LTC Insurance and an Effective Elder Care Plan

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Long-term care (LTC) insurance is becoming more and more vital to getting quality long-term care for ourselves and our loved ones when it is needed most.

An LTC insurance policy should be discussed as part of an overall Elder Care plan to provide full and complete long-term care for you and/or your loved ones.

We should be concerned about our long-term care options. We deserve and are entitled to the best care we can get along with the ability to pay for such care. LTC insurance is designed to provide the financing to pay for home care services and long-term living arrangements, such as assisted living facilities or skilled nursing facilities. Additionally, by ensuring that we will get the care that we need, and have it paid for by the LTC insurance company under the terms of the LTC insurance policy, we will make sure that our loved ones act as our caregivers by choice not by obligation.

Take a few moments to discuss your long-term care options with your Elder Care attorney. Ultimately, your Elder Care plan may or may not include LTC insurance. But, you will be better off for asking the right questions of the right professionals, than not fully understanding your rights and options when it comes to your own long-term care.

The firm’s Elder Care Department works with its clients in connection with their long-term healthcare decisions, disability protections, and need for advanced medical directives. We also represent individuals and assist them in obtaining Medicare and Medicaid benefits to pay for long-term home care and nursing home care.

If you would like to learn more about long-term care planning, and how the Law Offices of Jeffrey A. Asher, PLLC, can help you, please contact us at (877) 207-6803 or info@asherlawfirm.com.

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Role of Life Insurance in Estate Planning

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Question: What role does life insurance play in estate planning?

Answer: Life insurance can play a tremendous role in estate planning. For example, life insurance can provide liquidity to pay off the mortgage after the death of one of the spouses. Sometimes called “mortgage insurance”, life insurance can help ensure that the surviving spouse won’t have to deal with the mortgage, or other expenses, following the death of a spouse.

When a family has young, school-age children, life insurance can help the working spouse pay for help with the children and the house in the event the stay-at-home spouse dies. In reality, the working spouse would not be able to quit his/her job and take care of the family at the death of the stay-at-home spouse. In that instance, life insurance can help pay for a caregiver, nanny, or other help, for the children and the house, allowing the working spouse to keep his/her job.

Life insurance can also provide liquidity to pay estate taxes for an estate that is cash poor. For example: an estate is comprised of valuable real estate, a business, other tangible personal property, but very little in bank accounts, etc. If there is an estate tax to pay, the family might have to sell the real estate or the business or some of the tangible personal property. But, if there is a life insurance policy, the family could use that money to pay the estate taxes.

Life insurance can also ensure that children and grandchildren have money set aside for school, weddings, the purchase of a first home, or other big expenses. As an investment for future generations, life insurance can provide a very large return on investment, when you accept the fact that someone else is going to be the beneficiary of that return.

In sum, life insurance can play an important role in estate planning. But, that means you must plan for your life insurance. You may not have known it until now, but the value of life insurance may be included in your taxable estate, thus included in the calculation of estate taxes. This means that buying life insurance to pay for eventual estate taxes may, in fact, increase those estate taxes. However, if you create a proper “life insurance trust” and own your life insurance within the “life insurance trust”, your life insurance will not be included in your taxable estate. Thus, potentially saving thousands of dollars in estate taxes. That is why it is important to discuss your estate planning, and your life insurance planning, with a qualified estate planning attorney.

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