The best Valentine's gift you can give your family is a plan for when you need extended care.  The National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP recently published "Caregiving in the U.S. 2020", and Diane shares some of their statistics on unpaid caregivers. When you own LTC insurance, you are helping your family to be care managers rather than care providers.  Let paid workers do the work while your kids and family can continue their lives and careers while overseeing your care needs.  Love IS being Prepared for Tomorrow!

Marilyn in New York thinks she knows what amount of LTC benefits she wants, but she's not sure.  She's also concerned that the company she wants won't accept her.  She wants to know what people do when in this predicament.  What steps can we take to ensure we have the right amount of benefits with a company that is most likely to approve our application?  Diane shares her insight and experice in these situations.

Diane interviews Judy Kane, Psych-K facilitator and author of "Your 4 Truths: How beliefs Impact Your Life".  Judy coaches her clients to quickly recognize and adjust false beliefs and to perceive new truths that can help them to make better every day and life decisions.  When planning for future LTC needs, it's sometimes difficult to make decisions about things we don't want to happen.  We learn from Judy how to see what is preventing us from making decisions about our own future while we design a roadmap for our family to follow.

This week, Erin can't qualify for traditional or hybrid LTC insurance due to health.  We share her background and financial position as well as the solution we designed together to help cover potential long term care needs.  All the numbers shared are hypothetical as there is no way to predict actual future returns. If you've been declined for LTC insurance, alternative options may be available

We're making some changes.  We'll still answer one question each month, and in the following three weeks, Diane will share case samples of client's she has helped, how LTC insurance is really not for us but for our families - to help them navigate our LTC crisis, and we'll bring back one guest in a related field each month.  This week, Carla was declined by a company recommended by her bank and wants to know if every company will now decline her.  Please listen, like, share and subscribe.  And check out Podnods to hear more valuable podcasts that they are helping to promote.

This week, I want to thank all our listeners for your support and especially for the great questions you asked all year long.  It's because of you that this podcast is helping families to learn how to prepare for the enormous risk of needing extended care from an accident or illness, or when we simply live long enough to get old.  The best gift you can give your family is a plan to protect them when life doesn't go as planned.  I'm thankful the God led me to be able to help design these plans.  Merry Christmas and happy holidays!  We'll meet again next year!

This week, Diane shares that assets don't pay for LTC needs; income pays this as LTC services create a bill, or invoice that must be paid weekly or monthly.  If we don't have enough income, we need to sell assets to create income.  Diane shares some of the financial consequences when we rapidly start selling assets to fund an extended care need.

This week, Diane discusses why covering the "average" 2.5 year LTC need may not be enough to protect your family.  500,000 families will be hit by Alzheimer's disease in the next 12 months, turning their whole family upside downin an instant.  People with Alzheimer's live anywhere between 3-11 years, and sometimes for 20 years or more.  Today, dementia care can cost more than $10,000/month.  How long can our families support this need?  The time for planning is before something happens!

This week, Susan in Minnesota wants to know how the Alternate Plan of Care clause works in a long term care policy.  Diane first shares what a Plan of Care is and then shares some examples of when the alternate plan of care clause helps both the carriers and the policy holders.  Some contracts include this clause and some don't.  It depends on what type of plan you have and when it was placed in force.  Read your policy.  Ask me for help if you don't understand what it says.

It's been a rough couple of weeks since Paul's mum went to be with the Lord, but we're both getting through this and getting from this season.  Diane shares how the last several months have been and how having a long term care insurance plan in place helped the whole family as we worked to honor Doreen's desire to live at home to the end...it almost happened because she had a plan and two goals - to not burden her son and to leave him her legacy. Today, we cry and smile through treasured memories.