Thanks to my long-time friend, client, beloved former radio personality, actress, author, passionate advocate, public servant, Dayna Steele #survivingalzheimers for this illuminating, enriching, engaging conversation. Dayna – you did a spectacular job on this. I hope many people benefit from it. Heartfelt thanks! https://open.spotify.com/episode/5ZxBHSoPhOmmAgItmLzHoh @DaynaSteele The post Podcast Illuminates LTC Need appeared first on Long Term Care Insurance Expert | Honey Leveen | Houston, TX ..read more

Caregiving robots have arrived and they can be transformative! Here’s the link to CLTC’s article – thanks to CLTC for this story. Here’s ElliQ’s website. Here’s the text of CLTC’s article about ElliQ: A Different Kind of Friend March 16th, 2023 Why do we need more than one friend? Because one friend can’t meet all our needs. One friend loves rock music. Another friend boot scoots to country music. Another friend grooves on classical and Broadway. One friend can’t live without Sushi. Another one wants catfish every time we go out. One friend thrives on art and sculpture. Another one is over the ..read more

I’ve been in practice over 35 years. I’ve not been able to accurately count, but I know a few hundred policyholders have called me, asking for policy benefit reviews because they need to collect from (“file claim on”, to use insurance jargon) the long-term care insurance (LTCI) policy I sold them. I sold many of these policies 20+ years ago. Miraculously and gratefully, I am still healthy, cogent, professionally sharp, and present to answer these claim calls. My clients are so grateful! I am able to calm my clients, describe what they should be entitled to, and direct them to their next steps ..read more

Tony Bennet’s story has now gone public. It is uncannily similar to Glen Campbell’s. Each was concertizing well into his moderate-to-late stage dementia. Deeply entrenched job functions are some of the last skills people with dementia lose. Mr. Bennett’s wife and son have begun to speak out. The article says Mr. Bennett started showing signs of Alzheimer’s in 2015. Tony Bennett has a $200 Million net worth, yet it sounds like he has no long-term care insurance (LTCi). “Susan Bennett is serving as her husband’s caregiver.” Why? The article describes Mr. Bennett as at the stage where he needs a ..read more

Just a few months ago Al was enjoying his wife, family and traveling. An acute health event occurred – an aneurism, I think. Now Al will need a tremendous amount of long-term care, for a long time. His family was unprepared for this. While the circumstances are not that unusual, this particular story hit me hard. Al is my age, only about 68; he was my high school classmate. This couple had successful careers and saved for retirement. They were constructive, active, engaged, intelligent, business-literate people. But they didn’t prepare properly for long-term care (LTC). If their situation is l ..read more

Christine Benz updates her “Must-Know Statistics About Long-Term Care” report every year and the newest LTC information is now available.  She is a Personal Finance Director at Morningstar and these annual reports are packed with invaluable long term care statistics. We’re so grateful to her for this! No stranger to the value of long term care, Benz openly shares about her obsession (her words!). Both of her parents required it later in their lives. Even though her parents had the funds to pay for their LTC, “… it was still a terribly hard process for them, my sibling ..read more

  The blog below was written by my good friend and long-time colleague, Phyllis Shelton. I’ve re-published it because I can’t possibly think of a way to say it better. Thank you, Phyllis! Okay. You need a grownup question to ask your parents besides, Can I borrow the car keys? Or Have you seen my car keys? When am I going to get a car? Can I get a raise on my allowance? Can I have a toy, ice cream, ANYTHING? You are WAY PAST those whiny ones. Your parents (or someone) generally raised you out of them. They took care of you, good, bad or indifferent childhood as you may have had. They ..read more

Senior housing used to be a “sure bet” for investors. Their gamble was based on statistics that showed the Silver Tsunami of Baby Boomers turning 80 in the next 10 years. In anticipation of this aging population, investors rushed to back development of the housing units that would be required to meet the rising demands. And now they’re dealing with a lot of vacant properties causing a senior housing glut. Mish Shedlock reports that this might be one of the biggest real estate miscalculations in recent memory. What’s Behind the Senior Housing Glut? There were double the number of new senior hou ..read more

Over the years, I’ve written multiple blogs posts about the importance of creating a solid long term care plan to address your late life wishes. Make the plan and share it with your family. And yet, time after time, I read horror stories about unnecessary suffering, neglect and even death because they never had “the conversation”. As if avoiding this important discussion gives them some artificial sense of control and safety. There is a cost of avoidance and it’s very high. “I’d rather die than talk about this.” The truth is that once chronic health problems arise, your ability to make go ..read more