Use Your Life Insurance to Pay for Senior Care

The costs of long term care are increasing every year, but most families do not understand what they will be confronting when it is their time to start paying for care.  Too many people wait until they are in the midst of a crisis situation before they start trying to figure out how the world of long term care works.  Long term care is a very expensive proposition.  Families can go broke trying to provide for a loved one.

New approaches to fund long term care must be encouraged, and converting life insurance policies into a Long Term Care Benefit Plan is an option that has grown into a mainstream and accepted financial solution.

A life insurance policy can be used to pay for Long Term Care.  How?  Instead of allowing a policy to lapse or be surrendered; the owner of the policy can convert the policy into a Long Term Care Benefit Plan. This option extends the time a person would remain private pay and delays their entry onto Medicaid.  This option is also a qualified spend down to bridge the time while waiting for Aid and Attendance approval or the monthly benefits from both can be combined.

For many seniors, they either cannot afford to pay the premiums, or they plan to lapse or surrender their policies to qualify for Medicaid. What they don’t realize is that they have the legal right to convert their policies into a Long Term Care Benefit Plan and are able to immediately direct payments to cover their senior housing and long term care costs. Converting a policy allows the senior to remain private pay – meaning they are not reliant on public assistance and can choose the form of long-term care that they want: Homecare, Assisted Living and Skilled Nursing, Hospice or Memory Care. 

The Long Term Care Benefit Plan is an accepted form of payment with any provider of Senior Care in the United States.  This funding option has been covered in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Fox Business News, and on radio programs across the country.  Because it is a consumer protection and saves tax payers’ money, it has been endorsed by numerous consumer and advocacy groups as well as political leaders across the country.

At a time when seniors and their families are struggling with how to afford the high costs of senior care, and state budgets are looking for ways to save money, converting a life insurance policy to pay for long term care instead of abandoning it for nothing in return makes much more sense.