“Help clients face up to long-term care,” by Charles Paikert, Financial Planning

“When advisors try to broach the topic of long-term care with clients, they often hit a brick wall of denial. This makes it even more urgent that they do everything possible to break down resistance. ‘What I hear most often is, ‘It won’t happen to me,’‘ says elder care attorney Robert Fleming. ‘And then it’s, ‘I’ll off myself if it does, or go on Medicaid if I can’t go through with it.’ You’ve got a lot of planning by denial going on out there.’”

LTC Comment (from Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform):

This is an OK typical article on LTC planning except that it relies heavily on advice from nationally well-known Medicaid planners who give lip service to LTC insurance, say little about their artificial impoverishment methods publicly to avoid shaming, and then pull that magic rabbit out of their hats to gold plate their practices with affluent clients. When financial advisor trade publications like FP take such people seriously, it can only hurt the business and its clients. Two quotes:

“The very best planning for long-term care is to amass great long-term wealth,” says Fleming, a partner at Fleming & Curti in Tucson, Arizona.

“It’s critical that financial advisors have a conversation about long-term care with clients, with documentation,” says New York-based elder care attorney Bernard Krooks.

In other words, make a lot of money, then come see us and we’ll get you LTC from Medicaid and preserve your wealth for pennies in legal fees compared to big insurance premiums. Financial advisors should avoid the temptation to lead clients into that trap.

Help clients face up to long-term care

#long-term
#goldencareagent