Tips on Paying for Long-Term Care

Having a great life insurance policy that is sufficient to provide for a replacement of your income in the case of your death is a wise thing to do - some would say it is a necessity in life to show your love or caring for your family. As you grow older, naturally your insurance premiums will tend to become more expensive, unless you made the choice to get a whole-life policy while you were still young.

As you age, your body begins to deteriorate in ways that can lead to all sorts of things other than death, however, and some people live under the assumption that their life insurance will kick in to help in certain circumstances that may be incapacitating but not fatal. For example, every year more than 1,000 people enter a vegetative state or non-medically induced comma from which they may never awaken. In these cases, where your life and livelihood has nearly ended, does your life insurance policy provide any coverage to help your family or with your expenses?

Life insurance pays in the event of death

Most life insurance policies out there pay a benefit only in the case of death of the insured, and any condition short of that results in no payment or ability to file any claim whatsoever. A few policies out there do allow for riders to be added to them that will help meet expenses if you are committed to long-term care or enter a vegetative state that you may not ever awaken from. Usually, however these rider policies have to be requested specifically and are not offered as one of many options that are offered with your policy initially.

Payable in very specific - rare circumstances

The rider policy you may get on your life insurance that will pay if you are incapacitated, is usually extremely specific and the odds that you will fall into that specific, covered condition are, barring any pre-dispositions, fairly slim. That’s why it is probably a good idea to get a separate policy entirely for long-term care as you approach the age of 60, and definitely before you hit 60 years-old, which is when rates for long-term care insurance tends to skyrocket.