Can you afford the high costs of Long Term Care coming out of your lifetime of savings for retirement?

These figures will inflate at least 5% annually. So, 15 years from now, the average Alzheimer's private room stay will cost the family: $910,080.

For example:
Say you are are currently, 50 years old. As you can see with 5% inflation nursing home costs double every 15 years.

By the time you are 75, nursing home costs will be $193,508 per year. At $193,508 per year multiplied by the national average length of stay of 2.5 years = $483,770.

$483,770 is what the average nursing home stay would cost you or your family 25 years from now.

If you have a spouse, just multiply $483,770 by 2 = $967,540. Just under a million dollars is what it would cost to be cared for in a nursing home, if you only stay the average length of time. As you can see in the first chart on this page, individuals with Alzheimer's, Diabetes, and Cancer, average 5 years of care, far exceeding the average length of stay of 2.5 years.

What the experts say about Long Term Care Insurance, your money, and retirement planning:

Joe Bowie, Chief Executive Officer of Retirement Investment Advisors Inc., “When people think about threats to their retirement savings, they primarily think about market losses, what they fail to consider, are the non-market related threats, health care, Long Term Care -the catastrophic events that can cause as much harm, or more, as a volatile market.”

Geoffrey Ireland, Estate Planning Attorney, “This is the biggest hole I have seen in professional prepared estate plans.”

Michael K. Stein, Certified Financial Planner, “the notion of spending a few thousand dollars a year vs. hundreds of thousands of dollars in the future is smart money management.”

Short-sighted Estate Planning Can Be Problematic when Long Term Care issues come up.
Because many people try to give away or divest their assets in order to escape paying their share of nursing home costs, recent legislation has made it extremely difficult to qualify for Medicaid benefits by gifting or otherwise disposing of personal assets for less than fair market value.

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