If you can afford long term care insurance, you should probably consider it.  Why?  Because the cost of long term care, should you ever need it, can quickly deplete your life’s savings.  For instance, having a home health aide visit just three days a week can cost more than $ 20,000 annually.  Full-time nursing home care, the most expensive type of care, now averages $ 69,000 to $ 78,000 per year.  In some regions of the country, like the Northeast, the cost may be twice that amount.

While financial considerations cannot be understated, long-term care insurance isn’t only about money.  It’s also about peace of mind.  Having it ensures you’ll have access to first-rate care when you need it.  It also means you won’t have to be dependent on others or be a burden to your children.

What are the odds you’ll need long-term care insurance?  Greater than you might imagine.  There’s about a 70% chance you’ll need some type of long-term care after age 65.  And long-term care services are not just for older people.  A young or middle -aged person who has been in an accident or suffers a debilitating illness may very well require long-term care services.  In fact, 40 percent of patients receiving long-term care are under age 65.

If you can afford to pay for care without significantly impacting your assets, you may not need long-term care insurance.  Conversely, if your assets, not including your home, are less than $ 80,000 if your married (or $ 30,000 if you’re single), you may not be able to afford the premiums.  But if you’re somewhere in between, long term care insurance should be part of the discussion the next time you sit down with an advisor to review your financial plans. 

“Why are my auto insurance premiums so high?”  ”Will my insurance rates go down if I purchase a newer, safer car?”  “Why doesn’t my good driving record lower my rates more”?

We often get asked questions like these - questions that deserve answers.  first, we should explain that the government regulates our industry very closely, while fees charged by auto repair shops and manufacturers, lawyers, doctors and hospitals are not highly regulated.  And fees charged by these service providers usually are a major factor in determining the cost of claims.

As you might expect, the cost of insurance is also influenced by the frequency of lawsuits and size of jury awards.  Costs associated with both these areas continue to rise.  For example, jury awards in four common injury categories (cervical strain, knee injuries, vertebrae fractures and wrongful deaths of adult males) have increased at a much faster rate than inflation.

Auto repair

Most cars are constructed using front wheel drive unibody design.  This type of vehicle is more complicated and expensive to repair.

Because there is no rigid frame, the damage caused by a collision travels farther through the structural part of the vehicle.  In fact, manufacturers design unibody cars to “crumple” in certain areas to absorb the impact forces and keep them away from the passenger compartments.

Today’s cars are made from specialized, high strength, low weight steel alloys, plastics and aluminum-and have considerably more electronic components.  All of these changes have required body chops to invest substantial sums of money in training and new equipment.

As a result, these advancements in technology have lead to increased costs for motor vehicle maintenance, repair and bodywork.

One must consider the relative cost of repairing a car compared to purchasing a new vehicle.  Rebuilding a five -or four year old vehicle could be close to or more expensive than purchasing a new version of the same car, depending on the amount of damage.

Fraud and theft

Other factors contributing to higher insurance rates are theft and various forms of fraud, such as staged accidents, phony thefts and nonexistent repairs.  Fraud costs insurance companies some $17 billion yearly, according to the National Insurance Crime bureau - and accounts for between eight and 10 cents of each Auto insurance premium dollar.  Industry experts estimate that total costs can run as high as 25 cents of each auto insurance premium dollar in some states.

Inflation

In setting realistic rates, insurance companies must take into account not only the inflation affecting everyone else, they must also attempt to predict and accommodate the inflation which will affect claims yet to come.

Many of the claims we pay include medical and hospital costs.  Like vehicle repair and maintenance costs, these too have increased over the years.  In turn, those increased costs influence your insurance rates.

In addition, we retain attorneys to defend legal actions brought against you.  The costs of litigation and its effects on the affordability and availability of insurance have led many states toward enactment of various types of tort reforms, including No-Fault Auto insurance.

Most people do piecemeal planning when it comes to insurance and financial planning.  They are playing the game of life without a game plan.  Life insurance should be the foundation of that game plan.  Once you have the foundation, you have something to build on.  Every financial plan should be developed with the underlying assumption that you may die or become disabled tomorrow.  No one has a lease on life.  If you don’t die before age 65, you will die after age 65.  No one dies at the right time.  There is always a need for cash when someone dies.  With life insurance, the event that creates the problem, i.e. the need for cash , also becomes the event that creates the solution to the problem.

Most people are reconciled to the need to purchase insurance on their home, their car, their jewelry, and other valuable assets.  Unless they have had the time to accumulate substantial wealth, it is highly probable that the most valuable asset they have is their ability to earn an income…their Potential Earning Power (PEP).  their income makes everything else possible.  If it makes sense to insure the golden eggs, it certainly makes sense to insure the goose.  If you could insure one, but not both, which would you insure…the goose or the golden eggs?

The First Law of Insurance states that you should insure first that which you can least afford to lose…your income, your health, and your life.  Think about that for a minute.  Insure your most valuable asset first.  What would happen if you had been killed or disabled in a car accident last night? If you had been killed, would your family be ok? What’s okay? How much money is enough?

Most people do not like to think about life insurance.  It means thinking about death.  Death is a fact of life.  If you don’t deal with it now, who will?  Buying life insurance requires planning and foresight.  By the time you know that you need life insurance, it may be too late to get it.  Being told by your doctor that you have a heart problem or cancer is too late.

Life insurance is like a parachute.  You have to buy it before you need it.  You can buy real estate or stocks or bonds anytime.  That is not the case with life insurance.  You have to purchase it while you are in good health.  Buy it now.  There is no advantage to waiting.

Having a cash cushion is just plain common sense.  Life insurance is a common sense solution.  The problem with common sense is that it is uncommon.

Howard Wight, Life In a Nutshell

In these difficult economic times, many employer sponsored group health plans have increased in price, or have excluded coverage all together for spouses and children.  If you currently find yourself in this situation, we will put together a plan that covers everyone, or if needed, just your spouse and children.  We can also provide you with dental and vision coverage.  We now offer health coverage from many of the major health insurance carriers.  

Call my office today for a free no obligation review of your current coverage. 

Simply put, if you have a job, you most likely need disability insurance.  the possibility of a disabling illness or injury may seem remote, but statistics paint a different picture.  Nearly one in three women can expect to suffer a disability that keeps them out of work for 90 days or longer at some point during their working years.  For men, the odds are about one in four.  And one worker in seven can expect to be disabled for five or more years before retirement.

For many, a sudden interruption of income could have serious financial consequences.  Most of us have some kind of personal debt, typically a mortgage or credit card bills.  Would you be able to maintain your standard of living if you were too ill or injured to work for an extended length of time?  Half of all home foreclosures in the United States result from disability, as do an alarming number of personal bankruptcies.

The other thing to keep in mind is that an accident or illness that keeps you out of work for a period of time can be very costly.  That’s because people who become disabled not only need to continue providing for loved ones, but for themselves as well.  A disabling injury or illness could lead to medical bills, modifications to your car or home, or other unforeseen needs that can be quite expensive.  For all these reasons, almost anyone who works-whether they’re single, married with children or without-should consider disability insurance.

Health insurance is one type of insurance you’re pretty much guaranteed to use.  We all need medical attention from time to time, and some of us need it quite frequently.  When care is needed, you want to focus on getting better not on how you’re going to come up with the money to pay your medical bills.  A good health insurance plan allows you to focus on what’s most important, your physical well being.

Is there anyone who doesn’t need health insurance?  Not really.  Even if your young, healthy and haven’t had to see a doctor in years, you never know when you might be involved in an accident or be diagnosed with a serious medical condition.  While your health coverage will pay for things that aren’t too costly like routine doctor’s visits or lab tests, the main reason to have health coverage is to have protection against the potentially catastrophic expenses of serious illness or injury.

We’re proud to represent many of the major health insurance carriers.  Contact our office today for a thorough review of your current coverage.

If someone will suffer financially when you die, chances are you need life insurance.  Life insurance provides cash to your family after your death.  This cash (known as the death benefit) replaces your income and can help your family meet many important financial needs like funeral costs, daily living expenses and college funding.  What’s more, there is no federal income tax on life insurance benefits. 

Most Americans need life insurance.  To figure out if you need life insurance, you need to think through the worst case scenario.  If you died tomorrow, how would your loved ones fare financially?

Would they have have the money to pay for your final expenses (e.g., funeral costs, medical bills, taxes, debts., lawyers’ fees, etc)?  Would they be able to meet ongoing living expenses like the rent or mortage, food, clothing, transportation costs, healthcare, etc?  What about long range financial goals?  Without your contribution to the household, would your surviving spouse be able to save enough money to put the kids through college or retire comfortably?

The truth is, it’s always a struggle when you lose someone you love.  But your emotional struggles don’t need to be compounded by financial difficulties.  Life insurance helps make sure that the people you care about will be provided for financially, even if you’re not here to care for them yourself.

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