This week, we hear from Michelle Thomas with the Colonnade at Carrollwood, an assisted living community right in my Tamba Bay neighborhood.  For many years, a group from our church visited and sang there monthly for quite a while.  Michelle shares that this is Resort Style Living with as little or as much assistance as is needed.  Some residents move in for the food and social atmosphere, and don't need any assistance at this point - they just don't want to be alone.  Others need various amounts of help to get through their days.  Colonnade's goal is to help their residents live as independently as possible in a loving, caring environment.  Many people who live at the Colonnade still go out into the community for many activities like shopping and gardening.  Find info at

This week, Diane interviews Mary George with Best Years Senior Care.  Mary is a geriatric care manager and helps families find help, resources and care providers when a loved one can no longer provide for themselves.  Often, family members become overwhelmed when a parent is discharged from a care setting and needs to move home, where family members still have everyday obligations outside of the parent's needs.  How will you put all the pieces togethar?  Who can you trust to help make decisions when everything is confusing?  Mary works mostly in Hillsborough county, Florida, and she can refer you to others care managers in other areas. Visit or

Bonnie bought LTC insurance over 20 years ago and thought it would be enough to cover her future needs. We discussed adding an inflation rider to keep up with costs, but she didn't want to pay the higher rate.  Today, when she needs help with dementia, her plan will pay for 5 hours of home care a day.  Compare that to my husband's mom's plan that paid for 10 hours per day and still wasn't as much as she wanted either.  If you take anything from this episode, I hope it's "Don't skimp!"  Your future self and your family need you to plan wisely.  Thank you to my husband, Paul Stoddart, for recording, editing and creating the music for the podcast

This week, Diane and her guest, Dean Lambert with the Love Always Project share how talking about uncomfortable end of life topics long before a need to talk occurs, it's better for the whole family. Dean shares how the Project helps us change thoughts of death and dying into thoughts of life and living. Share your comments and experiences at

This week, our 31 year old son asked when he should be adding LTC coverage to his retirement plan.  Diane shares things to consider when planning to be sure you can both qualify and afford LTC insurance.  11 states are working on creating a mandatory LTC tax.  As of today, it looks like the only way to avoid the tax is to not be working or to own your own private LTC plan.  Washington state has already done this. The other states currently  working on a tax plan are CA MI CO MO NY VT OR HI MN IL and NC.  California is closest to a plan.  If you're aleady considering LTC and live in one of these states, you need to move quickly.  Contact me at [email protected]

Most people state they don't want to burden their children with long term care needs like bathing, dressing and going to the bathroom, but they too often don't consider the financial burdens that go along with that.  Affluent people often believe that they don't need to discuss LTC needs because they have enough money to pay for any care they will need.  It's more important to have a plan when there are more assets as siblings tend to argue about the right way to care for mom or what to spend or not spend for care.  Not having a plan too often disrupts families forever.  A plan doesn't always have to include insurance, but it needs to be a plan and it needs to be discussed before life shows up and changes the rules in an instant.  Ask me for guidance at

Because I included a case study in last week's episode, go back and listen to Aaron's options for a plan to provide LTC and also reduce his tax obligations.  This week, listen and learn about two laws that have been enacted, LTC Partnership Act and Pension Protection Act, to help consumers preserve assets and let insurance companies create tax reducing strategies for policyholders.  Contact me for guidance and plans to meet your unique needs at [email protected]

Last week, I attended my first ILTCI conference in Raliegh, NC.  I met a bunch of great people, and I learned so much valuable information that I will share with you here and over the next months. What are states doing to alleviate the Medicaid system?  How will state programs work alongside private LTC insurance?  What can we do to encourage solid legislation that works? How is our country going to be able to afford to care for an aging population?  How can we as consumers be prepared for tomorrow?

This week, Diane and her guest, Angelett Johnson with Small Assited Living Coalition, share how having a guide, a plan and a team to help us live safely when we can no longer care or provide for ourselves. Visit to learn more about how they can work to help families help their loved ones better.

This week, Nancy & her daughter Tammy decided to choose a hybrid, cash indemnity plan that will let Nancy use the money to pay for whoever and whatever care she needs, or it will pay a tax-free death benefit to Tammy if Nancy never needs care.  Disclosure: In this episode, I stated that the hybrid plans were not available prior to the Pension Protection Act (PPA) being implemented in 2010.  They were actually available before then, but the PPA law made the benefits completely tax-free if used for care or as a death benefit.  Before that, benefits could not be combined and tax-free.