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Chances Are...
You might think I’m talking about the old Johnny Mathis hit from 1957. Or the 1989 movie starring Cybill Shepherd, Robert Downey Jr., and Ryan O’Neal.
But the chances I’m talking about are your clients’ hard-hitting personal chances:
- Chance their house will be destroyed by fire: 1 in 16,000
- Chance their car will be totaled in a wreck: 1 in 100
- Chance they’ll meet their annual healthcare deductible: 1 in 25
Those are all things we insure without thinking (and, in most cases, because we have no choice). And I don’t know anyone who thinks “I’d better go out and total my car or my auto insurance premiums didn’t get me anything!”
But what do you think the chances are your clients will need long term care?
- 1 in 3 for women.
- 1 in 2 for men.
Staggering? I thought so, and I live and breathe LTCi all week, every week.
Those numbers are from Journal of the American Society of CLU & ChFC. But I like to say: Your chances of needing LTCi are either 0% (you won’t) or 100% (you will). While averages can be helpful planning tools, it’s important for your clients to keep in mind their personal risk or situation.
Consider this:
- The U.S. government and The Wall Street Journal reported recently that as many as 60% of Americans will require some long term care because we’re living longer, which makes needing long term care more likely
- Single people living at home require the most at-home assistance
- Women live 4 years longer than men and account for two-thirds of all LTCi benefits paid
- By 2020, it is expected that 12 million Americans will need long term care. Are your clients among them? (Genworth 2014 Cost of Care Fact Sheet) By 2050, 27 million people. (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services)
- Can they afford to self-insure? The US median income is $52,477, with home health aide cost at $45,188 (Genworth 2014 Cost of Care Survey)
- The cost of three years of care (the average stay in a nursing home) 30 years from now is estimated at $700,000 (American Association of Long Term Care Insurance)
- Women outnumber men 3:1 in nursing homes in the United States, mostly because they are living longer and are less likely to live alone (ABC News)
- 5.3 million Americans have Alzheimer’s disease (500,000 of them are under 65) (Alzheimer’s Association)
- 11% men, 16% women: estimated percentage of Americans aged 71+ with dementia (Alzheimer’s Association)
If your clients don’t like taking chances and would like help with long term care insurance options, please give me a call at 877-254-4429 or email me.
- Jill MacNeil, LTCi Specialist
Copyright © 2014 Low Load Insurance Services, Inc. Contents may not be copied, reproduced or redistributed without prior written permission of
Low Load Insurance Services or its affiliates.
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