Strategizing on a financially sound & healthy retirement portfolio: A four-prong approach to y

As the “Baby Boomer” generation, we have learned by roat the steps to retirement: work hard, find the right mix of investment tools to save, and retire. When planning a retirement strategy, we keep in mind several ways of investing that offer diversity and certain levels of security. However...

Have we neglected one of the biggest threat to our financial future during our retirement years?

Let’s talk about your health and potential care costs for a minute. Even though we may never know if we will need long term care, a policy covering care costs during a health crisis will secure your finances. Investment tools are meant to be a pool of resources set aside to cover our cost of living once we retire. Nevertheless, overbearing costs related to health care can significantly cripple our lifestyle if we don’t plan early on. It’s about strategizing on how to optimize our savings.

According to the Long Term Care Group Inc., the national average of costs associated with long term care in the US are:

Consider this: Almost 70 percent of people over age 65 will require chronic care later in life– for an average of three years. And 20 percent of those individuals will need that care for longer than five years.

Even though some changes to the Medicare law are encouraging, (for example, prescription drug costs), the out of pocket expenses for a chronic illness or an unplanned health occurrence can dramatically shift your financial stability. For example, Medicare will cover 100 days of skilled Nursing Care. The first 20 days are fully covered, and day 21 to 100 incurs a co-pay. Beyond that, you are responsible for the costs.

How can you plan to cover such unexpected costs and still meet your retirement expectations?

Enter the long term care policy.

“There are many strategies that can help secure your future” comments Susana Leon Krieger, who has significant experience in helping individuals protect their financial and personal health. “In addition to the typical investment tools to secure your financial standing – taxable income, differed tax income and tax advantage income -- I strongly recommend a fourth element to your retirement strategy: a Long Term Care policy.”

As the senior population rises, new insurance products include more options to help cover unexpected health issues without having to pay additional out of pocket expenses. Hybrid long term care policies for example, combine the benefits of life insurance with long-term care benefits. If it turns out long-term care is not needed, the policy works much like a traditional life insurance policy, with a death benefit paid to a beneficiary when the insured person passes away.

In addition, a long term care policy may offer a reimbursement benefit. This is meant for you to rest assured that you are not actually paying into something that you may or may not end up using.

The one recommendation Susana offers is to start planning for retirement as soon as possible! “Connect with an experienced professional who will strategize on how to minimize your financial risks while capitalizing on your income for retirement. I can’t stress it enough: long term care is one of the new concepts that is taking center stage in retirement planning”.

Susana works with the top Fortune 500 insurance companies, including Mutual of Omaha, Prudential, John Hancock, United Health Care and Humana among others.