Life Care Funding and the Long Term Care Benefit Plan

Are you looking for a way to pay for Senior Living and Long Term Care? If you own a life insurance policy, you may be holding the solution in your hands.

Millions of seniors needlessly throw away a life insurance policy without realizing it can be used to help them pay for any kind of senior care they want.  An unfortunate reality is that the vast majority of people who own life insurance policies will make premium payments for years, and then as they reach the point they need senior care services will surrender their policy for pennies on the dollar or they will stop paying the premiums and allow it to lapse.  Once a life insurance policy is lapsed or surrendered they insurance company will no longer be obligated to pay a death benefit, and there is no way for the policy owner to get it back. This puts billions of dollars of profits into the hands of the big insurance companies—and all at the expense of the people who did the right thing by protecting their families with life insurance policies.

But what if there was a better option than abandoning a policy after making payments on it for years? What if instead, a life insurance policy could be used to pay for Senior Living and Long Term Care expenses? Well the good news is that it can. Anyone who owns a life insurance policy could potentially qualify for turning their policy into a Long Term Care Benefit Plan. If you own a life insurance policy it is your legal right to use the policy for more than just a death benefit. In fact, a life insurance policy is recognized as an asset (just like your home) and it is considered your personal property. And just like your home where you make mortgage payments until it is paid off, you are making premium payments on your life insurance policy.

As you get older and need long term care, would you just stop making mortgage payments and abandon your home? Of course not, and you shouldn’t do that with your life insurance policy either. Think of it like this: a Long Term Care Benefit Plan is kind of like a reverse mortgage on your life insurance policy. You can access the hidden value of your policy while you are alive and use the money to help pay for any form of Senior Living and Long Term Care that you want.

How does it work? The owner of the life insurance policy will sell it for a percentage of the death benefit to Life Care Funding and the money is then enrolled into their Long Term Care Benefit Plan. The Benefit Plan itself is an irrevocable, FDIC-insured bank account that protects the money to make sure it will only be spent on senior care services. Because the policy is sold for its present day value and the funds are only used for senior care services, in most cases it is a tax-free event that is recognized as both a Medicaid qualified spend down and a VA Aide and Attendance approved benefit plan.

The typical range of present day value that a policy can be converted into is 20%-60% of the total death benefit. Once a person has enrolled in the Long Term Care Benefit Plan they are no longer responsible for any more premium payments. Because they are private pay, they can choose any form of senior care they want such as Homecare (private-duty or family provided), Assisted Living, Memory Care, Nursing Home Care, and Hospice services.  The account is professionally administered and immediately starts making automatic payments on a monthly basis to their care provider of choice. Also, the monthly payments can be adjusted as care needs or care providers change. The Benefit Account will also provide a cash funeral expense payment when the account holder passes away, and if they should pass away with any kind of account surplus left over that will pass to whoever has been named as the account beneficiary (one or more people).

The Long Term Care Benefit Plan has been helping families pay for senior care services across the United States for years. Every senior care service provider in the country accepts payments from the Benefit Plan and thousands of Homecare companies, Assisted Living Communities and Nursing Homes offer this option to families looking for financial assistance. Licensed financial advisors, insurance agents and elder law attorneys in every state use this option with clients who are looking for a way to afford Senior Living and Long Term Care.

Learn from reading this real life case study example:

A daughter was caring for her father but the turn in the economy had hurt his investments and her own family’s finances. As his condition worsened they were unable to keep up with the costs. He owned a term life policy that they were going to let lapse. They were told about Life Care Funding’s website and called to find out more about how converting the policy would work. Life Care Funding converted it into a Long Term Care Benefit that allowed the family to set up a monthly benefit payment to cover 24 hour in-home skilled nursing care for the remainder of his life.

The cost of senior care is expensive and rising every year. People that are private pay are able to choose any form of care they want and always get preferential treatment over those on Medicaid. Converting a life insurance policy into a Long Term Care Benefit Plan is a much better option for a policy owner than abandoning their policy for little or even nothing in return. If you own a life insurance policy, you owe it to yourself and to your family to look into how much value you could get out of it to enroll in a Long Term Care Benefit Plan before you just throw it away. Remember, a life insurance policy is just like your home and you can use it today as a financial option to help cover your Senior Living and Long Term Care expenses. Learn more about the details of the Long Term Care Benefit Plan and your eligibility at www.lifecarefunding.com.

Guest Post by Chris Orestis of Life Care Funding

Chris Orestis, CEO of Life Care Funding, is an 18-year veteran of both the insurance and long-term care industries.  A former Washington DC lobbyist, he is a nationally known senior care advocate and author of the Amazon best-seller book “Help on the Way”, a legislative expert, featured speaker, columnist and contributor to a number of insurance and long term care industry publications.  Chris is a frequent guest about senior issues on national radio programs; and has also been featured in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, USA Today, Fox Business News, and PBS.

His blog on senior living issues can be found at www.lifecarefunding.com. He can be reached at 888-670-7773 x 6623 or corestis@lifecarefunding.com.

Founded in 2007, Life Care Funding was the first to pioneer the concept of converting a life insurance policy into a Long Term Care Benefit Plan.  Since the company’s inception, they have built a national network of agents, attorneys, and advisors as well as over 5,000 Homecare, Assisted Living and Nursing Home companies that offer the Long Term Care Benefit policy conversion option to families directly across the United States.

SeniorAdvisor.com Staff

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