HOW DO YOU WANT TO BE CARED FOR?

Do you have anyone in your family who has been affected by Alzheimer's, Dementia, a stroke or who has suffered an accident that has left them in a position to have to receive 24 hour care? If so, do you know how they paid for it? In a lot of cases, these individuals or their family members had to pay for that care out of pocket. And because those resources are often very limited, they end up having to move in with other family members like their children or siblings and those family members become the care givers by helping with everything from feeding and dressing to bathing and toileting. Now I don't know about you, but I'd rather not put my spouse or child in a position to have to care for me in that way. The cost for this care can be as high as $200 day. That's around $6000 a month and over $70,000 a year. WOW! Even as I type this, those numbers hit pretty hard. There are not too many people I know that can foot that bill for even one year much less long term. So, without having those resources, how do you know that you will be properly cared for? You might feel like you are ok because you have your retirement account that has been building up for years or you have long term disability with the company you work for. Just remember that your retirement account is there to replace your income when you retire and your disability is there to replace a portion of your income should you not be able to work. But long term care is an additional cost on top of your other living expenses. A viable option to look at is to transfer that risk.

If your house burned down today, how would you replace it? If you wrecked your car, how would you pay to repair or replace it? Most likely, you have transferred that risk to an insurance company that would pay to replace your house or car. The same holds true for long term care. You can acquire insurance to cover the cost of your long term care. Now, just like auto insurance or homeowners insurance, you may never have the need arise. You may never have an auto accident and so you never file a claim or you may live in your house for 30 years and never file a claim. You may die without ever needing any long term care. But, are you willing to take that risk with your care?

If you feel like there is even just a 1% chance that you will require long term care at some point in your life, then it begs the question, how do you want to be cared for? Do you want to rely on family members to pay for or provide that care or do you want to plan so that you can get the care you need without being a burden on your family?

Make time today to talk with a professional who can help you determine the proper amount of coverage you would need that works with your budget. You may feel like it would cost too much to get all of the coverage you would need, but even if you get what you can afford now and add to it later, you are in better shape than without any at all.

Buddy Hicks is a Financial Advisor with Wealth Management Group LLC an affiliate firm of Securian Financial Services and has over 18 years of experience in the financial services business. He is Life and Health Insurance licensed and FINRA registered with his Series 7 and Series 66 which allows him to be an Investment Advisor and Registered Representative of and offer securities and investment advisory services through Securian Financial Services Inc, member FINRA / SIPC. He is an Alumnus of Troy University with a Bachelor's Degree in Business/Finance. He takes a process approach with all of his clients to help determine their goals and then works with them to put a strategy in place to help reach those goals. An area of importance of Buddy's is his ability to intuitively listen to his clients so that he can fully understand their current situation and what their future needs are.

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