Long-term Care Packages

TEIGIT,Morgan Stanley Smith BArney

TEIGIT has partnered with Morgan Stanley Smith Barney to provide John Hancock Long-Term Care Insurance (LTCI) to our members.  Morgan Stanley is one of thelargest life insurance and long-term care insurance company in North America and has consistently ranked as one of the highest-rated insurance companies for financial strength and stability.  Our Morgan Stanley contact is Eve Ellis, a Certified Financial Planner, who can advise you on your long-term care needs.

What is Long-Term Care Insurance?

Long-term care insurance is an insurance product that helps provide for the cost of long-term care (LTC), picking up where health and disability insurance leaves off.  LTC is not one service, but many different services aimed at providing people with the help they need when a prolonged illness, disability or cognitive condition (such as Alzheimer’s disease) keeps them from being able to care for themselves.  It can range from help with day-to-day activities in the home (custodial care such as dressing, preparing meals, bathing, etc) to more sophisticated services such as skilled nursing care in your home or a nursing facility. 

Some Facts to Consider

• Illnesses and injuries can happen at ANY age.  Many people do not realize that the need for long-term care can strike at any time.  Statistics show that 40% of people receiving long-term care services are working adults, between the ages of 18 and 64. 
• Seventy Percent of people older than 65 will need long-term care services.  43% of Individuals age 65 will enter a nursing home sometime in their lifetime, with 50% staying an average of 2.5 years.
• LTC is very expensive, 50% of all couples and 70% of single persons are impoverished within one year of entering a nursing home.  The national average cost of a semi-private room in a nursing home is now $70,000 annually.  By the year 2030, the average cost of nursing home care is expected to exceed $190,000 per year. 
• Do not expect much help from Healthcare plans or the government.  Healthcare plans and Medicare combined pay only about 3% of the costs of long-term care.  Medicaid would not kick in until virtually all of your and your spouse’s assets have been consumed. 

Some things to look for in Long-term Care Insurance

• Look for financial strength and reliability in the company behind the insurance.
• Seek out a policy with flexibility in applying benefits (sometimes called “alternate plan of care”).  For example, you might want a choice from among a nursing home, assisted living, an adult care center, or care at home.  
• Price of the Insurance.  Price of the long-term care insurance varies by your current age, the amount of coverage you want, and the carrier.
• Inflation adjustment options which increase the dollar value of your benefit by 5% each policy year to keep pace with estimated inflation in the cost of long-term care.

Please click here to have Eve Ellis, our Certified Financial Planner, contact you.