Answers For Elders Radio Network

Alzheimer's and dementia expert Forrest Stepnowski joins Suzanne to talk about dementia, particularly when someone with dementia has gone through a traumatic event. Forrest is CarePartners Living's Executive Director of The Cottages at Renton, in Seattle.

Forrest says, "Whether people choose to admit it, trauma — like we used to treat dementia — is an invisible diagnosis that no one wants to talk about. And even if we ourselves have exhibited or experienced something traumatic in our life, that can be very, very scary for us to bring up. Sometimes we forget that our memories come back, and people are getting hit by these memories of traumatic events to the point where... it could be child abuse. Dare I say rape, sexual trauma, all those things come back as dementia progresses itself. And that is something that people forget about. When you see somebody who has dementia, and you start seeing them layer up, and they're being paranoid, and they're being guarded, we have to look at that part. And when we discover that piece, we're able to treat them better. We're able to provide better care and understanding of why, we're able to speak their language and help them with their care. All those things play a role.

Suzanne asked about PTSD statistics. Forrest explains, "In Washington State is estimated that 80% of our population has suffered a trauma of some sort. PTSD is one of the number one hidden diagnoses, or least diagnosed. Different populations in the '80s and '70s – women especially were misdiagnosed as bipolar versus PTSD – be fair, in the '80s, they didn't even know what PTSD was. Everyone's always had that identified to people who were soldiers, especially people from Vietnam."

Contact Forrest Stepnowski at The Cottages at Renton at (425) 528-7070. CarePartners has communities in Arizona and the state of Washington.

Learn more:

* The Cottages at Renton: https://www.carepartnersliving.com/cottages-of-renton/
* CarePartners Senior Living: https://answersforelders.com/carepartners-senior-living/
* CarePartners website: https://www.carepartnersliving.com/

Hear more:
* Shows by CarePartners: https://answersforelders.com/tag/carepartners-living/

Answers for Elders is part of the SeniorResource Network: https://www.seniorresource.com/
Check out our affiliate podcast Alzheimer’s Speaks: https://alzheimersspeaks.com/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Alzheimer's and dementia expert Forrest Stepnowski joins Suzanne to talk about learning to communicate better with those who have dementia. Forrest is CarePartners Living's Executive Director of The Cottages at Renton, in Seattle.

Forrest says, “One thing I try to teach caregivers I work with at CarePartners — and at the Cottages of Renton specifically, as well as family members, as well as people who come to us as community outreach — is when someone has dementia, you have to learn how to speak their language. You have to learn what is triggering them, especially if someone has a trauma history, which 80% of us out there do. And that can play a role to their paranoia, into their fears, into embarrassment, when they're needing help. All those things play a factor. I simply tell people, if they say it's 1945, it's 1945. I don't know what the story is about 1945, but whether positive or negative, find out. The sky is purple? The sky is purple. What's causing it to be purple? That's what we should be asking, not correcting."

Forrest adds, "The thing about dementia is people need to realize is those behaviors happen because there is a gap in the brain, the brain will slowly deteriorating. It becomes a black hole. If you look at a PET scan, the wave of the brain becomes smaller, and smaller and smaller, and it starts exhibiting a black hole. There's no function in the brain after a while. When people have behaviors, they can't help it. It's their way of communicating. They're trying to get it out. You know, it's OK to hear those stories back then. You might actually learn something about your loved one that you didn't know before. You're like, uh did mom really meet President Hoover? From siblings, they're still alive from that generation, 'Oh, yeah, she did all that stuff like that,' and people truly find a side of their parents or their loved ones they didn't know it was there."

Contact Forrest Stepnowski at The Cottages at Renton at (425) 528-7070. CarePartners has communities in Arizona and the state of Washington.

Learn more:

* The Cottages at Renton: https://www.carepartnersliving.com/cottages-of-renton/
* CarePartners Senior Living: https://answersforelders.com/carepartners-senior-living/
* CarePartners website: https://www.carepartnersliving.com/

Hear more:
* Shows by CarePartners: https://answersforelders.com/tag/carepartners-living/

Answers for Elders is part of the SeniorResource Network: https://www.seniorresource.com/
Check out our affiliate podcast Alzheimer’s Speaks: https://alzheimersspeaks.com/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

People who've been retired for a while say they wish they'd saved more of their money and invested it more. They also advise to keep investing in yourself, learning how to do your job better, which gives far better returns than anything you'll get from the investment markets. Retirement Watch CEO Bob Carlson provides Suzanne with action steps to improve you retirement planning. Financial wellness is one of the 8 foundational principles of wellness, part of the Vitality Revolution podcast series sponsored by Humana.

Suzanne asked for some basic steps that anyone could take right now to prepare for their retirement. Bob answers, "Well, this is something where you don't need to take my advice. But instead, I looked to surveys of people who've been retired for a while and, and what they would have done differently and what advice they would give to younger people. And of course, the first one is they would have saved more, they would become saving earlier even if it was relatively small amounts and they just generally would have saved more of their income and invested it rather than spending it on things they enjoyed but didn't really last.

“Invest in human capital, your human capital. Things that'll make you more valuable to an employer, or help you do your job better, or if you own a business, help you do that business better. It's an investment that has great returns, far better than anything you can get in the investment markets. Keep investing in yourself no matter what age you are.”

Bob says, "I was writing a book on social security a couple of years ago, and ran into this woman at a dinner party. And she says, well, I hope you're gonna tell them to wait, because my husband and I, we took everything early: took social security, we took our pensions, and we went into our retirement funds early. And then he died, and so his social security went away, and his pension went away, and it was really a mistake. We enjoyed that money. It was great to have it when we were in our fifties and early sixties. But I'm struggling now and I hope you'll be telling people to wait."

"A third thing is, consider the long term in your decisions. That's something that many retirees say they regret. They did things like take Social Security early, take their pensions early, not pay enough attention to Medicare and long term care. And there are options for that when they were younger, and they could have done things differently, could have qualified for different types of things, particularly long term care, where insurers are getting more and more stringent. And as you get older, the rejection rate for people applying for long term care insurance just gets higher and higher. So there are things like this that you need to focus on the long term when you're younger, and by younger, I mean, really in your fifties or sixties is when you're making a lot of these decisions.

"Probably the most important thing is to save early and often. It's tempting to say you can afford to buy these new things that you really want. But think about your older self, when that fancy new TV or car or whatever is, is long discarded. Is your older self gonna be glad you bought it 20 years earlier, or is it gonna wish you'd put some of that money into a retirement fund and invested it, so you now have a multiple of what you put in rather than not having that money at all? So think about what you're gonna be like older, and plan on living longer than the average life expectancy, and realize how long that money is gonna need to last."

Regarding Bob's Retirement Watch newsletter, "What I do is independent research on these issues. I'm not affiliated with any large financial firms. So when I'm advising on any of these retirement issues, it's just independent. So I'm going to tell you the facts on both sides. I'm going to tell you who should do one strategy and who shouldn't. And it's gonna be what's best for you.

"Readers tell me I explain things in more detail than other publications do. The other publications stop when they just start to get interesting. But I try to explain really down a little more in the nitty gritty, while still being pretty straightforward, in simple language. And I'm gonna keep you up to date on the changes. All these things change. Some of them change quite rapidly. So one of the big benefits of the newsletter is I'm gonna keep on top of what's going on in the retirement financial world, and I'm gonna bring it back to you, and let you know what's changed, and what that means to you."

Learn more:

* Bob Carlson: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B001K8LP5K/about
* Retirement Watch newsletter: https://www.retirementwatch.com/ or 800-552-1152
* Retirement Watch: The Essential Guide to Retiring in the 2020s at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Retirement-Watch-Essential-Guide-Retiring/dp/1684513332
* The Vitality Revolution podcast series: https://answersforelders.com/vitality-revolution/
* Humana: https://www.humana.com/
* Answers for Elders: https://answersforelders.com/welcome-to-answers-for-elders/

Hear more podcasts about financial wellness at https://answersforelders.com/financial-wellness

Answers for Elders is part of the SeniorResource Network: https://www.seniorresource.com/
Check out our affiliate podcast Alzheimer’s Speaks: https://alzheimersspeaks.com/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Many people fail when it comes to the non-financial aspects of retirement planning, and many miscalculate their longevity, outliving their money. Retirement Watch CEO Bob Carlson joins Suzanne to talk about these aspects of planning. Financial wellness is one of the 8 foundational principles of wellness, part of the Vitality Revolution podcast series sponsored by Humana.

Learn more:

* Bob Carlson: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B001K8LP5K/about
* Retirement Watch newsletter: https://www.retirementwatch.com/ or 800-552-1152
* Retirement Watch: The Essential Guide to Retiring in the 2020s at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Retirement-Watch-Essential-Guide-Retiring/dp/1684513332
* The Vitality Revolution podcast series: https://answersforelders.com/vitality-revolution/
* Humana: https://www.humana.com/
* Answers for Elders: https://answersforelders.com/welcome-to-answers-for-elders/

Hear more podcasts about financial wellness at https://answersforelders.com/financial-wellness

Answers for Elders is part of the SeniorResource Network: https://www.seniorresource.com/
Check out our affiliate podcast Alzheimer’s Speaks: https://alzheimersspeaks.com/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bob Carlson joins Suzanne to talk about senior retirement finances. Retirement has changed multiple times, and you can expect the details to change again before you retire, meaning you need to keep up or it can cost you a lot of money. Bob talks about changes to Medicare, inflation, and interest rates that affect retirement planning. Financial wellness is one of the 8 foundational principles of wellness, part of the Vitality Revolution podcast series sponsored by Humana.

A lot of people aren't getting the most out of their investment programs. Bob says, "People for the last couple of decades, really, they've done well just focusing on the investments, because the markets have done so well, and good returns in the investment markets have really covered up a lot of mistakes and oversights in the other areas of retirement, because the strong returns have enabled you to overcome mistakes that cost you money in other areas. But I think that's kind of drawing to a close. We're still not back to the 2022 peak in the stock markets before that bear market. And I think I think lower investment returns are in the future. So anyone who's in or near retirement really needs to be focusing on these non-investment parts of retirement, rather than just thinking investment returns are gonna bail them out of everything."

“I see actually six kind of issues coming up on people that I think are going to come to what I call the retirement squeeze. We can discuss those in some detail, but it's things like lower returns, investment markets – inflation is back. Social security and Medicare have financial problems. Your taxes are probably gonna go up, not down in the future. So there's this whole range of issues that are gonna change the whole retirement finance picture for a lot of people going forward, and as I said, you need to get away from just focusing on investments and look at this whole big picture of what your retirement finances are like.

"A key thing people overlook, when you do surveys of people who have been retired for a while, they say the big mistake they made was they didn't realize how long their life expectancy was. They didn't focus on longevity and they say there were a lot of decisions they would have made differently if they'd realized what their real life expectancy was.

"How do you anticipate proper longevity? How do you plan for that? Because a lot of people, when they were young, they were told their generation is going to live to the mid- to late seventies. But as you get older, as you avoid these early-in-life deaths that occur to a substantial part of your generation, your life expectancy goes up much higher. Suddenly someone who's 65 today is going to have a life expectancy on average of about another 20 years. which most did not anticipate. and most still are thinking their life expectancy is somewhere in the mid to late seventies when it's really significantly longer than that. And, and 25% of the population in that age group now is going to live to 85 or beyond. And many people don't realize that and they don't make decisions accordingly."

Learn more:

* Bob Carlson: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B001K8LP5K/about
* Retirement Watch newsletter: https://www.retirementwatch.com/ or 800-552-1152
* Retirement Watch: The Essential Guide to Retiring in the 2020s at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Retirement-Watch-Essential-Guide-Retiring/dp/1684513332
* The Vitality Revolution podcast series: https://answersforelders.com/vitality-revolution/
* Humana: https://www.humana.com/
* Answers for Elders: https://answersforelders.com/welcome-to-answers-for-elders/

Hear more podcasts about financial wellness at https://answersforelders.com/financial-wellness

Answers for Elders is part of the SeniorResource Network: https://www.seniorresource.com/
Check out our affiliate podcast Alzheimer’s Speaks: https://alzheimersspeaks.com/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If you're adequately prepared, you can live a fulfilling life long into your senior years. Bob Carlson joins Suzanne to talk about senior retirement finances, noting that people haven't realized or properly planned for what their real life expectancy turned out to be. Bob's Retirement Watch newsletter is a staple of our partner Salem Media. Financial wellness is one of the 8 foundational principles of wellness, part of the Vitality Revolution podcast series sponsored by Humana.

Learn more:

* Bob Carlson: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B001K8LP5K/about
* Retirement Watch newsletter: https://www.retirementwatch.com/ or 800-552-1152
* Retirement Watch: The Essential Guide to Retiring in the 2020s at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Retirement-Watch-Essential-Guide-Retiring/dp/1684513332
* The Vitality Revolution podcast series: https://answersforelders.com/vitality-revolution/
* Humana: https://www.humana.com/
* Answers for Elders: https://answersforelders.com/welcome-to-answers-for-elders/

Hear more podcasts about financial wellness at https://answersforelders.com/financial-wellness

Answers for Elders is part of the SeniorResource Network: https://www.seniorresource.com/
Check out our affiliate podcast Alzheimer’s Speaks: https://alzheimersspeaks.com/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There are different ways you can remain solvent in your aging years, and there are techniques to maintain and preserve assets. Estate planning specialist David T. Phillips joins Suzanne to talk about the three types of leveraged care solutions and to provide an example of how they work. The three types are the Long Term Care Annuity, the Life Legacy/LTC Combo Strategy, and the Return of Premium LTC plan.

David says, "The first one's an annuity, expands three times if you need care. If you don't need care, your family gets the annuity money back. The second one is the life insurance policy. And the life insurance policy has a long term care writer on it. And if you need long term care, you take 2% or 4% of that life insurance benefit, and you use that for care. The third option is called the return premium long term care strategy, and I kind of like this one. I like all of them, my wife likes the second one. I personally like the third one a little bit better, because it has an inflation writer on it."

David provides an example of the Life Legacy/LTC Combo Strategy. A 65 year old male repositions $100,000, making it immediately worth $431,000. Because we added the 3% inflation rider, it will grow to $755k, or a monthly benefit of $9,736, for 72 months.

David adds, "If we are healthy enough and have the means, we all should have a leveraged care solution plan in our estate plan. There is no debate. We need to quit being selfish. You can spread your deposit over 5, 10 or 15 years. If you itemize on your tax return you can tax deduct a portion of the transfer. The younger you are when you reposition your investment the better, because you get more benefit and it is easier to qualify. Only a Long-Term Care Annuity is available after age 80, until age 85."

Answers for Elders listeners can receive a free copy of David's special report Leveraged Care Solutions: Answers to Today’s Long-Term Care Crisis, and other free Special Reports, when you subscribe to the "Generational Wealth Strategies" newsletter. Answers for Elders listeners can subscribe at a discounted fee of $77 a year, a $172 savings. Subscribe here to get the discounted rate: https://www.generationalwealthnewsletter.com/offer/gws-answers-for-elders-2

David's office is at 888-892-1102, or visit his Estate Planning Specialists website at https://epmez.com/.

Learn more:
* David T. Phillips: https://epmez.com/our-team
* Generational Wealth Strategies newsletter: https://www.generationalwealthnewsletter.com/
* The Vitality Revolution podcast series: https://answersforelders.com/vitality-revolution/
* Humana: https://www.humana.com/
* Answers for Elders: https://answersforelders.com/welcome-to-answers-for-elders/

Hear more podcasts about financial wellness at https://answersforelders.com/financial-wellness

Answers for Elders is part of the SeniorResource Network: https://www.seniorresource.com/
Check out our affiliate podcast Alzheimer’s Speaks: https://alzheimersspeaks.com/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

According to AARP, 90% of Seniors would prefer to be cared for in their homes. What have seniors done to make sure this happens? Estate planning specialist David T. Phillips joins Suzanne to talk about long term care strategies to make sure you have care in your later life. 

The solution to the long-term care crisis is a relatively new approach to long-term care insurance, known as leveraged care solutions, a.k.a. asset-based care plans. It's viable so long as you have the means. The concept is simple: With a leveraged care solution, you reposition an asset today from your left pocket to your right pocket, and it immediately it is valued three times greater than the sum you transferred. You leveraged each deposited dollar at a minimum of three times. If you don’t trigger the benefit, your family inherits the money you transferred.

David explains the three types of Leveraged Care Solutions: the Long Term Care Annuity, the Life Legacy/LTC Combo Strategy, and the Return of Premium LTC plan.

David says, "There's some options that you can have. You can have an annuity option, that as the annuity grows, so does the long term care benefit. So instead of being three times, it could be four times or five times as the annuity grows. If you never use the long term care benefit, the money that you transferred into it goes to your beneficiaries. So it's not like it's money down a rat hole that you're never going to see. Your kids are gonna actually inherit that money.

"The second option is called the life legacy option, where you use a life insurance policy. And let's say the life insurance policy is a half a million dollar policy, and you take 2% of that, and you use that for your care per month for 50 months. So 2% of $500,000 would be $10,000 a month that would be used for your care, tax free. All of these benefits, by the way, are income tax free. And that benefit then goes for your care. Let's say you used it for 10 months. So 10,000 times 1,000,000, the rest of the money, the 400,000 from that 500,000 goes to your kids, your beneficiary."

Answers for Elders listeners can receive a free copy of David's special report Leveraged Care Solutions: Answers to Today’s Long-Term Care Crisis, and other free Special Reports, when you subscribe to the "Generational Wealth Strategies" newsletter. Answers for Elders listeners can subscribe at a discounted fee of $77 a year, a $172 savings. Subscribe here to get the discounted rate: https://www.generationalwealthnewsletter.com/offer/gws-answers-for-elders-2

David's office is at 888-892-1102, or visit his Estate Planning Specialists website at https://epmez.com/.

Learn more:
* David T. Phillips: https://epmez.com/our-team
* Generational Wealth Strategies newsletter: https://www.generationalwealthnewsletter.com/
* The Vitality Revolution podcast series: https://answersforelders.com/vitality-revolution/
* Humana: https://www.humana.com/
* Answers for Elders: https://answersforelders.com/welcome-to-answers-for-elders/

Hear more podcasts about financial wellness at https://answersforelders.com/financial-wellness

Answers for Elders is part of the SeniorResource Network: https://www.seniorresource.com/
Check out our affiliate podcast Alzheimer’s Speaks: https://alzheimersspeaks.com/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Most baby boomers haven’t planned for a long term care event, considering that only seven percent of adults over age 50 own any form of long term care insurance. Estate planning specialist David T. Phillips joins Suzanne to talk about how to reposition baby boomer assets in order to have funds available for a long term care event. Financial wellness is one of the 8 foundational principles of wellness featured on the Vitality Revolution podcast series sponsored by Humana.

David says, "Only one in 30 adults have a long term care plan in place. What's going to end up happening is that you're going to be forced to go on Medicaid. And to get on Medicaid, you have to totally spend down your assets and actually be a pauper and not have any money at all. And then you get to go to the long term care facilities that the government assigns you to go to. You don't get to stay at home. You have to go where they tell you, you have to do what they tell you to do. In fact, almost half of all long term care benefits today are paid by Medicaid. It means that people are being forced to basically spend down. And right now, you can act. If you have the means, you need to reposition some of those means right now in a leverage care solution.

"If we don't have the assets shifted and transferred correctly, our kids are gonna have to take care of us, and then our kids are gonna have to take care of the kids, and so on. So it's really a good idea to get some planning in place now, at least understand what your options are. A lot of people are just scratching their heads saying, 'Hey, I'm gonna avoid this bus. I don't want this bus,' but COVID proved that it can happen to anybody at any time... So you know how vulnerable, how fine the line is, how exposed we are.

"This concept that the insurance industry actually has set up for us is a viable solution. We used to only have the use-it-or-lose-it long term care policies... And now with the leverage care solution, we have three basic options that we can choose from, that are all viable solutions that can help us solve this long term care crisis, not only for us individually but for our families."

Answers for Elders listeners can receive a free copy of David's special report Leveraged Care Solutions: Answers to Today’s Long-Term Care Crisis, and other free Special Reports, when you subscribe to the "Generational Wealth Strategies" newsletter. Answers for Elders listeners can subscribe at a discounted fee of $77 a year, a $172 savings. Subscribe here to get the discounted rate: https://www.generationalwealthnewsletter.com/offer/gws-answers-for-elders-2

David's office is at 888-892-1102, or visit his Estate Planning Specialists website at https://epmez.com/.

Learn more:
* David T. Phillips: https://epmez.com/our-team
* Generational Wealth Strategies newsletter: https://www.generationalwealthnewsletter.com/
* The Vitality Revolution podcast series: https://answersforelders.com/vitality-revolution/
* Humana: https://www.humana.com/
* Answers for Elders: https://answersforelders.com/welcome-to-answers-for-elders/

Hear more podcasts about financial wellness at https://answersforelders.com/financial-wellness

Answers for Elders is part of the SeniorResource Network: https://www.seniorresource.com/
Check out our affiliate podcast Alzheimer’s Speaks: https://alzheimersspeaks.com/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

David T. Phillips joins Suzanne to talk about a crisis in Long Term Care and how it is seriously negatively impacting Americans. Financial wellness is one of the 8 foundational principles of wellness featured on the Vitality Revolution podcast series sponsored by Humana.

He says statistically we are woefully unprepared for a medical long-term care event:

* If you are 65 years or older, there is a 72% chance that you will require some type of extended long term care in your lifetime.
* If you are married and over 65, there is a 91% chance that one of you will experience a long term medical event.
* Warning: Long-Term Care isn’t cheap. The national average is over $110,000 a year, and full time Alzheimer’s care in Arizona is over $200,000 a year.
* Currently, 43% of all long-term care expenses are covered by Medicaid. The problem is that Medicaid provides bare-bones coverage, and to qualify you must spend down your assets to virtually nothing.

David T. Phillips is a nationally recognized consumer advocate for estate planning, insurance and long term care, with 51 years of experience. He is the author of the bestselling books Estate Planning Made Easy, The Family Bank Strategy, The 10 Most Common Estate Planning Mistakes and How to Avoid Them, and more. He co-authors the extremely helpful estate and financial planning newsletter ''Generational Wealth Strategies." He is the CEO and founder of Estate Planning Specialists. With clients in every state, his companies have assisted thousands of Americans properly plan their estates.

Answers for Elders listeners can receive a free copy of David's special report Leveraged Care Solutions: Answers to Today’s Long-Term Care Crisis, and other free Special Reports, when you subscribe to the "Generational Wealth Strategies" newsletter. Answers for Elders listeners can subscribe at a discounted fee of $77 a year, a $172 savings. Subscribe here to get the discounted rate: https://www.generationalwealthnewsletter.com/offer/gws-answers-for-elders-2

David's office is at 888-892-1102, or visit his Estate Planning Specialists website at https://epmez.com/.

Learn more:
* David T. Phillips: https://epmez.com/our-team
* Generational Wealth Strategies newsletter: https://www.generationalwealthnewsletter.com/
* The Vitality Revolution podcast series: https://answersforelders.com/vitality-revolution/
* Humana: https://www.humana.com/
* Answers for Elders: https://answersforelders.com/welcome-to-answers-for-elders/

Hear more podcasts about financial wellness at https://answersforelders.com/financial-wellness

Answers for Elders is part of the SeniorResource Network: https://www.seniorresource.com/
Check out our affiliate podcast Alzheimer’s Speaks: https://alzheimersspeaks.com/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.