04. The Caregiver's Toolkit, Part 1: Planning for the "What Ifs"
What is long-term care insurance, and how can it help with life's "what ifs"?
Today marks the start of a three-part series I've been looking forward to sharing: the Caregiver's Toolkit. This series is about offering practical knowledge and tools to help you navigate caregiving with more confidence and clarity, no matter where you are in the process.
I've been a finance gal my whole career. From trading to investment banking to now working in finance at a Fortune 500, numbers have always helped me feel grounded. I like how they make big decisions more tangible. How a single change in an assumption can shape the outcome of a model, and in turn, shape a strategic or life plan.
So it probably won't surprise you that within the first month of married life, my husband and I sat down for a full financial deep dive. We wanted to understand where we stood, what our goals were — from paying off student loans to saving for our future kids' college — and how all that translated into day-to-day choices.
But as we worked through our spreadsheets, one type of questions kept surfacing:
What if we need daily help when we get older?
What if one or both of us develops dementia?
What if we live longer than we expect, but our savings don't?
The big question underneath all of it was: How are we going to afford long-term care if we don’t know what to plan for?
As my grandparents age, I'm seeing how the lack of funds set aside for caregiving leads to more emotional, physical, and financial investment from family members. And while that's given from a place of love, caregiving is still an incredibly demanding role. A staggering number of caregivers report feeling burned out, with a study by the Cleveland Clinic showing 60% of caregivers experience burnout.
However, in talking with other caregivers, many of whom are in their 50s and 60s, one phrase kept coming up: long-term care insurance.
The Basics in Plain English
Long-term care insurance (often shortened to LTCI) is a policy you can buy to help cover the costs of care if, at some point, you or your loved one are unable to do basic everyday tasks independently. Basic tasks include things like bathing, dressing, or getting to the bathroom safely.
That's it. It's not fancy or abstract. It's a tool designed to help with the very human reality of aging.
And here's the part that really resonated with me: if you're 65 today, there's a 70% chance you'll need some form of long-term care as you age. What’s more, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, men will on average need 2.2 years of long-term care services while women will need 3.7 years.
The financial impact is staggering as well. The median annual costs families are facing for care services, according to the to the Genworth Cost of Care Survey, are:
Adult day care: $26K for providing supervised care during daytime hours
Assisted living community: $71K, with occupancy rates increasing from 77% to 84% over the last year
Home health aid: $77K for “hands-on” assistance (e.g., bathing, dressing, and eating)
Nursing home care: $111K for semi-private rooms and $128K for private rooms
The need for financial solutions that allow loved ones to age comfortably — without placing partial or the entire financial burden on friends or family members — is real and critical to solve in our aging population. Long-term care insurance gives you more options and control over the kind of support you (or your loved ones) receive.
Now, here's a common point of confusion: long-term care insurance is not the same as health insurance.
Health insurance might cover rehab after surgery or a short-term nursing stay, but it doesn't cover the ongoing support many people need as they age. And while Medicare — the federal program that provides health coverage for people 65 and older — offers some help, it has limits. For instance, Medicare may cover skilled nursing home care under specific conditions, but it doesn't pay for assisted-living, homemaker services, or home health aide costs.
Long-term care insurance is built to bridge that gap.
Looking Ahead
Understanding long-term care insurance (LTCI) can feel overwhelming. It did for me. But here’s what I’ve learned: the earlier you start learning about your options and initiating a conversation about LTCI, whether with yourself, your spouse, or your loved ones, the more options you’ll have down the road.
Because here's the truth: whether it's through insurance, savings, family support, or some combination, we're all going to need a plan. The question isn't whether to plan, it's how to plan in a way that honors both our financial realities and our deepest values about aging, independence, and care.