Is Long Term Care Insurance A Wise Investment?

One of the most common objections to investing in LTCi is that some folks feel that they will probably never use the policy since they are in pretty good health now, and they don't want to waste money on something that will never actually be put to use.

So a good question to ask is: What evidence is there that LTCi is a wise and sound investment?
To answer that question, consider this:
· Would you consider auto liability insurance a wise investment for a person that has assets that need protection? If so, why?

Isn't it because a good auto liability policy can help protect against financial ruin in the case of a major accident? Now we aren't talking about minor fender benders here. Even though they can cost a few thousand dollars to repair, the real threat to a person's financial assets would be a major accident where individuals are seriously hurt and may require extremely expensive medical treatment, perhaps even for a long period of time. Such treatment can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, and so it is clear that a comprehensive auto liability policy can help protect against such a major financial threat.

Do you have such an auto insurance policy for each vehicle you own?
· Would you consider having a home owners insurance policy a wise investment? If so, why?

Isn't it because a good home owners policy can help protect against major damage to your home from fire, flood, and other disasters? Since a person's home is often their most valuable physical asset, it only makes sense to protect yourself against financial ruin that could arise if you had to pay to completely replace your home after a major catastrophe. Such an expense could easily cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Do you currently have home owners insurance?

If you see the wisdom in investing in both an auto and home insurance policy, what are the odds that you will have to use either of them to protect against a major financial threat in your lifetime? One in a hundred? One in fifty?

Well, according to the U.S Department of Health and Human Services, the facts are that the odds that a person that is now 65 years of age will need some form of long term care is very significant. Here is a quote from their website: "About 60 percent of individuals over age 65 will require at least some type of long-term care services during their lifetime. Over 40 percent will need care in a nursing home for some period of time.....It is difficult to predict how much or what type of care any one person might need. On average, someone age 65 today will need some long-term care services for three years.

Service and support needs vary from one person to the next and often change over time. Women need care for longer (on average 3.7 years) than do men (on average 2.2 years). While about one-third of today's 65-year-olds may never need long-term care services, 20 percent of them will need care for more than five years."
Since a three year stay in a nursing home fifteen years from now will most likely cost just under a million dollars for a couple age 65, it can spell financial ruin for many folks who have worked hard to save carefully all their lives.

Now consider that if you can see the wisdom in investing in auto and home insurance in order to protect your financial plans and goals, doesn't it make sense to complete the circle of financial asset protection by adding long term care insurance, since the odds of your having to use it at some point in your life is so much greater than almost any other kind of insurance you may own?

If so, keep in mind that you can't get auto insurance to cover a major accident AFTER the accident has already happened, if you didn't have the insurance beforehand. Likewise, you can't wait to invest in home insurance until your home is actually on fire and burning down, and expect to be covered.

In a similar vein, the time to invest in LTCi is when you are healthy enough to be able to qualify and keep the rates low.
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Duane Lipham is a Certified Long Term Care(CLTC) consultant. You can get more free information, news and articles regarding long term care and aging at The Long Term Care Consumer Guide website and The Long Term Care Review Blog.
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Is Insurance an Investment or Expense?

You can put it in different places on your financial statements and argue technically both ways so we won’t debate that here.You can ask various experts and they will advise you one way or the other based on their experience and their frame of reference so that won’t give us an answer. When you look at insurance there are so many different types and purposes that the answer to investment or expense won’t be easily found there either. But if you go back to the definition of insurance and the reasons we have it in the first place you can begin to see a common theme:

Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Law, © 1996 Merriam-Webster, Inc. defines insurance as: a promise of reimbursement in the case of loss; paid to people or companies so concerned about hazards that they have made prepayments to an insurance company. They define investment as the commitment of funds with a view to minimizing risk and safeguarding capital while earning a return.

If the goal of financial planning is to efficiently use our resources to achieve personal financial goals, then investing money and time is what we do. Along the way we minimize risk, often with insurance strategies in anticipation of earning a return on our efforts. We insure homes, cars, business expenses, lives, health costs, income, children, and everything else we can think of. The risks of course are that our capital assets would be at risk in the case of loss.

While this might seem obvious and simplistic, consider for example what you think of first when you think of the various types of insurance you personally have in place. Do you think of the item being insured, the amount of the benefit, the purpose of the benefit, or the cost of the premium?

When you pull together a financial plan to achieve personal goals that involve financial resources there will be an investment of time and money and there will be risks. However, the answer to whether any type of insurance program or strategy is an investment or an expense is all in how you view it.

If the financial goals are truly valuable to you, then the individual investment and insurance strategies required to get you there are all part of the investment. When you look at each item individually, there will inevitably be confusion and hesitancy. The real question is not whether insurance is an investment or expense, but rather how valuable is your goal and how are you going to get it with the resources you have with the least risk of loss (or failure).

This means that insurance programs of any type have to be considered as an investment in your future. How you structure them, and combine them with the rest of your financial programs in your personal planning will depend on how efficiently you can use your resources. If you focus on the expense of the insurance you are not seeing it as an investment in your future. You are likely considering it as an obligation, or something you ‘should’ do.

Insurance of all types, sizes, and purposes plays a valuable role in your current as well as your future financial success and given its intended purpose it should also be viewed as a component of your financial plan that gives you the security and peace of mind to make other investment decisions. It is not an expense – it is a requirement in a complete financial success plan; second only behind the written goal. Insurance is your protection, your peace of mind and your exit plan all rolled into one. It gives you the confidence to make other investments of your time and your money.

© 2007 Tracy Piercy.
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Short Term Health Insurance - What You Need to Know

Short term health insurance or temporary health insurance is a good way to alleviate the risk of an unforeseen and unfortunate event while in the midst of a transitional period. All of that to say that it is extremely important to make sure that you keep continuous coverage and do not let your health insurance coverage lapse.

Short term health insurance is very affordable as most plans are comprehensive major medical plans but without all of the extra benefits like copays for prescriptions and copays for doctors visits that can be quite pricey. Short term health insurance is a great way for students that need cheap health insurance coverage to obtain coverage in an inexpensive and easy manner. (Note, that temporary health insurance should not be a permanent substitute for a “real” health insurance plan but is most suitable when the student has a job offer with health benefits soon on the horizon or is getting married and will then have health benefits or some other similar scenario).

Many temporary health insurance plans can be compared, purchased, and then be made effective all online and within a couple of days or even hours. Medical exams are almost never required for short term health insurance (or for most individual health insurance plans for that matter – unless maybe you are approaching your 60’s and have not had a physical for 10 or more years). Almost all insurance companies offer online quoting for their individual and short term health insurance plans.

Although short term coverage is very cheap you will still want to shop around and find a well known and reputable insurance company. You can request health insurance quotes directly at the insurance company’s website but it is usually easier to request quotes from an independent website as they will show you health insurance quotes from 3 or more insurance companies that offer coverage in your area side by side for an easy comparison.

Compare short term health insurance quotes from multiple health insurance companies, learn how to find California health insurance, and get free Texas health insurance quotes.

Take a few moments to learn about the different health insurance plan options in your area so that you can be better equipped to find the most appropriate health care coverage for you and your family!
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Homeowners Insurance Coverage

When deciding on the appropriate amount of homeowner’s insurance coverage you must first determine the projected replacement cost of your home. Then you must choose the coverage amount that suits your needs best. You may want to choose a coverage amount that is comparable to the estimated replacement cost. You may want to consider the benefits of having more than enough coverage as opposed to “just enough” seeing as how it is almost impossible to predict the future and in these changing times what may have never happened in your neighborhood before could be the phenomenon that happens tomorrow.

Your homeowner’s insurance coverage policy will be your principal policy in regards to destruction caused to your home. This policy more often than not will provide for damage to your home due to fire, windstorms, hail and explosions as well as vandalism and theft. When your home becomes uninhabitable due to damage covered by your policy your homeowner’s insurance will also provide the necessary funds for you and your family to live elsewhere while your home is under construction or repair.

You may want to inquire with your insurance agent as to what losses are not covered by your homeowner’s insurance. Some states may grant separate state-sponsored catastrophe funds like the windpool program which covers damage caused by tropical storms, hurricanes, wind and hail. Because this coverage is provided by the state some homeowner’s policies may eliminate coverage and refer you to the windpool to obtain protection against wind-related damages. Therefore, when buying a home in high-risk hurricane states such as Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas you may want to consider purchasing windstorm insurance.

Another disaster that generally is not covered in most homeowner’s insurance policies is flood insurance. Flood insurance is normally available through the National Flood Insurance Program governed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. This covers destruction caused due to high waters or flash floods. So basically if a flash flood causes water to penetrate your residence flood insurance as opposed to homeowner’s insurance will cover your loss. If you don’t know whether or not your home is located in a flood risk area you may want to inquire with your insurance agent and adjust your policy accordingly.

The burden of reviewing and updating a homeowner’s insurance policy lies on the homeowner. It is important to make sure you do this periodically to ensure that you maintain adequate coverage. Remain conscience of various improvements you make to your home whether you have recently remodeled or simply purchased new furniture or appliances. You must also remain cognizant of inflation and rises in property value. A home that was purchased for $32,000 in 1975 may be worth $150,000 in 2005. It is also wise to consider the year your home was built and the cost of building materials during that time. If your home was built in the 1970s does the building code of the new millennium allow for the same construction standards? Don’t get underpaid in the event of a loss because you underestimated the value of your home.

Timothy Gorman is a successful Webmaster and publisher of Best-Free-Insurance-Quotes.com. He provides more insurance information and offers free money saving auto, life, health and home insurance quotes that you can research in your pajamas on his website.
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