Believe it or not your greatest retirement pitfall may be living too long. That is, living without the quality of life you have come to expect, replaced by living with a chronic illness. Over the course of your adult life and during your career, you’ve likely amassed a great number of valuables that are worth protection: your family, your health, your legacy! If you haven’t yet considered why or how to protect your family and your comfortable lifestyle, now is the time. It may be cliche but it’s also true: better safe than sorry!
Chronic Illness is different than acute illness in that it does not pose an immediate threat to your life. However, it may greatly diminish the quality of your lifestyle and drain all of your resources. Chronic Illnesses may effect over 70% of seniors over the age of 65, which means you may require some form of assisted living or custodial care before you die. One of the main questions to ask yourself is if you became chronically ill or unable to take care of yourself, would you prefer to live at home or move to a nursing home? The answer is most likely the same for everyone: live at home. But the next question is, will you be able to afford it?
We all know good health is far from permanent. As we age, our bodies fail us in any number of ways—either little by little, or swiftly and catastrophically. Regardless of the nature of your illness, medical insurance is rapidly becoming an unreliable source of care. Statistics show that 70% of senior adults over the age of 65 need special medical care, such as long term care, assisted living, or home healthcare, later on in life.
This growing necessity often proves costly. Specifically, long term care costs range from $80,000 to $120,000 per year. Long term healthcare policies, and its dwindling availability over the past few decades makes it even more unaccessible. Within the last 40 years, the number of long term care companies has shrunk from 110 to a mere handful!
The actual cost of long term care can drain your savings at lightning speed. This leaves you with little else to surrender in order to pay for this extreme cost of living except your home and all of the other assets you’ve worked so hard to acquire. Not only can this affect you and your wellbeing, but the wellbeing of your children, who will ultimately pay for your massive medical debts through what would have been their inheritance from you. We believe this is completely unfair, and should not have to happen to you. Your home and other belongings should belong to you and only you, instead of being subject to seizure from your state’s government.
The idea of your health options narrowing goes entirely against what we at American Family Senior Services stand for. We believe you and every individual should be able to choose your care professionals. Most importantly you should be able to stay in your home as long as possible with caregivers you choose, rather than being confined to a nursing home and not having any say over who looks after you.
If you are interested in discussing your current asset protection strategies or setting them up, contact us. Don’t let the court system stifle your freedom of ownership because of costly medical expenses. You deserve to have your hard-earned belongings protected.
