The Best Time to Purchase Long-Term Care Insurance

The time to start thinking about long-term care insurance isn’t when you’re ill and in need of either home health care or a nursing home. By then, it will be too late. Unfortunately, many people in situations very similar to yours overlook the importance of long-term care insurance, assuming it’s something they won’t need for many years to come or even need at all.

Why Do You Need Long-Term Care Insurance?

The truth of the matter is that all adults over the age of 40 can benefit from having a long-term care insurance policy. Specifically, such coverage can help to pay for in-home care, nursing home assistance, adult day care and many other common health care needs for those with illnesses or disabilities.

Should you put off buying a long-term care policy and don’t have coverage when the time comes that you need to move into an assisted living facility, you could end up paying more than $50,000 per year out-of-pocket. Why not have the peace of mind in knowing you’re protected by purchasing a long-term care policy ahead of time?

When Should You Buy (And Why)?

One of the most common reasons people put off buying long-term care insurance is that they simply don’t know when to buy. 40 may seem too young, and who wants to be paying for a policy that they have no intentions of using anytime soon? Furthermore, since the cost to purchase a long-term care policy fluctuates with age, many people find themselves wondering at what age they’ll be able to get the best deal.

Generally, the best age at which to buy a policy is age 50, that’s because 50-year-olds tend to have among the lowest annual rates for long-term care insurance, with the average cost being less than $1,000 per year. From there, the price steadily increases each year. For example, a long-term care insurance policy at the age of 79 could cost more than $6,000 per year. As such, it makes the most financial sense for most people to buy at age 50.

Considerations for Buying

Of course, age isn’t the only factor that should be taken into consideration when determining when to buy a long-term care insurance policy. Another important thing to think about is inflation. If you buy a $150,000 policy right now, you’ll need to factor for inflation and calculate that your policy won’t be worth nearly that amount by the time you actually need to use it.

Other factors to consider for long-term care insurance include:

• your health and life expectancy
• your gender
• your family situation (will children help take care of you?)
• your total income and assets

As you can see, there’s a lot to think about when it comes to shopping for a long-term care insurance policy, and while it may seem like something you don’t need to worry about for many decades to come, the truth is that by addressing the problem now, you may be able to save yourself a large amount of money and frustration later on.

Visit our Long-Term Care page to request a free quote today.