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When you get older, you face new challenges. Life can get much more challenging once you’re a senior unless you make the right choices in life. One of the most critical choices you’ll face is whether you should pay for a long-term care insurance policy or not.
Here at MRE Finance, we care about your future. We want you to live your golden years to the fullest, in comfort and free of financial worries. To that point, we’d like to help you make an intelligent decision regarding long-term care policies. Are they effective? Do you need one? Are they a good thing to have? Are there any drawbacks? You’ll find all of the answers to these questions and more right here in this article, so let’s dig in!
What is a long-term care policy?
First of all, you’ll need to know more about what a long-term care policy is. In short, a long-term care policy is an insurance policy that can cover the cost of long-term care services.
Long-term care is a term that covers a broad range of services given to senior citizens who cannot physically take care of themselves without assistance. For example, long-term care includes things like nursing home care and home health aides. To receive long-term care, you must be at least 65 years old or have a serious health condition that requires relatively constant care.
Insurance companies offer long-term care policies that cover seniors for care in the home, a nursing home, an assisted living facility, or an adult daycare center. That said, never assume that a long-term care policy will cover those costs. You should always ask and ensure that the policy will help you pay long-term care costs while living in an independent living facility for seniors.
Can you qualify for long-term care insurance?
If you are thinking of buying long-term care insurance, you should determine whether you qualify or not. Insurance companies are risk-averse, which means they don’t like insuring anyone they consider a financial risk to them. As such, if you already have a debilitating condition, you cannot qualify for long-term care insurance. Unfortunately, that leaves millions of seniors without the option of purchasing long-term care insurance. For this reason, most people apply for long-term care insurance in their 50s or 60s. When you are in your 50s and 60s, you are less likely to have any debilitating conditions that could disqualify you. As a general rule, the older you are, the more difficult it is to qualify for long-term care insurance.
What to do when you can’t qualify for LTC insurance and can’t afford long-term care?
Many seniors feel trapped when they can’t qualify for long-term care insurance because they know that they can’t afford to pay for long-term care without it. What many seniors do not know, however, is that they can get the cash they need to pay for long-term care by selling their life insurance policy.
If you have a life insurance policy and you’re 65 years or older, you may be able to sell that policy and receive a significant sum of cash! You can use that cash to pay for the costs of long-term care or anything else. Unfortunately, many seniors don’t know about the benefits of selling their life insurance policies and wind up letting their policies lapse worthless or surrender them for what little cash value it has. Seniors that forgo long-term care because they can’t afford it, live in discomfort and have shorter lifespans resulting from a lack of proper care.
Does long-term care insurance have any cons?
At this point, you might be wondering whether it’s worth purchasing long-term care insurance. While long-term care insurance benefits may seem obvious, are there negatives associated with long-term care insurance?
One of the biggest cons is that your premiums can increase at any time with most long-term care policies. Another disadvantage is elimination periods. The elimination period refers to the amount of time you have to wait for your long-term care policy benefits to begin. After reaching 65, you may have to wait for as long as 90 days before your insurance company releases funding. That means that you will be responsible for paying for long-term care costs like nursing home costs for 90 days before your policy starts paying for it. Seniors that have experienced a rapid decline in their health may not be able to afford to wait 90 days to start paying for long-term care services. You can choose a shorter elimination period, but the premiums will increase significantly.
How selling your life insurance policy with MRE Finance can pay for long-term care services.
Selling your life insurance policy could be a smart way to pay for long-term care services. When you sell your life insurance policy, no one can dictate how you spend the money. Whether you choose to use the money to pay for long-term care services or buy a new home instead, it’s up to you.
MRE Finance employs a team of professional experts that can help you sell your policy. Now that you have discovered the advantages that a life settlement offers, it’s time to find a buyer for your policy. Luckily, you don’t have to do it alone; MRE Finance has a team of experts that can help you find a suitable offer for your life insurance policy.
Want to find out what your policy could be worth? Try our Free Life Settlement Calculator and receive an estimated value of your policy in minutes. If you prefer to speak with someone, give us a call at 1-800-521-0770.
