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Kiplinger’s Personal Finance<\/strong><\/p>\n The pandemic’s effect on seniors has brought renewed attention to long-term care insurance – and aging at home.<\/p>\n When policies first became widely available in the late 1970s, it was primarily used to help pay the costs of nursing homes. That has changed.<\/p>\n Almost any policy sold now will have a pool of benefits that help pay for home care, a nursing home, assisted care, a memory unit or something similar, said Barbara Franklin, founder of Franklin & Associates, long-term care insurance brokers.<\/p>\n You can typically collect long-term care insurance – and stop paying your premiums – once you have a recognized cognitive impairment or can’t do two of six “activities of daily living,” such as bathing or dressing.<\/p>\n The nature of your benefits will depend on your contract, but here are a few provisions to look for in a long-term care policy with an eye toward aging at home.<\/p>\n Does the policy pay for informal caregiving? Many policies won’t pay for caregivers unless they come through licensed agencies, which often require you to pay for a minimum of three to four hours of care a day, Franklin said.<\/p>\n But some policies cover nonlicensed caregivers, such as family and friends, and in some cases nurses who offer in-home caregiving, said Vince Bodnar, a partner at Oliver Wyman, a management consulting firm.<\/p>\n This is more likely with a hybrid policy that combines long-term care and life insurance benefits. These hybrid insurance policies are typically two to three times more expensive than traditional long-term care insurance because of the death benefits.<\/p>\n Unlike those for traditional long-term care insurance, premiums for hybrid policies rarely increase, and if the long-term care benefits are never or only partially used, the policyholder’s beneficiaries will receive money back.<\/p>\n A third way to pay for long-term care is to buy a life insurance policy that allows you to use the money while you are still alive. But these accelerated death benefits might only be triggered by a chronic or critical illness, not an inability to perform some daily living activities, Franklin said.<\/p>\n This is a complicated area of coverage, so be sure to consult an insurance agent who represents a number of companies and can present a variety of options for you to compare.<\/p>\n Send questions to moneypower@kiplinger.com<\/a>. Visit Kiplinger.com<\/a> for more on this and similar money topics.<\/p>\n \n<\/div>\n \n<\/div>\n ![](\"https:\/\/3yhtev2r8d4210fxti499gpq-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/WashingtonNational-2020-10-728x90-1.gif\")
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