Consumer Reports.org "Money Advisor" uses long-term care insurance for target practice, but misses the target once again.

    /24-7PressRelease/ - FLETCHER, NC, September 10, 2008 - The Consumer Reports.org article entitled "Long-term-care coverage: How to decide if this pricey insurance makes sense for you" begins: "No one likes to think about having a physical or mental frailty that would cause them to need help with daily activities, but about 70 percent of people now over age 65 will, at some point, require such assistance. Some might decide to hire a home health aide, while others might choose to move into an assisted-living facility or nursing home". The article has some good conversation points, however it also misses the heart of the issue.

Today's long term care is more of a disability issue for the young and the old. We need to change the direction and language of the conversation. "Long term care" has a negative connotation. Families discuss it too late or never believe it will happen to them; this Consumer Reports correctly points out. We all have to step left, so that we can see things from a different vantage point, if we are going to uncover possible alternatives. Stretching out the conversation leads to the idea of disability insurance working to replace lost income; CashLTC insurance (CashLTCi) operates with cash for care to manage consequences.

CashLTCi, that pays anyone for anything when you qualify for benefits, is untapped and undervalued. It is also overlooked by most financial advisors and media, including Consumer Reports, CNNMoney.com, Newsweek, Kiplinger, Wall Street Journal and many other top rated magazines and news sources.

The question is, why is CashLTCi not properly considered as a possibility. The problem may be in the assessing of value or need. In the Consumer Report article they reported, after speaking with fee-based planners, "in general, the financial planners we spoke with say that if you have a net worth below $200,000 to $300,000 (not including your home and depending on the cost of care in your region), an LTC policy will not be an affordable option and you will probably rely on government programs should you need long-term care. If you have assets of about $2 million or more, you should be able to pay for care yourself. If you fall in between, you're a more likely candidate for an LTC policy".

The challenge with this thinking is that, if you are only looking at risk versus consequences, the rule they are using could apply to life insurance. For instance, a 50-year-old male actuarially has less than a 2% risk he will die before he is 65, so why would he buy life insurance? He probably would not; his real motive is most likely to create an immediate estate for his loved ones should something happen to him. That is managing consequences.

The Consumer Reports experts advocated that there is very little reason to buy a plan in your 40s and early 50s as you still have time to ramp up your savings and prepare to pay for care out of your own assets.

CashLTCi is 'now' benefits because things happen to people of all ages. Again, it's about managing the consequences when things do happen. Insurance is not always about how much you insure for, it is sometimes more important on what the insurance provides in a time of need. With over 50 million unpaid caregivers, in comparison to 1.8 million in a nursing home and 900,000 in assisted living facilities it is clear that the unpaid family caregiver in today's economy needs a lifeline.

For a CashLTCi policy, with a 90 calendar day elimination period, from a major carrier, the monthly premium for a 70 year-old married individual is $121.03; for a 65 year-old it is $82.08 a month, for a 50 year-old it is $27.95 a month and for a 40 year-old it is $15.26 a month (married standard South Carolina rates). This will provide $100,000 in cash benefits that pays out $3,000 a month to anyone, for anything, tax-free.

Cash long term care insurance is simply a financial tool to manage consequence when adult children must take care of a failing loved one or their family has to take care of them. Most families would be better equipped to manage consequences with $100,000 or $200,000 in cash for care coverage. CashLTCi will also cover emerging trends. There are very few families who have looked far enough ahead to set aside a pool of money to cover the cost of a long term care life-event. There is an affordable alternative in CashLTCi and this important tool can provide a critical lifeline to the unpaid informal family caregivers.

CashLTC.org invites the media and financial advisors to explore the value of cash for care. CashLTC.org is launching a Prepare2Care with Cash4Care campaign to educate the industry, media and consumers. To learn more, visit www.cashltc.org or contact us directly at 828.628.0876.

About CashLTC.org

CashLTC.org is a neutral site. Our mission is to intelligently and thoroughly examine issues in caregiving both informal and professional with cash for care. planning. CashLTC.org will do progressive research and be an information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and redirect misinformation in the long-term care industry. Please contact us at (828) 628.0876

# # #