Let me begin Part Two of
the three ways to handle Long Term Care expenses by saying the obvious. That is, one does not require Insurance. You can certainly pay for assisted living
alternatives out of your own pocket.
However, keep in mind two salient facts.
The first being the average cost of assisted living facilities in New
York State runs on average $92,000 a year.
In addition, the average stay in such facilities is 2 and ½ years. Even if you had these assets, you’re making,
to varying degrees, a dent in the legacy you leave your family and even
possible charities. We will be
discussing charitable contributions in a later segment.
The second way to address
handling Long Term Care expenses would be to purchase a Life Insurance policy
that has an amendment to it. This
amendment reads that if you have to enter an assisted living home, you can
access part of the Life Insurance amount to cover related expenses.
The idea behind this
approach is that while you may never need assisted living help, you at some
point will pass on. Consequently, your
money creates an estate so that there will always be monies left to leave a legacy
from your business.
The disadvantage in such a
plan is that usually there is more expense to this approach because the benefit
to cover such expenses runs somewhat higher than a traditional Long Term Care
policy.