AFE: Long-Term Care Insurance

*The following is the output of transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors.

Welcome back to the program everyone. I have a wonderful gentleman here by the name of Raymond Levine. I have known Raymond for quite a while and he is a wonderful resource for those of us that are looking at our aging years and the fact that are we, you know, are we ready to take on the expense of our aging years? And one of the things that Raymond does is he is a master at long term care insurance and he’s going to give us all the answers. Raymond, welcome to the program thank you, Suzanne, for with having me and thank you, thank you with having me, and also I appreciate the term gentleman. That isn’t suggested to me very often. So thank you for that kind introduction well, you are a gentleman. I’ve known you for quite some time and so it’s a great honor to have you here. Raymond, you know you got into I know a little bit about your background, but tell us how you got into this whole industry of long term care. Well, I’ve been looking into for myself long term care benefits for actually when I was in my late s. But in at the same time my family is had to use caregiving or been in caregiving. My mother’s been in care has used a caregiver for the last eleven years. She has a long term care plan. But during my mother’s marriage to my father he had on a number of occasions where for long periods of time, and he was a lawyer and then later a judge. My mother’s also a lawyer, but the point is that, you know, he with lawyers and judges, things happen to him. Absolutely. He was in a car accident, he broke a is back, he had a heart attack twice, he had and he also fell off a horse and broke his hip and his arm and there were long, again, long periods where he needed he needed to recuperate and my mother deferred her career for periods of time there in order in order to in order to take care of him, which is why my mother later on purchase long term care insurance. The last time she said luck enough. I see what what, what it takes in if my father isn’t there to take care of me, who’s going to be around? So we hear this term long term care benefits. Explain to me what that is. Raymond, Long Term Care Benefits, I’d rather call it extended care, it’s it’s it’s a it’s the same thing. But what the what it is is it’s a plan, it’s a benefit, and let me just also phrase it this way. We will talk about long term care plans, but it’s when we do we really need to think about. It’s about care, it’s about your care, it’s about your family and how they’re are affected. But what a long term care plan does is it is not health insurance. People often believe that it’s healthy. It’s, you know, your health insurance, it’s Medicare, it’ll pay for all that. It doesn’t. What it will do is it will pay for care in your home or in a care center. Now, Care Center is a term I use, but it’s better known as assisted living, you’re nursing home, dementia, memory care, memory care, but I like that term better. Memory. Yeah, memory care. So those are the things that a care plan will do. Is it will help those that need care and those will be responsible for somebody’s care. So rather than the family being, you know personally, either part time or full time, involved, this plan will provide benefits so the people can continue with their lives, and that’s also a issue that I know, people are afraid to be old or people are afraid, you know, to not feel and and and so what I tell people is just because you have a issue where you need help with your daily activities doesn’t mean that you can’t live your life. It just means that you’re going to live a different a little bit differently. You need a little help from your friends and some you know in stories. I told you know we had for twelve years a president in a wheelchair and black people don’t know that. And if you know the history and so he actually did a pretty good job. Right, you know, he may have liked them, but the point is, you know, he had polio, correct and but he but he ran the country and he was able to do that because people helped them. Yes, yes, and and then. I’m not saying everybody can be president or wants the president. Who wants that polio? But the point is that he was governor of New York and he had had polio, he had was present. Point is there are people that have have disabilities but are still can lead productive why? I’ll give you another example. It’s not an actual Nelson. A lot of people don’t know Nelson Rockefeller who was the governor of New York right and with the name rock of it, was a fluent fellow had dyslexia, severe dyslexia. Well, there you go. Yeah, all these new things, things that we don’t know well. And the master of Trivia, or I love it, or is my family to say I’m Daddy Google. That’s good. So, Raymond. As far as long term care and shorts, obviously families don’t necessarily know. Number One, do I really need it? Do I don’t need it? I don’t really know what it means, I don’t know what it covers. There’s a million questions because, like you said, they don’t want to talk about getting old. And this is part of the reality of what’s going to happen in your future as your needs increase. And as much as we may think that we’re healthy today, we also know that we have somewhat of a responsibility, not only to make sure that we are financially, you know, able to be viable for the rest of our lives, but the other part. A lot of our families they want to have an opportunity to leave money to their airs and not have it eat up into you know, those kind of care costs and there’s a lot of misconceptions raiment about Y, as you know, about Medicare. What is it cost? You know, what is it? You know, and we had a guest on earlier that kind of went through that. So this is really where you can fit, you know, so beautifully into that. Is it? We want seniors to live as long as possible, as independent as possible and to protect their assets. And really that’s what long term care insurance can help do, isn’t it? Long Term Care Insurance. And initially, and this is where you know, when I’m having consultation with people, it’s about having the conversation. You got to have the conversation. Where the owner plan and whoever you talk to about a plan, it’s about you’ve got to have the conversation about and what I often say is your exit strategy. No, I’m not saying you know when and you want to have and you want to have the conversation when you’re, you know, in reasonably good health and that you’re able to participate. Something that I talk to people about and I have in my website, is the conversation project, which is started by Ellen Goodman, who’s a columnist who, want to be sure it’s a column is not Communist, columnist for the Boston Globe, and she did not have the conversation with her mother. And with that you say, you know what, how do you want me to take care of you? Where do you want to be? And so she started called the conversationproject.org, and so I recommend to people have my web portal, you know, learn about having first the conversation. Then from there is to say, all right, let’s talk, you know, talk to me or talk to you know financial plan or somebody that you know is knowledgeable about long term care, or will refer to an agent that has that competency. About why long term care? What can it do for you? What can I do for your family? What will it do for your cash flow? We often say, you know, it’ll pretend, you know, it’ll give you peace of mind, it will not be a burden on the children. Well, it goes back to again. If you don’t have a plan, you know the family is going to be affected, guaranteed. So we are talking to Raymond Levine of Levine Long Term Care Insurance, and Raymond, how do you cover pretty much the entire state of Washington. What is your primary area that you serve? Well, because of the technology, I deal most most times I just deal with people. Let me rephrase that. I have conversations with people where we’re on the phone and they come to my computer. I have a share screen and so we have in real time a conversation and your license to then to to be in the state of Washington. Where else do you are you license? I am also licensed in most western states except for Colorado, Alaska and Hawaii. Awesome. Yeah, there’s more flexibility about, you know, being having nonresident license and I’m and I’m licensed with most of the top carriers in Washington state and other states. So what’s what’s the ideal age? When people say about purchasing long term care insurance? What what is the best age to start looking at things like that? The easy answers to say yesterday exactly. But you know, I the comment what I usually get as I’ll say, well, I’m healthy and I say that’s exactly why we need to have the conversation actually when you’re healthy and you’re able to participate, and that’s the best time to have the conversation. When I’m trying to get at is this is something for people that are taking care of your parents now. It’s not something that you purchase when you’re sixty five. Are you know, you still can, but the point of the matter, earlier you’re in your life, the lower your premiums. Is that correct? It’s about premium, but the initial is it’s about your health. If we have health issues, then the carriers that are available to you it’s more de is, it’s more difficult. So even if you have the financial resources and you are really want it, but if you if you have severe health issues, there are still their variety of plans that you know are still available, but maybe not as better as an offer the benefits you may want simply because your health. So the initial question, I is, how’s your health? Right, right, because that that that, that’s what all the carriers are looking for. Is obviously the healthier you are, the lower your premium is. The healthier. Well, first of all you get access. But yeah, if you’re in very good health, you might get preferred rates. Most people are standard. This is another, you know, thing that’s happened with long term care. A better underwriting is more difficult, right, because they have more experience and so they have an so it’s certain kinds of health issues that they might have underwritten you ten years, fifteen years. They don’t. So how do we reach you? Area code Two hundred and three, two, seven, five, six, zero nine one. Raymond Levine, thank you so much for being on the program. Thank you for having me, Suzanne.