Do I Need Long-Term Care Insurance?

The question of whether you need long-term care insurance really depends on the resources you have available to you. If you have saved well over time and have considerable investments built up, this may provide enough income to pay for nursing home care. Additionally, some couples have two pensions that, in conjunction with Social Security, may provide enough resources to make it reasonable to forego long-term care insurance.

However, most people would benefit from long-term care insurance and should strongly consider it as a part of their financial plan. A good time to be thinking about this type of insurance is sometime around the age of sixty. At that age, the cost of a basic policy for a single person is often around $1,500, but this depends on your health and the type of coverage you purchase. For instance, the length of the benefit period will affect the price of the policy as well as the dollar amount of coverage per day. Inflation protection is also a key component of the policy's pricing.

While pricing and coverage can vary considerably, the protection offered by long-term care insurance is a safeguard many people should consider. It helps protect your assets and can enable a larger portion of them to be passed on to your heirs rather than spent on medical expenses. While not right for everyone, long-term care insurance is a tool that should absolutely be considered in the financial planning process.