How would your family pay for care later in life?
Many people will need help with daily living later in life. How it's paid for decides who chooses your care — and whether it drains what was meant for the people you care about.
Most people will need some help later in life.
“Someone turning age 65 today has almost a 70% chance of needing some type of long-term care services,” and “20 percent will need it for longer than 5 years”; women need care longer on average (3.7 years) than men (2.2 years). Help at home, assisted living or a nursing home is usually paid from the same savings meant for the healthy spouse's retirement or for what you planned to leave your children. Having the money available when the time comes is what keeps the choice — where, and how — yours. Your Protection Map measures what the care you choose to plan for could cost, and how much of it is not yet funded.
Source: U.S. Administration for Community Living, LongTermCare.gov
What families want to know
Doesn’t Medicare pay for it?
Mostly not. Medicare says it doesn’t pay for long-term care, because most long-term care is help with daily living rather than medical care.
How much could care cost?
You choose what to plan for, and each choice uses an FRP planning estimate of the yearly cost: 2 years of care at home at $75,000 a year; 3 years in assisted living at $75,000 a year; 5 years in a nursing facility at $120,000 a year. These are planning estimates, not measured averages.
What about care years from now?
Your Protection Map also shows the same care at age 80, with care costs rising 4% a year. Age 80 is an example, not a prediction.
What if we already have coverage?
Any long-term care coverage you tell us about is subtracted, and the result shows how much of the care you plan for isn’t funded yet.
Medicare: medicare.gov, “Long-term care.”
Three ways to protect against a financial risk
Fund it yourself: set money aside. Reduce the risk: arrange things so you'd need less if it happened. Transfer the risk: pay an insurer a set amount so a large loss doesn't fall on your family alone. Most households use a mix.
Long-term care insurance protects your savings and your choices if you need care later in life, and the family who would otherwise pay for it or provide it. Care can last years and cost more than most savings, and coverage pays toward it so it doesn't use up what was meant for others.
See where your family stands.
Extended Care is one of four financial risks your Protection Map looks at, in dollars, with every step shown.
See all four risks