Real Sage Advice

Long-Term Care: Invest in an Independent Old Age

Long-Term Care: Invest in an Independent Old Age

As a relative newcomer in the world of insurance products, long-term care policies are still suspicious for some potential customers who worry that the coverage is just another way to get at their precious retirement funds. If well-researched and carefully purchased however, such policies have the advantage of:

• protecting assets and guarding against debt in later life as care expenses mount.
• freeing up more funds to support quality of life in retirement.
• ensuring that long-term care is handled according to the individual's wishes and at the level of quality they desire.
• saving loved ones from having to make difficult decisions or committing themselves to the life of a full-time caregiver.

Prospective long-term care policy customers should thoroughly research all their options before committing to a policy. Some special points to consider include:

Shared Care

- Married couples should investigate policies with options that allow them to split the benefits. Before looking for

insurance quotes

, things to investigate include riders that lower the premium in the event of the death of one spouse and piggyback provisions that allow one spouse to access the other's unused dollars for a given year.

Inflation Protection

- The ideal situation is one in which premiums remain the same, but benefits increase annually. Some policies give holders the option to purchase stepped-up care each year rather than such an increase taking effect automatically. (Beware scenarios where benefits freeze if such increases are not purchased.)

Medical Determination

- The decision to activate long-term care is fraught with emotions and often complicated in familial terms. Choose a policy that allows the holder's personal physician to say when the need exists for the care benefits to be activated in order to minimize the emotional downside of such a transition.

Remaining At Home

- More and more seniors are opting to age in their own home with assistance. Be sure your policy allows for in-home care for such things as physical modifications to the structure, the purchase of assistance devices, and the hiring of health care staff. (Also make sure that if the transition to a care facility is required your benefits will continue at an acceptable level or that there is room for re-negotiation at that time.)

Life Insurance with Long-Term Care Option

- An increasingly popular product are life insurance policies that allow the holder to convert the accrued value for use to finance long-term care. These hybrid policies offer the security of the long-term care option while providing a benefit for heirs if such care is not required.

Far from being a gimmick or a scheme, long-term care policies can give aging individuals life-long control over their own destiny rather than forcing them to accept decisions made for them by loved ones or medical personnel. People don't think anything at all about insuring their cars or homes. So why not manage the most important risk factor of all, independent old age?

9 Trends for Senior Housing in 2009

A quick tour of recent headlines around the Internet show a trend with seniors and senior housing:

Seniors can't sell their homes  Denver News

Builders Lament Senior Housing Interest-Reverse Mortgage Guide

Senior Equity Falls, Millions Remain-Reverse Mortgage Guide

More families Move In Together During Housing Crisis-USA Today

Sunrise Assisted Living Suggests Financial Options for Senior Care - Senior Housing News

This tour I took of the headlines today made me dust off my crystal ball. I don't proclaim to be an expert, just a real estate agent who works with seniors, understands senior housing, and is willing to take a few guesses at upcoming trends for the year:

1. Prices for senior housing will follow the trends of the rest of the real estate market.Rising vacancy rates will lower rents, and senior condominium and cooperatives will experience downward pressure of purchase price.

2. There will be more and more small businesses springing up around the Twin Cities offering services to seniors.After all, people are losing their jobs, and with the coming age wave, there's a perception that this is the field to be in if you want to make money. Caveat Emptor!

3. I just recently started offering The Senior Relocation Program to seniors which includes a guaranteed sale of their home. If I can't sell it, my partner will buy it. The Minneapolis Star and Tribune even wrote about it. I suspect I'm going to hear from a lot of seniors who want to move, but can't figure out how to sell their homes. It will still be a good year for business for those of us that identify the need and offer the service to fill it.

4. There is going to be a slowing of building new senior housing developments. For the sake of existing senior housing in the metro area I hope I'm right about this one.

5. There will be a conversion of how existing senior housing communities use their space.We'll see some of the independent senior housing communities transform their space into community rooms, exercise facilities open to the public, and even memory care and assisted living care communities. You just can't have that much empty space when you have a mortgage to pay.

6. Unfortunately, we're going to see an increase in the number of moves for seniors that are crisis driven. I'll be hearing from more adult children who leave a family meeting with a transitional care unit social worker where they hear "Your mom shouldn't go home. By the way, we're discharging her tomorrow."

7. There will be an increase in Reverse Mortgage utilization. As our seniors learn more about options and choose to stay home, they'll utilize the equity in their home to pay for services to age in place.

8. Families are going to come up with creative housing and caring for aging solutions. I really do believe this current economic downturn and housing price correction is going to foster the opportunity for new solutions for seniors. Families will figure out new solutions today that we haven't previously thought of. We'll see more mother in law apartments, more families living together, perhaps even neighborhood associations developing solutions to help neighborhood seniors. The solutions that start to sprout up over the next couple of years will be driven by grass root efforts, and will be perfected by the baby boomers. I do not believe baby boomers will occupy all of these age segregated housing communities as they are today. This is the housing development industry's opportunity to "right-size."

9. The newspaper and media will continue to highlight the gloom and doom of our current predicament. You'll continue to hear how lousy the real estate market is, how seniors can't move even though they want to, and how miserable the human race has become.  

Attitude really is everything. Will you be empowered to figure out how to solve the challenges that face you...or will you believe the gloom and doom of the headlines and believe your powerless?

First step-stop watching the news.

Hiring Services for Aging Parents

In Minnesota there are a plethora of services for aging parents. You'll find an abundance of senior housing, at-home care companies, geriatric care managers, move managers, senior real estate specialists, day services, non-medical care companies, financial planners, reverse mortgage officers, and other small companies that want to manage the services of the  forementioned small companies.

PHEW! No wonder we have the highest rate of volunteer caregivers in the nation. It's easier to just provide the services yourself than navigate the maze of senior services.

Photo by cursed thing

Seriously, the tip for the day is this: understand your needs and write them out on a piece of paper. It's similar to identifying the business need for a new piece of software, or your wish list for Christmas. It should look something like this:

My mom needs to move. To make that happen here are the things we need:

1) We need a REALTOR who specializes in working with seniors. Mom is starting to have memory issues, so we'd like someone particularly patient.

2) Mom will need a handyman to make repairs to the house to get it ready for the market.

3) We need to find a mover who can help us figure out what to do with all the stuff.

4) We need an estate sale company.

Then, when you make the first contact with someone in the senior industry, whether it's a real estate agent, or someone in senior housing, or a geriatric care manager, hand over the list and ask for refrrals. Think of the time this will save you in tracking down the resources you need!

Minnesota Caregivers

Minnesota has the largest percentage of informal cargivers in the nation. As much as a 1% decline in our number of volunteer cargivers would cost our health system millions of dollars.

All of our state programs had to take a cut this year. None of us want to see "our programs" take a hit. I, of course, was very concerned about Minnesota seniors when the new budget was revealed. Governer Pawlenty actually spared Minnesota seniors from a disproportionate number of financial cuts, which I was relieved to see.

A survey conducted by AgingCare found that although adult children are often responsible for paying for their aging parent's care, the large majority of caregivers are vastly unprepared.

The survey found:

63% of caregivers have no plan as to how they will pay for their parent's care over the next five years.

62% say the cost of caring for a parent has impacted their ability to plan for their own financial future.

As a Senior Real Estate Specialist I meet with a lot of adult children who have been the primary caretaker for aging parents, often in their parent's home. I see how tired and concerned you are.

Please, go call a Geriatric Care Manager.  Aging Care's survey does not detail which state the survey respondents were from. We are SO lucky to have the resources we have in Minnesota--despite all of the budget cuts. You do not have to be as tired or as responsible.