Three thousand a month is about right for private nursing home care--or was. Some of the upscale places can cost even more. If you can afford the insurance--it makes good sense--if not you may want to consider other alternatives. A family member, in Louisiana, now deceased, gave away his property--everything--to the kids and retained usufruct until his death. That solved part of the problem of worrying about nursing home expense to the extent of his possibly losing the results of a lifetime of work--if leaving it to your heirs is what you want to do. I believe at the time that the exclusion period was six months, i.o.w. the property had to have been out of his ownership for at least six months or they could go back and reclaim it. That period of time may have changed. Only a good lawyer is going to know for certain. Cash is a different ballgame altogether. Single premium life insurance policies can sometimes provide a means of transferring any cash that isn't deemed necessary to maintain a lifestyle--if leaving it to your heirs is what you want to do. If there's a sizeable amount of cash involved then you can use this as leverage to insure that those gaining the real property "behave" since the beneficiary can be changed up until practically the moment of death. Talk to a financial planner (a CPA with experience in the field) and a lawyer.

I looked into it for my parents twice, but the first time my mother's financial advisor convinced her that it was not worth the money, and because of that she didn't take me seriously the second time. The second time I looked into a program open to federal employees and their relatives, and it looked like the coverage was good (but the premium for my mom would have been $400 a month). Premiums increased substantially with age, so I suspect the key is figuring out a good age at which to sign up (not so young that you're paying premiums for such a long time that it cancels out the benefit, but not so old that premiums are beyond reach). I wish that my mom hadn't listened to her financial advisor, and that she'd been open to a LTC policy, because I know that I am the one who would end up filing the financial gap if one or both of them needed long term care at a level and length of time that would deplete their savings and investments. For the peace of mind, it would have been worth the high premiums, which I offered to pay myself. At her current age, 69, I doubt she'd qualify for anything that we could afford, and my dad wouldn't qualify at all because he has cancer. A LTC policy for my parents would ease my mind because I know how illnesses that require full time care over a long time period can eviscerate savings. My grandfather had alzheimers for 15 years, and spent the last 10 of them in an assisted living facility. My grandmother kept him at home as long as possible (longer than made sense, to be perfectly frank), but the reality is, given his strength, his diminished mental capacity, and later health complications, he needed the kind of care that only a LTC facility or a full time live-in nurse could provide. This was in the 80s and 90s but it cost thousands a month. Despite being hardworking, a saver, living a frugal lifestyle (to the point of growing their own produce in the summer and freezing and canning it for winter), and having a pension, paying for care for that many years took all of my grandmother's retirement savings. So once the money, inevitably, ran out, they had to go on medicaid and my mom helped with living expenses. I am very worried about facing a similar situation with my parents, particularly since costs are higher now, and I live in an area with an extremely high cost of living. Just think about stories you read about people who have a major illness with medical costs that cause bankruptcy, then multiply that financial impact across multiple years. Planning for an emergency, or even setting aside money for a comfortable retirement, is not going to cover full time care for years. As I understand the costs, it would be like sending a child to an elite private college --- and few people can afford that for more than 4 years even if they have been putting money aside since the child's infancy. Paying that annually, indefinitely, can make a mockery of even the best laid financial plans. The odds are that most people will not need that kind of care, but if you do the financial costs are devastating.

We purchased LTC insurance (separate policies) in our late 40's. Our program is sponsored by the state pension fund, so the carrier cannot leave the business until the pension managers find a replacement carrier. Class-wide premium increases are allowed, as they are on every policy and type of insurance. You always have a risk with individual insurance. Many homeowners have had whopping price increases and declination of new coverage whenever there's a major catastrophe. That's the downside of a public, competitive marketplace. LTC is no different. All I would say is, don't limit yourself to just your employer's offerings. There are several groups that specialize in LTC insurance, so Google and contact them if you're really interested. Yes, you may get stuck on a few mailing or call lists, but those aren't a big deal and easy to remove yourself from, or just toss the envelopes. Don't let it stop you. Genworth is good, I don't know anything about MedAmerica, and Northwestern Mutual is also a very solid company who has publicly announced they intend to remain in the LTC marketplace. Always contact your State Insurance Dept. - often the info is on the web - to look at the number of complaints a company has had to report. Also remember that it's worth investing WHO the company actually is - Conseco, one of the very worst LTC insurers ever, wrote LTC policies under six different subsidiaries. The Net can be your best friend, if you are willing to take the time to track info down to the source. Don't expect someone else to do all the work for you, and any time you talk to an agent, always rely on what is WRITTEN, not what you think someone said or implied. Verbal and phone assurances are worth the paper they are written on, and no more. Why did we buy this complex, risky product? Because our calculations determined that the extended disability of one spouse would quickly use up the assets of the survivor. And under no scenario would our assets cover BOTH of us being disabled and needing home health care, for longer than a year's time. When life expectancy continues to increase, and the ability of the medical profession to keep you alive but with a lousy quality of life also continues to progress, it was not a hard decision to buy sooner rather than later. We budgeted for price increases. If you understand how insurance actuarial stats work, it was clear to me that the Boomers would live longer, thus requiring care of which our current medical system does not cover the cost. The old "my family will take care of me" attitude is inadequate, especially when families are scattered around the globe, many Boomers (like us) chose not to have any children, and the Millennials are having a hard enough time surviving without having elderly Boomers hang around their necks like a 200-lb albatross, looking for charity. For very comprehensive policies - unlimited benefit period, 3 month elimination, 5% compounded inflation benefit, 50% home healthcare (for new policies it's now 100% of benefit), 2 ADL disability definition: Me, example #1: Age 48, female when policy was purchased. Premiums slightly over $1200/yr. Premiums are now $2K/yr, after two class premium increases. I used to pull LTC quotes as part of my job, working in a CFP's office. My best guess is that if I went to apply for a policy now, age 60, overweight and pre-diabetic, an equivalent new policy premium would be approx $3500. DH, example #2: Age 46, high BP under moderate treatment. Premium started at $800/yr, now $1700/yr. At age 50, when the policy was 4 yrs old, DH suffered a serious haemorrhagic stroke. Fortunately he has recovered almost totally. However, no insurer would have written ANY policy on him for at least 5 yrs after the stroke. And they would definitely rate him as Standard, not Preferred, possibly Class 2 or even Class 3 risk, for being (now) age 59, slightly overweight, pre-diabetic, previous stroke, family history of heart attacks and diabetes (every male in his family died of cardiac failure before age 70). My best guess is that his premium for an equivalent policy would now be in the $5K to $7K annual range. So was buying LTC insurance 11 yrs ago a smart decision? Yes, for us it was. The total of all premiums we have paid are still less than the cost for six months for ONE of us in a nicer licensed care facility. You might find the link below useful. I like SmartMoney, which is the magazine arm of the same holding company as the Wall St. Journal. Here is a link that might be useful: SmartMoney LTC calculators

We bought LTCI last year at the ages of 49 and 51, and we're glad we did. I did not go into this with eyes half shut. I did uncountable hours of research, attended seminars, talked to people, interviewed agents, etc. I'm the type of person who doesn't allow anyone to talk me into anything - period. We bought a great policy through an A++ rated company, John Hancock. The average age one should buy LTC is 60ish - before health problems begin and the premiums are outrageous if you can even get it with certain conditions. I wasn't waiting 10 years to do so especially since our premiums would double by then even if we remain healthy...but who knows how our health will be in 10 years. Sure, we're healthy now and healthier than our parents were at this age, but no one has a crystal ball to determine how our health and at what age, will affect us. I'm not taking chances knowing DH's parents history. We have no kids or family that will care for us should we need it now or later, and to put 100% burden on the other spouse isn't fair, IMO. And even if we did have kids, who's to say they would want to interrupt their lives to care for sick parents. As cruel as this sounds, I prefer not to care for my mother as she's a difficult one now and she's relatively healthy. This LTC is piece of mind for us. While humans are living longer these days, from my research, it states that a very high percentage of people will require some kind of nursing home facility and the average time is 2.5 years. Should that time come now or later, the insurance is already there to be used. If we were to invest $$ for a rainy day to use toward this, it will take A VERY LONG TIME to match what insurance money is available to us NOW. We hope to never have to use it, but good to know it's in place if we have to, and we're lucky enough to be able to afford it. I realize many cannot. There's much to know about the various companies offering this including their ratings, how their policies work with the options & riders offered, claims stats, etc., and then choosing what is right for each individual. While most people tend to not think about LTC or discount it all together, I really think more people should learn about it and give it serious consideration. (No, I don't sell it). Frankly, IMHO, your sister is wise in thinking about her elder years that way.