What To Know About Whole Life Insurance
Estate planning often begins with wishful thinking. You look at the websites of financial planners who advise seniors on their finances, and you daydream about all the knee replacement-friendly hiking trips you can take and all the affordable 55+ communities where you might buy a modestly sized house. Once you get to the stage of meeting with an estate planning lawyer, though, the focus of the conversation shifts to how much you can get with the resources that you have. Paying for long-term care is a main concern; even if you still feel young and healthy, you do not know when you will need long-term care or how much it will cost. The option of entering a nursing home as a Medicaid beneficiary is available to everyone who has no other options for long-term care, but it is a worst-case scenario. Some people plan to sell their houses, when the time comes, and to use the proceeds to pay for long-term care. If you want to keep your house in the family, though, or let your estate sell it so that your descendants can inherit the proceeds, the best way to pay for long-term care is through insurance. To find out more about whole life insurance and other types of insurance policies that pay for long-term care, contact a Washington, D.C. estate planning lawyer.
Whole Life Insurance Is an Estate Plan in Miniature
Long-term care insurance policies pay for residency in a nursing home or assisted living facility, and some of them also pay for home health aide services. As for whether they are worth the cost of premiums, you will break even if you pay premiums for 20 years and spend one year in a nursing home. The only way that your long-term care insurance premiums can go to waste is if you die suddenly, without ever needing long-term care.
Therefore, some seniors choose whole life insurance instead. Like long-term care insurance, whole life insurance covers residential care in nursing homes and assisted living facilities. Unlike long-term care insurance, it also pays death benefits upon the death of the policyholder. The thing that makes whole life insurance unique is that, each month, it deposits a portion of your premium into an interest-bearing savings account. You can withdraw some of the money, whenever you choose, as you might do with a reverse mortgage.
Is Whole Life Insurance Affordable?
Whole life insurance is the most comprehensive insurance option, but it is not the cheapest one. The premiums start at around $200 per month, and that is if you are in your early 50s with no health conditions that put you at risk of premature death or need for long-term care. Hybrid life insurance is less expensive. It pays for up to five years of long-term care, and if the policyholder does not use all of its long-term care benefits, it pays a death benefit to the policyholder’s heirs.
Contact Tobin O’Connor Concino P.C. About Whole Life Insurance
A Washington, D.C. estate planning attorney can help you choose an insurance policy to pay for long-term care. Contact Tobin O’Connor Concino P.C. in Washington, D.C. or call 202-362-5900.
Source:
cbsnews.com/news/should-seniors-buy-whole-life-insurance/
