SAVING GRACE

How to finance and save for senior care.

- CARA MCDONALD

A broken hip, a sudden stroke, memory loss—none of us like to think of a future in which we’re laid up or need long-term care, but sticking our heads in the sand won’t pay the whopping bills. According to the US Department of Health and Human Services, if you turn 65 today, there’s a 75 percent chance you’ll need long-term care at some point in your life.

“As hard as it is, this is part of a conversation we have every day with our clients,” says Claudia Rodriguez, a financial adviser with Edward Jones in Traverse City. “It’s a conversation ideally to have in your 40s into the 50s.” Why so soon? Because one of the most common methods of funding, long-term care insurance, looks at issues of insurability just like health and life insurance would. And, as Rodriguez points out, “we are all just one doctor’s appointment away from a diagnosis that can render us uninsurable.”

Rodriguez notes, however, that long-term care insurance is just one of three major options you should have on your radar.