Preparing For Tomorrow podcast

This episode is from September, 2022, and shares some things to consider when kids aren't a part of our retirement equation.  Topic to consider - Hope is not a plan.  We hope we'll never need care.  We hope that, if we do, that we have enough money to pay for it.   What if we don't have a family to protect?  Do we really need LTC insurance?    Many people with no kids have had better opportunities to save throughout their lives.  They've lived well and comfortably for as long as they can remember.  People without kids have always been able to choose how they want to live and likely want to be able to continue to choose how they want to live. That can't happen if the assets are depleted and Medicaid starts paying for care.  The state Medicaid system will tell you where and how you're going to spend your last years - you won't get to decide. Costs for long term care are increasing by at leasT 5% annually.  Last year, independent living increased by almost 9% nationwide.  Assisted living increased by almost that much. If we want to stay in control of where we live and who is helping when we can't do things anymore, we need a plan.  And we need to be able to afford to maintain that plan.  LTC insurance is the most affordable way to accomplish this if care is needed.  Ask me how I can help at

This is a case study from 2022. My client Sandy doesn't know in which part of the country she plans to retire, so we designed a plan that will help her provide for herself in any of the regions she is considering.  It's important to consider what life will be like in 20-30 years when we're planning for LTC needs.  And it's important to research projected future costs of care to understand the real risk we'll face.  In 25 years, home care and assisted living costs can easliy be $240,000 annually.  Having a dedicated, tax-free stream of income to pay for some or most of these costs gives us permission to live out our retirement years without wondering if we will be able to provide for ourselves after a stroke or if Alzheimer's disease settles in. Ask me for guidance at

This is one of my favorite past episodes.  This is from January, 2022, and my friend that I share here is now paying $18,000/month for her mom to live in memory care.  Mom is healthy, other than her mind being absent most of the time, so we have no idea how long she will live there.  But, as of now, her kids are spending over $200,000 annually from her investments to pay for care.  Losing their inheritance is not the primary concern.  Taking care of mom is.  But as the accounts rapidly deplete for the cost of care, and the higher tax bracket, and the higher Medicare premiums, in not too much longer, mom's accounts will be drained. The question then will be, "Do the kids continue to apy $18,000/month (or more) fromtheir own money to keep her where she is?  Or do they work to qualify her for Medicaid, not knowing where she might be moved to receive Medicaid benefits?" Diane shares how having a long term care plan in place can benefit our family.  This week, we learn that, by preparing our plan early, we are designing a roadmap or blueprint for our family to follow when we need help living.  Without a plan, our life and their lives instantly find chaos when dementia or a stroke changes everything in an instant.

This episode was originally published in June,2022, so some numbers are slightly outdated. With a long battle of dementia looming, Bonnie's family is pretty sure she doesn't have enough insurance to pay for as long as she needs.  They know that she has at least 3 years of benefits, and that buys them the time they'll need to plan for a transition to Medicaid, if needed. They won't need to sell her house right away, and she can live there alone for now, with help from her LTC insurance and home caregivers.  They can be ready if she needs to move to assisted living or to her son's home.  The family has options, depending on how her health leads their decisions, and they can remain in control of her choices as they help her transition as easily as possible.  Schedule a phone or zoommeeting with me at

This week, Diane shares three things we need to consider if we are designing a long term care plan with multiple policies purchased over multiple years.  Age, health and insurance industry and company changes could cause us to pay a lot more for coverage later.  Or we may end up not eligible to buy additional coverage when we want to.  However, if we absolutely have to build our plan in pieces, and if some event or industry change occurs that prevents us from doing so, at least we have some coverage in place that will help our family help us better.   Starting early and having your benefits grow over time is a safer way to plan.  Let me help you create meaningful benefits using the most efficient funding strategy. Ask me how at

Lately, we've been getting a lot of inquiries from adult children of parents who failed to plan for LTC needs.  These people are disappointed that their parents either thought they wouldn't live this long, or if they did, they wouldn't need help living through each day.  The kids are now considering that they may also live a long life and need help someday. Often, these kids want a quick quote for LTC insurance for themselves.  It's not that simple, as there are a lot of questions to work through as well as design and funding options to consider. This week, Diane shares several LTC planning solutions and who would be better off with certain solutions.  We share some limitations with each strategy as well. Thank you to BuddyIns for sharing your wealth of knowledge and resources to help with our research.

Suze Orman talked about annuities on Sunday, and she brought so much valuable info to her listeners.  You can listen and subscribe here - In addition to fixed and indexed annuities to create a future stream of income, you may be able to use an annuity to leverage LTC costs.  If you have that emergency fund that is turning into a long term care fund the older you get, you can deposit some of that savings into an annuity that includes enhanced or added benefits for extended care needs. Or if you own an annuity that you are not planning to use as income, we can reposition that money into an annuity with added LTC benefits. There are several options with this kind of planning.  The one I discuss this week has the potential to return 10 times (or more) the amount you deposit when you need help with things like eating, bathing, toileting, continence, transferring or dressing.  The annuity discussed here defers taxes on your gains  until you withdraw money.  Others provide tax-free income for LTC needs at two or three times the account value.  If you have several years of tax-deferred growth on your non-qualified annuity, you can move to a new annuity with tax-free LTC benefits and avoid paying taxes on that gain. These work well for people who are very heavy or have health concerns that prevent them from considering other LTC coverage options. Contact me at Let's work together to design a plan with meaningful benefits using the most efficient funding strategy for you.

Jeremy in Minnesota asked Diane to explain the phrase "protect assets equal to benefits paid".  This is referencing the federal LTC Partnership Protection Act, and Diane explains how this law works to protect the middle and upper middle class from financial destruction when an exhaustive extended care needs show up.  Partnership protection is approved in 44 states. In this episode, Diane shares how a Partnership qualified LTC policy protects assets and eases stress throughout the family. Jim & Holly don't own a plan, while Pete & Jan do.  Listen and learn how Pete's Partnership qualified plan allowed Jan to not deplete assets that Jan will need to continue living comfortably, while Holly must impoverish herself to get Medicaid help for Jim.

This week is chock full of questions we need to be asking to make sure our LTC plan is really going to work.  We say we want to stay home, but what are the deeper questions we need to address to be sure that will work?  The 3 parts to a plan are 1) where do we want to live? 2) who do we want to have with us? and 3) how will we pay for this?  We're digging deeper into what these questions and our answers really mean for us and for those around us.  You may not want or qualify for LTC insurance, but your family will still be thankful if you have a plan, write it down and share it with them.  If you would like insurance to help pay for your plan, that's where I can help.  Please ask for help and guidance

Do you own a life insurance policy that has built cash value over the years, and now your need for that coverage has lessened as your net worth and liquid assets have grown?  Listen and learn how you can 1035 exchange that plan for one that also includes LTC coverage.  If you never need extended care, a death benefit goes back to your estate, and the premiums are guaranteed to never increase

This episod is from April 2022, and Aaron in Ohio was seeking tax deductions for his corporation.  He brought me a quote to review, and we found that using the exact same premium amount, how three different tax deductions can be designed just by moving some variables.  There are multiple ways to design a plan to create different results.  When I work with my clients, I ask a lot of questions, and we work together to desing plans customized for each family's unique situation. During tax season, we are all seeking deductions.  Reach out to me at to learn how you can protect your family AND reduce your tax obligations!

As we are all working to file our business and personal income taxes by March or April, I thought I would bring this episode back as we are always seeking more tax deductions.  LTC insurance may be tax deductible, depending on how you file your taxes - as an individual and as a business. This episode is from July, 2020, when our tax deadline was moved to July due to COVID.  The numbers are from 2020, but the principle stands. in 2023, if you file as a w-2 employee, you 'll need to meet 7.5% of your adjusted gross income in medical expenses to deduct LTC premiums. If you own an S corporation or a partnership, there are age range caps that can be deducted.  The 2023 caps are  -  age <40    $480 per policyholder Age 41-50 $890 per policyholder Age 51-60 $1790 per policyholder Age 61-70 $4770 per policyholder Age 71+ $5960 per policyholder Owners of C Corporations can deduct 100% of LTC premiums with no caps Let's connect and find you some deductions while we build leverage against the biggest potential financial risk your family may ever face.  Schedule with me at

BuddyIns is holding a webinar on March 23rd at 1 PM eastern to discuss this very topic with LTC guru Phyllis Shelton.  Email me at , and I'll send you an invitation to register and attend.  If you register and can't attend, a link will be sent to you to listen at your convenience. There are many ways to reply to this question, and I may end up replying again over the next couple of weeks.  Today, we are talking about family. When we buy LTC insurance, we are not really buying it for us.  We buy it for our families - so they have the resources they need to be able to help us.  No one will be fighting over costs of care or arguing about why one person is doing so much more for mom than everyone else.  We'll have a plan in place for our needs, along with dedicated funds to pay for those needs.  Our kids can be our kids instead of being forced to be our nurses and diaper changers.

This eposide from May, 2022 is chock full of statistics.  When we're younger, it's more fun to use our money for travel, cars, and fun.  We don't want to think about paying for care needs that could be decades away, but we need to plan early to get the best rates and to have a higher liklihood to be approved.  The youngest person to ever file an LTC claim was 27.  The longest claim to date has paid over $2.6 million over 20+ years, and the client only paid in about $36,000 over 13 years bedore needing care. Also, check out htis article that discusses LTC workforce shortages that make it really important to have dedicated funds to pay for care and move quicly to the front of the line

We are pausing the recordings for a little while to allow time to thoroughly review the content we've delivered over the last 3+ years (over 150 episodes). I'll be listening to all of our past recordings and organizing them to see more clearly what we may be missing and where we may be focusing too much. We'll continue to publish our favorite episodes weekly to continue to help you to learn, and I'll be sure to keep you informed of updates inte LTC industry as well as with new state and federal laws. I'll include links to important info here in the show notes as needed. As always, I invite you to schedule with me to discuss and design a plan together to protect your family, assets and choices. Schedule at

Over the last couple of months, I've been helping a women get her LTC claim approved so she won't have to face a rate increase that is scheduled in February 2023. She clearly needs help and can qualify for benefits, but she was using the wrong language. Listen to her story, and learn from her prior mistakes. What do you need to know? 1) Don't just accept what an agent tells you about the policy.  Instead, read the policy and ask questions.  Make sure the person helping you design an implement a plan is a LTC specialist and will be able to help you through this journey, long past the sale. 2) Review your policy every few years, preferably with your family, so you all understand how and when it works 3) Review the policy language and use that language when opening a claim to get a quicker approval When you are ready to start designing a plan to protect your family, schedule a phone or zoom meeting with me so we can do it right the first time.

I've met many people, and I've seen the podcast downloads grow a lot in the last two years.  I'm taking you back to one of our earliest episodes to share my "Why".   I became a long term care specialist because my heart yearns to help you not go through what I and my family went through in the same degree. Currently, there is no way to prevent Alzheimer's disease from overtaking a person's brain, but there are ways to make it just a little easier on the family as they work to help as much as they can. My aim is to help you reduce the emotional, physical and financial consequences that dementia carries. We need to ask ourselves if we will have a plan to take care of the immeasurable risks of a long term care need, or will our needs eventually control our plan. Let me help you Prepare for the Tomorrow that we all hope never comes, but too often does.  Email me to schedule a phone or zoom meeting to get started -

Too often, we go through the process to learn about LTC and LTC insurance, work though the costs and see how it can work to help us protect our family, savings and choices.  Then we decide to wait to purchase a plan. Sometimes, the reason to wait is very valid - putting kids through school, just changed jobs, building a house, caring for a parent. Sometimes, when we wait, a health concern shows up that increases our risk of needing care.  This may create higher premiums, limit our options or make us an unacceptable risk. If you know you want coverage, don't wait.  LTC insurance wil never cost less than it does today, while you are young enough and healthy enough to be approved with reasonable rates. Ask me for help and guidance at

We face natural consequences throughout our entire lives.  From not getting up on time to go to school, all the way to not preparing for our last chapter of living here on earth, the consequences of poor decisions are always there.   As adult children of parents who failed to plan, we need to decide if we're going to sacrifice our futures to pay for or provide care for our parents.  When we are forced, we will sacrifice for them because that's what they did for us as we were growing up.   Our parents don't want us to bankrupt ourselves and place our children in a position of sacrifice.  All our lives, they've wanted us to be ok. One of the hardest decisions to make is whether to allow Medicaid to take over our parents' care needs or provide/pay for care ourselves.   We need to stop the cycle of impoverishment that looms when we have not planned for LTC needs.  We need to prepare today so we can be secure tomorrow, when life shows up and changes the rules suddenly. I can help you make your retirement years more predictable by designing a plan to cover the unplanned.

Happy New Year! Let's welcome 2023 with the mindset of being prepared for our tomorrows.  Schedule that family meeting, whether it's to work with me to design a plan, to discuss your LTC plan with your family, or to implement and manage a care plan for yourself or a family member. This week, Diane shares some relevant topics in the LTC world that came to fruition in 2022.  And she also discusses what we can expect going forward into this year. Many people are realizing that they don't want the same plan their parents have, which too often is spend all your money until it's gone and then rely on the government.  Living through that poor decision by our parents, we don't want to have that same burden land on our kids. I pray for many blessings for you and your families in 2023.  And I look forward to helping you develop your LTC plan this year.  This will allow you to know that by creating a dedicated and tax-free stream of income for extended care needs, you are freeing up the rest of your retirement plan for whatever you want and dream for your golden years. Ask me for help to design a plan unique to your family at