When most people hear the word long-term care, where does their mind go?
They think about someone that they know and love in “the nursing home”.
I’ve done this long enough to tell you that is the response that you get from more than half of ordinary Americans when asked what they think of. Try it for a week – you will get similar results.
Speaking of survey results, last week, I shared some information from the OneAmerica Financial Consumer Survey. The long and the short of it is that long-term care planning is on people’s minds, but they still need some serious education.
In fact, the first thing that we need to do is help them understand what long-term care really is. Fortunately, inside of the Step by Step Guide to Receiving Long Term Care there is an overview. In addition to that, there is also the consumer-focused LTC Planning Webpage from OneAmerica Financial where information and tools are located.
Back to understanding long-term care … LTC is defined as support and services that help meet a person’s health and personal care needs when they can no longer perform everyday activities on their own.
Remember, those services can be received in a formal setting or AT HOME (where most people prefer). It is the most important point that we have to emphasize – the whole purpose for having a long term care plan (specifically a funded plan) is to allow people to remain at home as long as their health will allow them to.
That is why every advisor needs to advocate for … planning.
I’ve said this before and will again – if you hold yourself out as a holistic advisor, long-term care planning is an essential parr of the planning discussion. If you are not comfortable leading that conversation, do one of two things. Either educate yourself or align yourself with an LTC specialist.
In either case, it is important that the 70 plus percent of Americans who are concerned about long-term care planning get the attention that they need.
Here are a few resources from OneAmerica Financial that you might find to be useful:
Step by Step Guide to Receiving Long Term Care (consumer approved)
Care Planning Worksheet (consumer approved)
Document Worksheet (consumer approved)
Remember, a policy is a way to fund a long-term care plan and OneAmerica Financial offers the broadest and deepest portfolio of solutions. From short duration to unlimited benefits, OneAmerica Financial’s Care Solutions are the only products that can be customized to meet the unique funding and benefits needs of each person.
As always, if you want more information or assistance with Care Solutions, contact Justin Fox at (844) 658-3725 or justinfox.isp@oneamerica.com, or Nick Angelov at (844) 623-4251 or nick.angelov.isp@oneamerica.com, or myself at (678) 512-9627 or kevin.fisher@oneamerica.com
Fridays with Fisher 