LTC Basics - Daily or Monthly Benefit

Its been a while since we've looked at what goes into a long term care insurance policy. Here's a refresher on some of those elements.

The daily or monthly benefit is the amount you receive when you are eligible for benefits. The national average is $150-180/day or $4500-5400/month for a nursing home. Depending upon how much of your assets you want to protect, you may want to insure for the full cost of the worst case which is a nursing home.

You may on the other hand decide to insure only a portion of that risk. The key thing to keep in mind is that the difference you are responsible for will increase over time. If you did a benefit of $100/day or $3000/month, in 30 years, you're making up a $200/day or $6000/month difference.

Work with a long term care insurance specialist to make sure you understand the implications of the choices you make. Don't let your children find out in the future that you bought a policy that doesn't pay for what you need it to.