Why This May Be the Year to Put Together a Long Term Care Plan
I grew up with my grandparents in our home.
I remember my mom taking care of them. Cooking for them. Driving them everywhere. Managing appointments, errands, meals, and all the little things that come with caring for aging parents.
And yes, I remember her griping sometimes while she did it.
As a kid, I did not fully understand why.
As an adult, and now a mom myself, I do.
Caregiving is an act of love. It can also require an enormous amount of time, energy, and money. When there is no plan, many of those responsibilities can quietly fall on the people we love.
That is why I often tell my clients:
We do not only plan for ourselves. We plan for the people who love us and the people who may one day have to care for us.
For me, this became especially personal during the early part of the pandemic. My husband and I purchased long term care insurance, and I remember telling him:
“I am buying long term care insurance as a gift for our kids.”
That does not mean long term care insurance is right for everyone. It is one possible tool.
The bigger goal is to have a plan.
And perhaps this is the year to start yours.
First, Decide What You Want
Before talking about insurance, start with your life.
What does retirement look like to you?
Would you like to remain in your home as long as possible?
Would you consider moving closer to your children?
Could you see yourself in a retirement community?
If you eventually need help with meals, transportation, bathing, medications, or other daily activities, where would you prefer to receive that help?
Talk about this with your spouse, partner, children, or the people closest to you.
Do it while the conversation is still hypothetical.
Map Out the Money
Next, understand what retirement may look like financially.
Consider mapping expected income from Social Security, pensions, retirement accounts, investments, and other resources against your anticipated expenses.
Then add some possible care scenarios.
What might your finances look like if you needed help at home?
What if one spouse needed assisted living while the other remained at home?
Which assets could potentially be used for care?
Which assets would you prefer to preserve for other needs?
This is a useful conversation to have with your financial advisor.
You are not trying to predict exactly what will happen. You are trying to understand what your resources may reasonably support.
Understand What Medicare Does Not Cover
This is an important distinction.
Medicare says it does not pay for most long term care, sometimes called custodial care or long term services and supports. That can include help with everyday activities such as bathing, dressing, transportation, meals, and other assistance. Medicare distinguishes this from qualifying short term skilled care. (Medicare)
Medicaid may provide long term services and supports for people who meet applicable eligibility requirements.
Understanding this before you need care can help you think more clearly about how you might fund it.
How to Pay for Long Term Care: Options to Consider
There is no single answer for every family.
Some people may choose to fund long-term care primarily from their own income and assets.
Others may consider traditional long-term care insurance.
Certain life insurance and annuity products may also include long-term care features or benefits.
Each approach comes with different costs, benefits, limitations, eligibility requirements, and tradeoffs.
Instead of simply asking your financial advisor, “Should I buy long-term care insurance?” consider asking:
“If one of us needs long-term care, what could that mean for our retirement plan?”
Then you can discuss how much of that potential cost you may be comfortable funding yourself and whether transferring some of the risk through insurance makes sense for your circumstances.
Preview Retirement Communities Before You Need One
You do not have to be ready to move.
Go look.
Visit a few independent living, assisted living, and continuing care communities.
Ask about current costs. Entrance fees. Monthly fees. What is included. How costs may change as care needs increase.
Ask what happens if one spouse needs more care than the other.
Then look beyond the numbers.
What do people do during the day?
What is dinner like?
How do residents get to appointments?
Can you easily see family and friends?
Could you picture yourself living there?
It is easier to evaluate these things when you are curious rather than making a decision during a crisis.
Research the Community Around You
This is one area of long term care planning that I think deserves much more attention.
How will you continue living your everyday life?
My mom is a great example.
Today, she is a big fan of GoGoGrandparent*. She can use it to arrange rides around her community without needing to navigate a rideshare app herself.
The service can arrange rides through providers such as Uber and Lyft by phone, and it can also coordinate groceries, meals, prescriptions, and certain home services. It charges the underlying provider cost plus its own service fees, so families should review current pricing and availability. (gogograndparent.com)
I love that my mom has found something that works for her.
Because transportation can become a surprisingly important part of independence.
If you eventually stop driving, how will you get to your doctor?
The grocery store?
Lunch with a friend?
Your exercise class?
Your grandchild's birthday?
Research what already exists where you live.
Look for senior transportation, community shuttles, public transit, volunteer driver programs, grocery and prescription delivery, meal programs, senior centers, adult day programs, home maintenance assistance, and social activities.
Some resources may be free or subsidized. Others will have fees and eligibility requirements.
The point is to know your options before you depend on them.
*The third-party provider listed above is not affiliated with or endorsed by LPL Financial. Clients are not obligated to choose any service provider referenced.
Make a Plan to Be Near Your People
There is another part of long term care planning that cannot be found on a balance sheet.
People.
Think carefully about where you plan to live as you age.
Where are your children?
Where are your closest friends?
Who could realistically check on you?
Who could get to you quickly if something happened?
Who would you call at 10 p.m.?
And just as importantly, where will you continue building relationships?
A beautiful home can feel very different if you no longer drive, your closest friends have moved, and your children live several hours away.
Your community matters.
Your relationships matter.
Proximity matters.
Sometimes the right retirement decision is not simply about taxes or home prices. It may also be about staying connected.
Build an Independence Plan
Try a simple exercise.
Imagine that tomorrow you could no longer drive.
How would you handle:
Doctors: Who gets you to appointments?
Groceries: Delivery, transportation service, or family?
Prescriptions: Pickup or delivery?
Exercise: Can you get there without driving?
Friends: How will you continue seeing them?
Home maintenance: Who handles repairs, cleaning, landscaping, and other tasks?
Family: How close do you want to live?
Emergencies: Who can realistically reach you quickly?
This exercise may reveal gaps you never considered.
And it may also reveal that your community already has more resources than you realized.
Talk to Your Doctors
Your long term care plan should include your health.
Talk with your doctors about your health history, family history, medications, mobility, and steps that may support your ability to remain independent.
This is also a good time to discuss advance care planning.
Do you have a healthcare power of attorney?
An advance directive?
Does the person you selected understand what you would want?
These conversations are much easier to have before someone else has to make a decision for you.
Talk to Your Kids Before They Become the Plan
Parents sometimes quietly assume:
The kids will help us.
Meanwhile, the kids quietly assume:
Mom and Dad have this handled.
Nobody actually talks about it.
Have the conversation.
Tell your children where you would prefer to live.
Tell them who you want making healthcare decisions.
Explain who could manage your finances.
Tell them where the important documents are.
And think carefully about what you are expecting from them.
Your adult children may love you deeply. They may also be raising children, building careers, paying mortgages, saving for retirement, or living across the country.
Family can absolutely be part of your long term care plan.
But “the kids will figure it out” should not be the entire plan.
I watched my mom do that figuring out for my grandparents.
I understand the weight of it differently now.
Put the Legal Pieces in Place
Talk with an estate planning attorney about the documents that may be appropriate for your circumstances.
That might include a will, trust documents, financial powers of attorney, healthcare powers of attorney, advance directives, and beneficiary designations.
Ask yourself:
Who could legally manage my finances if I could not?
Who could speak with financial institutions?
Who could make healthcare decisions?
Does that person know I chose them?
Then create one physical or secure digital location containing your important information.
Make sure the appropriate people know where it is.
Think Beyond Money
When people hear “long term care planning,” they often think about insurance.
I think it is much bigger.
Map your money.
Map your care.
Map your community.
Map your people.
Think about transportation. Housing. Healthcare. Social connections. Family. Legal documents. Cash flow. Insurance. Everyday independence.
Because long term care is not simply about where you might receive care.
It is about how you want to live.
Maybe This Is the Year
You do not necessarily need to buy long term care insurance this year.
You do not need to choose a retirement community.
You do not need to know what your life will look like at 85.
Maybe this is simply the year you start asking the questions.
Talk to your spouse.
Talk to your children.
Talk to your doctors.
Meet with your financial advisor.
Tour a few communities.
Research transportation and services where you live.
Map out your retirement cash flow.
Review your estate documents.
And write down what matters to you.
I still think about my mom cooking for my grandparents and driving them wherever they needed to go.
There was a lot of love in our house.
There was also a lot of responsibility.
Today, my mom can pick up the phone and arrange a ride when she needs one. That may seem like a small thing.
I do not think it is.
Every resource that helps someone maintain independence can also potentially take one small responsibility off someone else's shoulders.
That brings me back to what I told my husband when we purchased our long term care insurance:
“This is a gift for our kids.”
Not because an insurance policy can solve everything.
It cannot.
But planning may mean our children someday have more information, more resources, and fewer decisions to make from scratch.
Sometimes we plan for our future selves.
And sometimes we plan for the people who love us enough to show up.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Medicare cover long-term care?
No. According to Medicare, it does not pay for most long-term care, sometimes called custodial care or long-term services and supports, which includes help with things like bathing, dressing, transportation, and meals. Medicare draws a distinction between this kind of ongoing custodial help and qualifying short-term skilled care, which it may cover differently. Medicaid may provide long-term services and supports for people who meet applicable eligibility requirements.
What are the main ways people pay for long-term care?
There's no single answer for every family. Some people fund care primarily from their own income and assets; others consider traditional long-term care insurance, and certain life insurance or annuity products may include long-term care features. Each approach has different costs, benefits, and tradeoffs, so it's worth discussing with a financial advisor how much potential cost you're comfortable funding yourself versus transferring through insurance.
When should I start long term care planning?
Ideally, before you need it. While conversations with family, financial advisors, and doctors can still be hypothetical rather than urgent. The planning process can start small: mapping your finances, understanding what Medicare doesn't cover, touring a few communities, and simply starting the conversations with the people close to you.
What should I ask when touring a retirement or assisted living community?
Beyond cost, entrance fees, monthly fees, what's included, and how costs may change as care needs increase. It's worth asking what happens if one spouse needs more care than the other, what daily life looks like there, how residents get to appointments, and whether you could easily see family and friends.
How do I talk to my kids about long-term care planning?
Directly, and before it becomes urgent. That means telling them where you'd prefer to live, who you want making healthcare decisions, who could manage your finances, and where your important documents are kept rather than assuming they'll figure it out when the time comes.
What legal documents should be part of a long term care plan?
An estate planning attorney can help determine what's appropriate for your circumstances, but this typically includes a will, trust documents, financial powers of attorney, healthcare powers of attorney, advance directives, and beneficiary designations. It also helps to keep this information in one place that the right people know how to access.
What is an "independence plan," and why does it matter?
It's an exercise for thinking through how you'd handle daily life if you could no longer drive, covering doctors' appointments, groceries, prescriptions, exercise, seeing friends, home maintenance, and emergencies. Working through it ahead of time can reveal both gaps in your plan and resources in your community you may not have realized existed.
This material is for general educational purposes only and is not individualized financial, insurance, tax, legal, or medical advice. Long term care costs, insurance premiums, coverage, benefits, exclusions, eligibility requirements, and Medicaid rules vary. Insurance products are subject to policy terms and the claims paying ability of the issuing insurer. Consider consulting appropriate financial, insurance, legal, tax, and healthcare professionals regarding your circumstances.
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