By: Bob Land, LUTCF, CLTC, Landmark Financial Services, LLC
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You might say that women get the short end of the stick when it comes to long-term care. They get hit the hardest on both the giving and receiving ends. Women are the predominate caregivers in our society. More than 7 in 10 unpaid caregivers are women. They are also much more likely to need long-term care, especially institutional care. About 80% of nursing home residents are women.
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Why is this? For married couples, often women are younger than their husbands. And the wives (arguably) take better care of themselves. Thus, typically the husband is the first to need long-term care. But the husband gets wonderful care, delivered by a loving person who knows him well and in the “ultimate private room,” his home! When the wife simply cannot handle things at home, she gets help. This might be just supplemental home care help or it might involve more expense, such as a nursing home. Either way, it can be quite expensive, depleting assets. In North Carolina, nursing home care costs over $75,000 per year. In some states, the cost is over $100,000.
But care-giving often takes a hard toll on the wife. When compared to people who have NOT been care-givers, care-givers have more need for acute medical attention and are more likely to eventually need long-term care themselves. They also have been reported to have higher mortality rates.
Generally, the husband dies first. The widow is alone and when she needs care, unless a family member steps in, she is likely to enter a nursing home or assisted living facility. Women outlive males by an average of 7 years, and needing care is a nearly inevitable consequence of living a long life. Because widows lack the informal care-giving support that their husbands had, they need commercial care sooner than their husbands and because they live longer, they need the care longer.
Women need to educate themselves about long-term care options and be aware of the risks of being unprepared – for their husband’s potential need and for their own. By planning ahead, women can achieve peace of mind and ensure a more favorable quality of life and also make things easier for the rest of the family. Ideally, the best time to plan is in your 40’s and 50’s while the insurance options are very affordable and you are healthy enough to qualify.
Men who really love their wives… buy them long-term care insurance!
While it might strike you as amusing for a man to buy his wife (and himself) a long-term care (LTC) policy for her birthday or Valentine’s Day, a more meaningful gift would be hard to find. She would have a wonderful resource to help her take better care of him when he gets sick. After the husband’s death, it would also enable her to preserve her lifestyle and get the best care – all while preserving hard-earned savings. Some men think they will leave enough assets to their spouse, thinking that if their wives need care, there will be money there so she can buy what she needs. The problem often is that as people age, and particularly once they become widowed, two things happen. Either they become afraid they will outlive their assets, as irrational as that may be, or they start thinking of those assets as the kids’ inheritance and they don’t want to touch it. So widows and widowers who have the means to pay for top quality LTC are often reluctant to do so. So LTC insurance has tremendous value as the spouse and/or kids would have no hesitation in using the insurance company’s dollars allocated for them.
Thus, planning for long-term care is an absolutely critical component of a sound retirement plan, but especially so for women.
Long Term Care – Definitely a Women’s Issue!
This article was prepared by Bob Land, Pat Attix and Dona Agar. Bob Land, LUTCF, CLTC is President of Landmark Financial Services, LLC, a 21 year-old independent insurance and investment firm. Pat Attix is the Executive Assistant; Dona Agar is the Client Relationship Manager. We can be reached at the Landmark Financial Services, LLC office at (252) 451-0381 locally or toll-free at (877) 228-5971, or by e-mail at bobland@lmfs.org. We assist successful business owners, executives and retirees to plan and experience lives of significance. Please visit our website www.lmfs.org for more information on Long-Term Care planning and our additional services.