Long Term Care Insurance - How Necessary Is It?

Q. The question I have is about Nursing Home Insurance. My husband and I are in our mid-sixties and are both in good health. He is still working full time because he enjoys his work. We are being bombarded by people trying to sell us Nursing Home Insurance. They all want to come out and talk to us, etc.

We are financially secure and plan to be for a long time. Should we start buying this now? Thanks. Hope you do come out with a book. I would buy it for all of my children who are grown and married.


A. I have a couple of articles about long term care insurance on my website that you will find helpful. Look under the insurance section at www.guardingyourwealth.com.

That being said, there are two ways to view long term care insurance.

If you have several hundred thousands of dollars in investable assets then you will be able to pay for home health, assisted living and nursing home care yourself. In this situation, I view long term care insurance as inheritance protection insurance. For a fixed expense you are able to insure that your estate will not be decimated and can pass to your heirs. If this isn't important to you and you are comfortable spending down your assets if needed, then you don't need long term care insurance.

Those with few assets don't need long term care insurance and probably can't afford it anyway. People in this situation will end up relying on the government to provide care.

It's those in the middle that are most at risk. You have enough in assets to live comfortably, but not enough to cover a couple hundred thousand dollars in long term care expenses without affecting the other spouse's standard of living. For people in this situation, long term care insurance provides the peace of mind that the help will be there when needed and that the other spouse won't be impoverished.

Your posted comments on this and other questions are welcome.
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