options? Should you ever be in the situation of needing care? And if you don't wanna burden your family members.
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With having them have to give up their lives to take care of you.
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Take the time to think about what you'd want, if you ever needed care.
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Let your family know what your wishes are and then find out if insurance is the right thing.
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It might not be, it's not right for everybody, and I'm not, I'll never recommend it to someone if I don't think it's the right thing for them, but at least learn about it.
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My biggest fear is.
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Anyone who I come into contact with, especially my friends, people I care about, I don't ever want them to be like 80 years old saying, boy, I really wish I had known that I could have gotten long-term care insurance.
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If people look at it and it's not for them, that's fine.
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I want people to know that this is something that they need to be thinking about, and they need to have a plan for how they're gonna handle it.
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And there are ways they can do it.
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So it doesn't create a burden on their family.
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You hear so many stories about, siblings not talking to each other because of the fights they had over taking care of the sick parent.
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Speak with your family members.
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Let them know your wishes.
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I wish this wouldn't be such a taboo topic.
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I wish people would be more open about it.
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Don't put off thinking about, it's also, obviously estate planning is incredibly important too.
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The similar kind of a thing.
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I just wish people would talk about this more openly and let their wishes be known and know that there are these great options that exist that they might have never heard of.
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Thank you so much for educating us.
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That's why I wanted to bring you here to get the conversation started to get people in the next chapter community thinking about this.
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We will definitely link in the show notes how people can get in touch with you so they can start the conversation with you and see if this is something that makes sense.
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So thank you so much for being here.
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Thank you, Andrew for having me.
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I really appreciate it love this episode.
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Make sure to subscribe student ever miss what's next.
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If today's conversation resonated, please leave a review@rapistpodcast.com
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slash the next chapter.
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Her It helps more women find their roadmap back to Joy.
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Ready for more support, visit fully informed life.com
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to learn how we can work together.
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Until next time, keep writing your next chapter.
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:07,080
Today we're talking about something that most women in their forties and fifties don't really think about until they're forced to, which is long-term care.
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My guest, Suzanne learned firsthand how important this is during her years in the sandwich generation juggling her own life.
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While helping her parents through extended illnesses, that experience opened her eyes to what families go through when there isn't a clear plan in place.
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And it's exactly why she's so passionate about teaching women what long-term care actually is in simple human language.
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Long before they're in the crisis mode.
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So today we're breaking it down, what long-term care means, why it matters, the biggest misconceptions, and how to start thinking about this now so you can protect your future self and your family.
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Welcome to the next chapter podcast.
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No shortcuts, no cheat sheets, no abridged versions, just the real deal, honest conversations, expert insights and practical strategies to help you take the lead in your next chapter.
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I'm Andrea Hecht, certified life coach, mom and midlife navigator.
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Here to help you find your roadmap back to Joy, the journey of you so you can stop waiting for some day and start.
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Living now because midlife isn't the end of your story.
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It's your time to take center stage.
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Let's go.
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Your next chapter starts now.
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Hi, Suzanne.
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I'm so excited that you're here to talk about a topic that I don't know if many of us really know about or really think about, which is long-term care insurance.
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And so I'm excited you're here to break this all down for us in simple terms and let us know why this is so important for us.
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So welcome.
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Thank you so much for having me, Andrea.
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I really appreciate it.
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I know that you're extremely passionate about educating others, but where did this passion kind of start from? I know you've had your own personal experience with, you know, the sandwich generation experience, so can you kind of paint a picture for us how it Sure all started? Sure.
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So I'm an only child and my parents were on the older side when they had me for the time.
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I mean now it wouldn't be considered older, but they were 36 and 42 when they had me.
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So in my mind I was always thinking, okay, well when I'm this age, they're gonna be that age.
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And I was always just, it was on my mind from the time I was young because, you know, like I said, they were older parents comparatively.
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And so I always worried about it.
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And then, when I was 33, my son was 15 months old, my mom fell and broke her hip.
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And when that happened, she did something to her spinal cord that impacted her hands so that she couldn't really write very well.
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And so.
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At that point, in addition to helping her, just kinda overseeing her care, I took over my parents' finances.
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So in some ways it was kind of lucky because I knew everything that was going on.
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There wasn't the mystery that a lot of people have.
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But it was very hard for my mom because she was always the one who paid the bills and she didn't like giving up the control, even though she trusted me.
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And, I took that very, very seriously.
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I wanted to make sure that I did the best I could for them when I was handling things.
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So.
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At that point, I started kind of in the caregiving oversight of caregiving type role, and then she kept having additional health issues, and then a few years later, my dad all of a sudden, had a stroke.
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And then a few years later, it all of a sudden became end stage dementia.
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So it was about an eight year period where both my parents was like, let's see.
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It was, I guess, how many years was it? Several years.
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Just like three years.
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Just my mom.
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And then five years, both of them.
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Luckily, I lived close by, so it wasn't an issue of having to get on a plane or anything like that, so that made it easier.
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But I was juggling things with my son and then my parents.
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I had stopped working.
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So it was pretty much my full-time job was going back and forth.
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And my dad had long-term care insurance, but my mom couldn't get it because she had diabetes.
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So that really, I could see the impact that had.
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And there'd be times where she wouldn't wanna get a caregiver because she was afraid of running outta money.
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And would drive me crazy because she really needed it, but she didn't wanna get, you know, so the worry was there.
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So I, I saw it play out in real time and at a younger age than most people see it.
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So just going through all that really had a big impact on me and wanting to be able to help other people in similar situations.
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Unfortunately I can't take away the heartbreak and just the difficulty that it, you have when you see a loved one declining or having health issues.
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But I knew that if I could help with the financial piece of it, then at least that would take away a little bit of the stress.
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So once I realized that I could help people with entrepreneur insurance and as I dug into the different products that were available, I just got so excited about it because it's, there's some, I'll talk about it a little bit later, but there are some really, really great options that most people don't even know about.
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So I feel like I'm keeping this secret right, and I wanted to shout it out to the world and I wish I were an influencer so I could have big profile, big, you know, big platform to be able to teach people about it because there's just, It's something that's, that's could happen to anyone at any time, and it's not just for old people, you know? Mm-hmm.
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It could be a lot of different scenarios where you find yourself needing care and the idea that there's a way that you can keep it from ruining your financial situation.
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So when all those things kind of clicked in my head, I just got kind of obsessed with the idea of, of trying to teach people about it.
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And to deal with an issue that's really not very pleasant, like there's no way around it.
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Right there, you know, people age and things happen.
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Or like you said, it doesn't have to just be aging.
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It could be some kind of illness or a fall, whatever it is, right? And to be prepared and to take your own personal experience and then now make this your mission and the work that you do in supporting others you've been through it yourself, right? So you can put yourself in their shoes.
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And so can you kind of just explain to us really what is long term? Care insurance.
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Sure.
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Just in the simplest terms.
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Okay.
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Well, so as far as what, when we talk about long-term care, what we're talking about is a situation where somebody can't get through the day safely.
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So if you think about what you do every day that you don't ever, you just take for granted.
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You get up and you get out of bed, you go to the bathroom, you take a shower, you get dressed, you eat.
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Then throughout the day, you're maintaining continence.
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You're just, those are things that we just all do, and we don't even ever give it a thought.
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But let's say somebody went skiing and they broke two legs in an arm and they're single, so they don't have anyone living with them.
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And until they recover, how are they gonna get outta bed? How are they gonna get to the bathroom? Like they would need to hire a person to come and help them, and they wouldn't need a doctor or a nurse because it's not medical.
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So they call it custodial care.
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So it's, that's the big thing where there's a misconception because people think, well, health insurance would cover it, or Medicare would cover it if you're over 65, but.
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The kind of care that you talk about when you talk about long-term care.
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It's not the things that a doctor or a nurse would do, it's just something you need another person, some kind of a caregiver to help you.
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And so it's not reimbursed, it's not covered by any insurance that you already have.
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So the idea is if you're gonna be in this situation, and it's expected to last at least 90 days, so we're not talking about a sprained ankle where it's just a a short time, but we're talking about something that's a significant event either.
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Brought on by an accident or illness, or if you have a severe cognitive impairment and you're not safe to home and you need somebody to be there to keep you safe.
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That's where we talk about a long-term care situation, and that's where long-term care insurance comes in.
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So let's say the single person who goes has a skiing accident, they need to hire a caregiver, and let's say it costs them $7,000 a month.
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Not many people have an extra $7,000 just sitting around..
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And so the idea that you have this dedicated source of funds that's available to you if something happens.
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The newer kinds.
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I can get into more details about this, but the newer kinds of policies have a benefit where if you never need any care, there's some a death benefit that goes to your beneficiaries.
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I think that it's important to note that long-term care, when you think about it, and we spoke at the beginning of the conversation about the sandwich generation, but the ski accident that you're talking about, it doesn't have to be someone that we think when you think long-term care, it's not just.
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For the elderly, right? It's for anyone that needs care.
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You said custodial care, some kind of caregiver at any age feeling, right? And so I think that that's an important piece to highlight.
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And then, can you go over like what it covers and what it doesn't? Sure.
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So in order to, if you have a policy in order to trigger a claim, you have to show that either have a severe cognitive impairment or that you can't do two out of the six activities of daily living, which are those things that we talked about.
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You know, the getting outta bed, the bathing, the dressing.
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Mm-hmm.
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Things like that.
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So assuming that either you have the cognitive impairment or you can't do two outta the six activities of daily living, then that would, and it's expected that whatever is going on, whether it's an illness or an accident, it's expected to last at least 90 days.
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Then that would trigger a claim if you have long-term care insurance.
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And when that happens, you would get money to cover a caregiver.
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Now that caregiver could do things like prepare murals for you and do housekeeping and do.
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Pretty much whatever you need around the house.
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But if you didn't trigger the claim, you wouldn't be able to be eligible to get the money in the first place.
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So if someone says, I can't drive, I can't cook, I can't pay my bills, I can't, those are certain things that people have trouble with that wouldn't trigger the claim.
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But if you do trigger the claim, then those things can fall into what.
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Can be covered, if that makes sense.
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Like once you trigger the claim, then the person who comes to help you can do lots of things for you.
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So with the triggering the claim, just to clarify what type of documentation, because it's like you're saying you can't just say, I can't get out of bed, I can't cook, I can't pay my bills because Right.
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You know, someone could feel that, but what kind of documentation is actually needed? The insurance company will usually send out a nurse to do an assessment to see what your situation is and they'll wanna see your medical records.
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For example, you have a dementia diagnosis.
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That would be something that would play in, or if your doctor has a record that you're reporting to them that you can't get outta bed or you can't be safe, or you've fallen a bunch of times because you're unsteady.
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Mm-hmm.
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So it's sort of a combination of the doctor's records and then somebody coming out and doing an assessment.
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One thing that's kind of tricky sometimes is that sometimes, especially with dementia, sometimes people have a good day when they have dementia.
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They might rise to the occasion of having someone come and they might seem like they're okay.
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So it can be really tricky.
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Yeah.
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Um because most people, I mean, as humans, we don't wanna admit that we need help with things, right.
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We wanna be tough and we wanna act like we're an independent and we can do the things themselves.
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So sometimes there's a struggle to get the qualification in place because the person might be, you know, they're not realizing that they need to be vulnerable and they need to let.
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Whoever's assessing them know, yes, I'm having problems.
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Right.
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It's who wants to, yeah.
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Asking for support is, people see it as a sign of weakness.
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Right.
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I always say it's a sign of strength.
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But just she, by human nature, you said like no one wants to look vulnerable or quote unquote week.
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You have to really prepare for the whole process of when you get to the stage of trying to start a claim, that's one thing people have to understand that they shouldn't.
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I'm not suggesting at all that people should put an act on or, right.
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Of course not.
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Yeah.
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But don't hide the fact that you need help.
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The whole point you've been paying into this policy so that you could get help when you needed it.
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So just be forthcoming and don't be so proud.
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Like there's a lot of, I think it's a generational thing too.
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I think a lot of people are very proud and they don't wanna admit.
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They can't do something and it's, and it's understandable who wants to say that, but of course.,
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But yeah.
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So it's been, but like you said, if you're paying into it, you want to be able to access it.
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Right.
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And that's the whole point.
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Can you kind of talk about the different types,, or levels of care? So most people start at home.
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Getting home care especially people with long-term care insurance, because when you have it, you have the choice of where you wanna get care.
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So a lot of times people will get home care if that gets to the point where they need either 24 hour care or, or they just don't like being lonely.
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They might wanna go to assisted living.
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That's another thing.
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There's also adult daycare that they have, which, you know, for someone who, let's say.
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You've got a family member living at home and they've got dementia or they need, they've got some challenges, but you need to work during the day.
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You know, there is adult daycare where they can go and have activities and be social.
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So that's something that's pretty popular.
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When someone's got dementia and they're not safe being home, then like my dad was in that situation.
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Then memory care.
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Comes along where it's a lock unit, they're secure.
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You know, it keeps them safe from wandering or from from getting into themselves in trouble.
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And there are true nursing homes, but most of the people in nursing homes are on Medicaid.
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Mm-hmm.
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Which is what happens when somebody is down to basically $2,000 of assets and they don't have any more money and they need care.
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Then they would apply for Medicaid and.
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The state and the, the federal government kind of work together to provide the coverage for that.
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And in that scenario, someone's usually put into a nursing home and they need care and they don't have any say over where they go, um mm-hmm.
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Because, or award of the state and any income they have goes to the state.
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The whole point of getting long-term care insurance is to avoid being in that situation.
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Of having to spend your assets down to nothing and then not having anything to leave as a legacy and, and not having choice as to where you would be.
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So you expressed also, it's important to understand what the choices are, but also you expressed that there are different types of long-term care insurance and one that has the death benefit.
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You shared with me before, but can you kind of explain to the listeners the different products? Right, so for the.
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Long-term care started around 40 or so years ago.
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It at first started just to cover nursing homes, and there really wasn't assisted living a long time ago.
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That wasn't a, that wasn't really a thing yet.
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But so it started off for nursing home coverage and then it expanded, but it's, it eventually got to be comprehensive to cover all the different types of care, but.
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At its core, a traditional long-term care policy, it's kind of like paying a car insurance policy.
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You, get a bill every month or every year, however you decide to pay it.
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But you, you pay it until you either go on claim or pass away.
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So you're looking at paying it forever.
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And the premiums are not guaranteed level, so they will increase.
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You just don't know when or by how much.
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And if you never need any care, then there's not any cash value.
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There's not a death benefit.
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So a lot of people didn't like that because, partially because people are in denial about ever thinking that they could possibly need care.
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But it's, there are some people who don't ever need it.
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Some people pass without needing it or, you know, things happen.
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So people didn't like the idea that it was use it or lose it.
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Because you pay money in for all these years, and then if you never use it, then you, you've paid money if for something you're not using.
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Now, granted, with our car insurance and our homeowner's insurance, we kind of do the same thing, but with this type of insurance, it's just different you already pay some, you know, life insurance and medical insurance, and so people maybe just think that you're already, like, that stuff is covered.
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Right.
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But like you said, at the top of the conversation, it's not right.
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In any event, people didn't like the fact that there wasn't any kind of death benefit or cash value.
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So the newer kinds, now this is going back, you know, 30 some years, but they're still quote unquote, considered newer.
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They're referred to as either asset based or hybrid or linked benefit, but this is the time, time where you've got either an, it's typically an insurance policy, but sometimes an annuity.
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But basically you've got an insurance policy and then in addition to that, you have a second bucket of money that's sort of tagged, you know, like tied onto the insurance policy.
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So if you need care, the fir, there's like two buckets of money.
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The first bucket of the life insurance part that gets paid out first.
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If you go on claim, and if that runs out, there's a second bucket that kicks in that continues on for a certain however you design the plan.
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But if you never need any care at all, the money that's in the life insurance bucket gets paid.
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Your def, your beneficiaries tax free.
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So it's a life insurance policy.
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So when you design a policy, you know, okay, this is how much I'm gonna pay in.
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And here are some different scenarios.
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One scenario is, I never need care.
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Here's the amount of money that goes to my beneficiaries.
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Or if I do need care, here's the total bucket of money I have available.
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Or if I only need a little bit of care and there's still money left in the life insurance bucket, whatever's left goes to my beneficiaries, and the premiums are guaranteed level.
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So even if you pay it over time, it can never increase.
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So it really answers a lot of the objections that people have with the traditional,, you know exactly what's gonna happen when you're going into it.
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There's not any surprise element to it, I wanna fix rate mortgage.
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I don't want adjustable rate mortgage.
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I don't wanna have a surprise that I was budgeting for a certain amount of money and then all of a sudden it goes up and I can't afford it.
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And then like for the people with the traditional policies when they first came out, there were a lot of bad assumptions made by the actuaries.
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And so they price the policies way too low.
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And so they, there've been all these big increases and people have been complaining about how awful long-term care is because it's a bait and switch and there's all these things, but people knew that it wasn't, the premiums weren't level, so it's not like they didn't know that the premiums were gonna go up.
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But they did go up a lot because they were priced so low.
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And then there were so many claims that came in that companies needed more money to keep up with the claims.
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People have this idea about long-term care insurance, that it's terrible and evil.
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It's a scam because of the old policies and they're not basing it on what actually is available today, which, you know, it is more money that you put in than when compared to traditional.
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But the idea that it's an asset that you have that's got cash value and money's gonna come back either way, whether you have a care event or not.
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So there's not that same gambling kind of feeling like, okay, well maybe I'll get money back and maybe I won't.
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It's the protection and the idea that you said that there is, asset value is really helpful.
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I'm curious 'cause that is very helpful to explain all of that how the eligibility works and why health matters.
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And then a little bit about, what age can you start applying great questions.
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Um, so your health does matter because they do look at your health to determine whether or not you qualify.
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With the traditional policies, they're the strictest because you're putting in the least amount of money, so you don't have to have perfect health, but you have to have, maybe you could take a few medicines, other than just a very plain, you know, clean profile of health.
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With the asset base, there's a lot more leniency because you're putting in more of your own money.
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So if someone's had cancer but they've wasn't a high, very high grade and that they're, they haven't had any recurrence for a number of years, that's certainly something that comes into play.
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People with diabetes now are able, depending on their circumstances, able to get coverage.
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There's just a whole range of different products that are available.
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And now there's a new product came out last month that's gonna be a lot more lenient for folks.
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With something like an autoimmune disease has been keeping people from getting coverage.
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There's a new policy that's now available for people with that situation, or someone who's had cancer more recently, but is not currently in treatment.
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The products are evolving to the point where you might think that, oh, I, there's no way I'd ever qualify.
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But actually you might be able to.
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And just to say one thing that I do with clients is that if, assuming that they have anything other than just a normal, let's say someone takes like a thyroid medication, just something run of the mill, I don't worry about it, but if someone says, I had cancer or have an autoimmune disease, or I have diabetes or different things, what I do is I get their information and I go anonymously to the companies and I say, here's this person's profile.
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Would you consider coverage? And I do that with all the companies.
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And then they come back and they say no, or yes, or maybe, or you know, so they give me an idea ahead of time.
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And that's really important because with long-term care insurance, if you get declined, there's some companies that won't consider you if you have that in your profile.
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So it's really important to do the work on the front end and find out and have someone reputable and willing to do the work like you.
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But you know, so if, if you ever go to someone for long-term care insurance and they don't ask you about your health and they just say.
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You should apply for X, Y, Z product.
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Run away from them.
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Don't.
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Yeah, don't do that.
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Make sure they ask you about your health and you find out because you wanna know, what your chances are of qualifying and if there might be one company that says yes and one that says no.
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It's better to know that ahead of time.
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And then in terms of the age, there's one company that starts as early as 30.
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I would say if you can do it at 40, that's amazing.
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If you can't, I would say 50, 55 ish is great.
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But there are still options for somebody.
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It's not a great option, but there's still a product all the way up to 87 but I would say the sweet spot's probably 45 to 55.
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It doesn't mean that older is not possible, but your health is a factor.
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So the longer you wait, the more likely something's to ha is to happen with your health that would cause you to have a problem qualifying.
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That's very helpful information and that's why I wanted to bring you on because many of the members of my community are at that kind of like sweet spot and this might not be something on their radar because it is an additional expense.
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It's a very important one.
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But something else that you need to consider in your budget with if kids are going off to college or the expenses of kids and all of that.
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I'm curious also some misconceptions you see people having around this long-term care.
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I would say the biggest one is that people think Medicare covers it.
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What Medicare does is if someone's in the hospital for three days, let's say somebody has a stroke and they're in the hospital, and then they need to go to rehab after the hospital, Medicare will cover the first 20 days a hundred percent, and then after that days 21 to 100.
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If you progress with your physical therapy, then Medicare will cover 80%, but you still have to cover some of it.
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And then after the hundredth day, you're on your own.
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So let's say someone had a stroke, like I said, and after the a hundred days, they still are not able to care for themselves, the family of that person, or that person's gonna have to figure out how they're gonna have care, so that cost is not gonna be covered by their Medicare.
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You know, something like that happens or someone has a dementia diagnosis and they need care for 10 years.
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There can be really or catastrophic accident.
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There are things that can happen and they're not covered by either Medicare or health insurance, and it can just devastate your financial situation very quickly.
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I would say that's probably the biggest misconception.
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I think the other one would be people thinking about the policies only in terms of the older policies where it's the use it or lose it, and so they don't like it.
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Not knowing about all the flexibility.
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I mean the, the one of the reasons I get so excited about this is the ability I have to design a plan for someone where there are just so many different variables.
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Like we can say, okay, well you wanna make one.
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You don't like writing checks for these payments.
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You just wanna make it a lump sum.
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You can write a check one time.
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You can do it over five years, 10 years, 20 years to 95, you can use money.
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If someone inherits an IRA from a parent, they now have to take that money out in 10 years.
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You used to be able to stretch it out your whole life.
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That's money you're gonna have to take out in 10 years.
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You can use that to fund a policy.
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You can take money from an old life insurance policy that's not serving you and and exchange the cash value for a policy.
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There are like all these different options and you can do it over time.
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And business owners can take deductions for premiums because long-term care insurance is treated like health insurance under the tax code.
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So I don't think many people know that, that they can take some deductions or that there's this flexibility in how you design a plan.
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So someone thinks, oh, it's expensive, I can't afford it.
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Well, there are a lot of different ways of doing it and then within the policies themselves are all these different features someone can say, I only have this much money to spend.
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What could I get for this? Or I wanna have this much money when I'm 83.
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What would that be? The bottom line is you have to work with someone that you trust and that is reputable and that it's not just, okay, let's get the coverage and what's the lowest rate, but that you really need to think about what makes sense, again, long term and right.
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And thinking about all the different components that go into it.
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But I don't think it's possible.
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I mean, I guess it is po Maybe there's some people who have, who are superhuman and they can do all these different things, but to be a financial advisor and manage a busy practice and then also keep up with all the different changes and all the little nuances that happen.
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It's pretty much a full-time job to keep track of the different policy types and the changes and the rules, and the nuances that are involved with it.
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So if you go to someone who just dabbles in long-term care, I don't think you're gonna get the same result as if you go to somebody who specializes in it and can tell you, okay, well you know, with this company, you have to use an agency for care at home, but this company you can pay a family member or this company, you can have an unlimited benefit, or this company, there's no waiting period to start.
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There's just a lot of different moving pieces and new companies are coming into the market.
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There's a lot of education that goes around it.
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Again, that's why I wanted to have this conversation because this is just the tip of the iceberg.
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But then once you actually make the commitment to purchase a policy that you have to make sure that you are walking through every step of the process and understanding what your needs really are currently and long term and, and understanding all of it.
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all I can say is a work with a specialist.
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Don't just go to somebody who does a case here and there.
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'cause I don't think the result will be the same.
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So speaking of working with, a specialist, I wanted to, get into a little bit.
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We talked about kind of the ideal age that you think,, and what affects the cost of an eligibility, but what are some simple first steps that someone can take if our listeners are now interested in pursuing, this type of insurance? I'm happy to talk with anyone.
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The way I work for this is, if I write a policy, I get paid a commission from the insurance company.
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So I don't charge the client anything for my time to have a consultation, to look at different options, work through.
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So there's no obligation and there's no cost just to having a conversation with me or with, someone else who's in the field.
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Call them up and, just have a discussion and say, here's my situation.
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Does this make sense? If somebody, is paycheck to paycheck and they don't have enough money to put into a policy, I don't wanna see them taking money away from things that they need.
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So I'll tell someone I don't think this is the right thing, you gotta look at the big picture and figure out what's right.
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But I think just reaching out to a specialist and just having a consultation and just learning about how it works and then seeing whether based on their health and based on their financial situation.
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Is this something to look at? And so that's what I would say.
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I frequently do webinars 'cause I just, I love teaching people about this.
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It ranges from someone not even knowing that there's such a thing as long-term care insurance to just not understanding all the different.
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Products that are available.
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For whatever reason, the industry doesn't really I don't know.
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I don't think they advertise.
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I don't feel like there's a lot of information out in the public and, and when I see people in Facebook groups, saying, should I get long-term care insurance? It's just so polarizing.
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I mean, some people say, oh, it's a scam.
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It's terrible.
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My parent had it and they never used it, and it was terrible.
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People say, oh, it's such a godsend, it saved our family.
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There's a lot of just differing opinions and, and the overall, I'd say it gets pretty bad press.
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But when you look at the numbers, I mean, you know, to put in $120,000 to then in 30 years from now to have a benefit of over a million dollars of unique care.
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Then to get let's say 144 back as a death benefit, if you don't need it, I mean, you're, you're losing the opportunity cost to invest the money.
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Mm-hmm.
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So that is the downside of it.
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But if you've got assets that you're designating for care the leverage you get you put money into a policy and all of a sudden you just immediately have, you know, could be like four or five times the amount of money you have available for care.
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Like I got a policy where, day one I for putting in a thousand dollars, I'm doing it like a thousand a month for 10 years.
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Day one, my available benefits were over 500,000.
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So God forbid something happened right away, I could have that pool of money available.
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And oftentimes people say, oh, I'm just gonna sell fund.
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I'm gonna do better.
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I'm gonna invest the money.
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I don't know anyone who can take a thousand dollars and make it turn into $500,000 overnight.
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Guaranteed.
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Some people just, they don't believe in insurance and they just think that they can do better investing it.
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But for those that can, I think, and we will link in the show notes how people can get in touch with you.
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The idea is to find someone that you trust and to start the conversation, right, and to see what the options are, and to have someone that listens and cares and wants to really help you understand it.
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I'm curious the message that you really want the listeners to hear.
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if you wanna have options? Should you ever be in the situation of needing care? And if you don't wanna burden your family members.
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With having them have to give up their lives to take care of you.
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Take the time to think about what you'd want, if you ever needed care.
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Let your family know what your wishes are and then find out if insurance is the right thing.
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It might not be, it's not right for everybody, and I'm not, I'll never recommend it to someone if I don't think it's the right thing for them, but at least learn about it.
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My biggest fear is.
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Anyone who I come into contact with, especially my friends, people I care about, I don't ever want them to be like 80 years old saying, boy, I really wish I had known that I could have gotten long-term care insurance.
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If people look at it and it's not for them, that's fine.
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I want people to know that this is something that they need to be thinking about, and they need to have a plan for how they're gonna handle it.
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And there are ways they can do it.
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So it doesn't create a burden on their family.
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You hear so many stories about, siblings not talking to each other because of the fights they had over taking care of the sick parent.
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Speak with your family members.
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Let them know your wishes.
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I wish this wouldn't be such a taboo topic.
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I wish people would be more open about it.
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Don't put off thinking about, it's also, obviously estate planning is incredibly important too.
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The similar kind of a thing.
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I just wish people would talk about this more openly and let their wishes be known and know that there are these great options that exist that they might have never heard of.
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Thank you so much for educating us.
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That's why I wanted to bring you here to get the conversation started to get people in the next chapter community thinking about this.
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We will definitely link in the show notes how people can get in touch with you so they can start the conversation with you and see if this is something that makes sense.
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So thank you so much for being here.
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Thank you, Andrew for having me.
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I really appreciate it love this episode.
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Make sure to subscribe student ever miss what's next.
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If today's conversation resonated, please leave a review@rapistpodcast.com
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slash the next chapter.
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Her It helps more women find their roadmap back to Joy.
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Ready for more support, visit fully informed life.com
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to learn how we can work together.
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Until next time, keep writing your next chapter.
