Long Term View of Care

Hello, this is Will Hardy with ManTalk Radio. We are all about breaking down the walls of race and denomination. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few minutes.

Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening to the Truth Podcast Network. Managing Social Security, Medicare, IRAs, long-term care, life insurance, investments, and taxes. Now let's get started with Finishing Well. Finishing Well is a general discussion and education of the issues facing retirees. CardinalGuide.com, Cardinal Advisors, and Hans Shiel, CFP, sell insurance.

This show does not offer investment products or investment advice. So today on Finishing Well with certified financial planner Hans Shiel, we are once again going to take a longer term view and take a look down the road and see what our future self might be concerned about versus what our current self is. And so along those lines, I'm sure most of us are familiar with, or I hope you are, Jesus told a parable in Matthew 25, and he talked about 10 virgins who went out to meet the bridegroom and they had some lamps and they had some oil and five of them brought plenty of oil and five of them, when they woke up after they'd all fallen asleep because the bridegroom was late and coming, were short of oil. And so they tried to get oil from the other people that didn't have enough oil. And so they went out to buy oil. The really sad news was that when the bridegroom showed up, they weren't there because they went to buy oil.

And later on when they tried to get into the banquet, you know, there was weeping and gnashing of teeth out there. And so, you know, that's a really difficult, it's a difficult thing to hear, but Jesus taught it very specifically for a reason that we need to be thinking about, you know, what is he talking about? What is this oil? How much oil do I need?

How do I get it? And boy, I don't want to be the guy out standing outside, you know, wanting oil when I need it. And so it's worth contemplating. We want you to take your own interpretation.

I'll give you a little hint in my opinion. Psalms 119, verse 105, it's actually in the nun section, it's talking about your soul. It says, thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. And so, you know, there's no doubt in my own life, I'm thinking I need a plan in order to get as much word, oil, you know, however that works, the more God I can get in there, you know, the more I'm going to be ready. Really, Hans, in today's show, we want to talk about this from a practical level of like, when you take a long-term view of your life, you know, there's going to come a point, right, where you don't no longer able to go to the bathroom, or you're no longer able to clothe yourself, or how are you going to pay your bills when you're not so coherent anymore, right? Well, yeah, you know, what we've been blessed in our business is we're talking to people that are actually, that are calling us, and they're calling in, and they're asking for retirement planning, and they're ready to take the long-term view. They're in their 50s, 60s, 70s, most of them in their 60s somewhere, a lot of them in the early 60s, they're coming in and they're saying, help me take the long-term view, let's plan out this thing called retirement, and let's take, let me show you all we got, whatever money we've saved, whatever assets we've acquired, and then the Social Security that we're going to be entitled to, when should we turn that on, and how about our health insurance in case we get sick, how's that going to work with Medicare, and, you know, those are all the topics we talk about on the show. And the one that the most good comes from, or where I get the most satisfaction as a financial planner and a retirement planner, is around long-term care, is influencing these people that are already ready to take the long-term view, and I'm sitting down with them and I'm saying, okay, a piece of this long-term care, this long-term view is, and your money is, you may, at some point in the future, need to have somebody taking care of you, a somebody, and it would be nice to have a professional somebody, or you may not even have the choice of, you may have to take a professional somebody, and so what I work on doing, and part of this long-term care, long-term view, is to get people to carve out part of their savings, I try to influence them to carve out part of their savings, and put it toward paying for that. And the government supports that, that, you know, based on, you know, what I was reading here.

Well, they do. I mean, the government, in many ways, I mean, first of all, they've made some provision for tax deductibility of long-term care insurance, okay, and it's fairly complicated, maybe another show, but more importantly, which is simpler, is they've made a provision back in 2008, under the Pension Protection Act, that they made a provision to where you can avoid taxes on money accumulating inside of an annuity or a life insurance policy, and then using that to pay long-term care expenses, and thereby you'd never pay taxes on it, or making the money pulled out tax-free. So, we don't want to get into tax implications too much on the show today, because it takes away from the message, but the message here is, let's sit down when you're in your 50s, 60s, or 70s, and when you come to us for retirement planning, and let's look at your retirement assets, and let's make a decision of whether we can position part of them over to the side, or we can set them aside in an annuity or a life insurance policy that pays for long-term care if you need it. That's a whole mouthful that we can talk about, but I don't really want to get into details on this show so much as I just want to generally talk to people and talk to you, if you're listening today, about the importance of prioritizing this, and then putting your money where your mouth is to actually set aside some of your savings. Right, so the bigger issue is, you know, what are you going to do with these situations, and have you incorporated it into your plan for, you know, you, your spouse, your family, as we've talked about on the show many a times, that there's a lot involved in this. But the bigger issue is, what we're saying is, we've got ways to do it that are really cool, that I think are brilliant when it comes to using, you know, 401k money, or money that's in IRAs, and all sorts of different ways that can be done that look, you know, like there's really a lot of wisdom in them, but the biggest wisdom first is to decide, man, I've got to do something, I've got this issue, and what is, what's the plan? Well, and so I'm going to answer that, but I'm going to back up just a little bit, because the biggest push-off, or objection, or whatever you want to call it, and some of you may be thinking this in your mind right now, you're thinking, if I do have these resources, and you're talking about taking a piece of them and moving it over here, setting it aside to take care of this thing that may or may not happen to me, and, you know, what people are thinking is, well, I've got enough money, if this happens, I'll just pay for it myself. I mean, that's one of the biggest objections that I get from people that have, you know, substantial retirement savings, is they're just saying, ah, if it happens to me, I'll pay for it myself.

And so, what I'd like to do is go there, what does that look like? Okay, and I, you know, paying for it yourself, but first of all, you're not going to be in your 60s, most likely, you're going to be in your 80s or 90s, you know, you're not going to be in your 80s or 90s. And if you've ever sat down with an 80 or 90-year-old person who, and try to convince them to pay for just about anything, for starters, I mean, just, and to part with some of their savings, and specifically to pay a home health care aide, or to pay a home health care agency that's going to send aides out to take care of them, good luck with that. Oh my goodness, my dad did have plenty of assets. And, you know, he'd fallen and he'd broken his neck, and we needed help, and we actually had to go out of town for the weekend, because we were his caregivers, Tammy and I. And so, we called these home health care people, and man, he kicked them out of the house. When he realized. I was the one that gave you the phone number. And, you know, I went over to see him after that, to see your dad, and what a guy.

I mean, he was, you know, I mean, parts of that are fun, and you kind of laugh at it. He kicked them out of the house, but he's fairly typical. I mean, I've sat with millionaires, multimillionaires who are in their 80s or 90s. I'm there with their kids. Their kids are in their 50s and 60s, and their kids are taking over a whole financial thing, because dad or mom can't do it themselves anymore.

And, it's all been kept a secret, and they're kind of digging through there, and they've brought me in to kind of referee here, and kind of ask some of the financial questions. But, at the heart of the deal is, is that if mom doesn't get some care brought in, and if the daughter who flew into town who's taking care of mom doesn't get some help pretty quick, she's going to be sick, or she's got to go back to her job and back to her family. And then mom, who's got plenty of money, doesn't go for this at all. I mean, talking this 80 or 90 year old person out of just a little piece of their savings, just for a week of this stuff, it's like, it's difficult. Let's just put it that way. Yeah, because they hear the price of that stuff, and I can see the look in my dad's eyes to this day. Like, that is how much, you know? And it was just, it was unthinkable to him, which is really sad, you know? Because, again, it was just something that I guess was a lesson that I learned, like, when you're there, things look differently.

And that's the point that you're trying to make, is that our young selves sometimes have to give a word to our younger selves. And so you can see this long-term view is really helpful. From my perspective, we're talking about today with certified financial planner, Hans Scheil. Again, this show is brought to you by Cardinal Guide, cardinalguide.com. And of course, there's the videos at Cardinal Advisors on YouTube.

And so there's always Hans' book, The Complete Cardinal Guide, The Planning for Living in Retirement, which is there available at cardinalguide.com. So when we come back, we got more of this long-term view and some really cool strategies. From my standpoint, you know, once you grasp the concept of, wow, you know, when I get older, and it's not unlike the 10 virgins that thought, well, you know, I'll be ready when the time comes. But when the time comes, you're in a different position than you were when it started.

So we'll be right back. – Hans and I would love to take our show on the road to your church, Sunday School, Christian, or civic group. Here's a chance for you to advance the kingdom through financial resources by leveraging Hans' expertise in qualified charitable contributions, veterans aid and attendance, IRAs, Social Security, Medicare, and long-term care. Just go to cardinalguide.com and contact Hans to schedule a live recording of Finishing Well at your church, Sunday School, Christian, or civic group. Contact Hans at cardinalguide.com.

That's cardinalguide.com. Welcome back to Finishing Well with Certified Financial Planner Hans Seil. Today's show, taking a long-term view.

What's it going to be like for my older self? You know, these are questions that are really valuable for us to really deal with while we can. Well, they are. And so we just left the front of the hour by where we were talking about stubbornness. I mean, that's really, we were talking about this 80 or 90 year old person who, you know, has money and they have resources and they're kind of thinking, well, haha, you told me I needed to buy long-term care insurance and I told you I had enough money if I ever needed it. And so, yeah, I mean, so now we need care. Daughter's out there. She's been taking care of me for two weeks. She's tired.

I'm ornery. The house needs cleaning. Meals need to be prepared. And frankly, if we don't get some help in here, I'm going to a nursing home. So, therefore, I'm just going to kind of get some of that money out that I saved and I'm going to start paying for those home health care people. Yeah, right. And I mean, it usually doesn't go that way. I mean, we've got to wait until 80 or 90 year old mom or dad is completely out of it.

And then the daughter is the power of attorney orders and stuff. And so the comment that I wanted to make was somebody who's stubborn when they're 90. Pretty good chance they were stubborn when they were 65 or 70. And what I'm saying is the people that are rejecting this whole idea that have money at 65 or 70 are stubborn.

And I'm fine with that. I deal with stubborn people all the time. But they're going to be even more stubborn when they're 85 or 90. So they're the ones that say, oh no, I'm not doing that now.

So I just want to break down the barriers a little bit. And I want you to, when you're at the point of retirement planning, you know, many of you, you probably need to do that anyhow. You probably need to get your whole retirement and how you're going to part and parcel the money to yourself and God and everyone else over your whole retirement. That's what we do. And the topic of today's show is I would like you to consider taking a portion of your savings and your retirement savings and setting it aside in either a life insurance policy or an annuity policy that pays enhanced benefits for long-term care.

I mean, it's that simple. I'm not talking about spending this portion because it's not going to the insurance company and it's not gone. It is just moved from wherever it is now and it's put with the insurance company. You still have a cash value with the insurance company.

So it's put in a different place. It can grow on a tax-deferred basis. And then when you ultimately need it for long-term care, it's going to pay out and it's just going to be there. And I'm going to go back to this person in their 80s or 90s, who's a little stubborn.

They're going to be all four. I mean, if your dad had a life insurance policy, or he did have a life insurance policy, but if it paid for long-term care, he would have been all four collecting off of it. Would you agree with that, Robbie? Yeah, he definitely would have. And what it would have changed things for me and the guilt that I feel to this day that we didn't keep him at home, because what he really needed, what would have really given him a lot better quality of life the last four or five months of his life, would have been able to stay at home. We just didn't understand the process. And so actually, I'm always been grateful for an opportunity to share with people on this show that what we learned and that they can get this for their families and actually for themselves, that how much better would it have been for him? And you know the story.

Had he actually stayed at home rather than going back into the rehabs and stuff that he did. What happens here is now we're going to go back to the people in their 50s, 60s, and 70s, which is most of you listening. What I'm talking about here is when we're doing financial planning, retirement planning, and we're considering how much do you have in your IRA, how much do you have saved separately, how much is your social security check going to be, how much is your pension if you have one, and making all that work, how much do you need to spend in retirement, how much are you going to spend later in retirement.

And that's what we do for a living. And all I'm saying is if you do a plan with us, we're going to do it for you. We're going to carve out a piece of your savings and show you how you can put that over here prepared and prepare it for long-term care. So that when you get in this situation, if you do, that there's going to be a fund there to draw off of, which is going to give you a lot of peace of mind through the whole of your retirement. And then furthermore, it's going to make it easier on your family to actually get you the care you need. Now, if we're back to you in your 50s or 60s or 70s and you do come into me, or you call me, or you're considering you, you may be sitting there, oh, I'm not going to call him because I don't really have much money. And I don't think that, you know, I don't have money to set aside for this.

So no point in calling him. Well, here's what I'm going to tell you is, first of all, give me a call because there's nothing better than to get an assessment. If you've got a problem lurking out there, you don't want to avoid it.

So let's get an assessment. And if you truly can't afford hybrid long-term care, well, I'm certainly not going to recommend it, but we have options for you to take and carve out a piece of your budget to pay for a traditional long-term care policy or a short-term care policy. And that's actually what you did, Robbie, is you- Right. I didn't have the financial resources. I would love to have an annuity or the life insurance policy if I had a big IRA and all that. But based on what happened in my life, I, you know, this was really helpful for me to see and for my wife. You know, there's no explaining the quality of how she felt when we covered this with her and she felt like I'm going to be taken care of because she experienced that with my father.

She experienced it with my mother to some extent and then with her own mother. You pay a premium about what your Medicare supplement was and is every month. And you've got some basic long-term care protection that pays in a facility and it pays at home. It pays pretty substantial benefits at home that if your dad had had something like that, life would have been a lot easier. Yeah.

I mean, it was kind of cool. You know, of course he'd had the resources to do something, you know, that was, you know, setting aside the money, which is really cool because the money is going to be there regardless of if you need the care. But as what we have, there's no doubt he would have jumped off the blame.

He would have been saying, I've got, I've got insurance for that. Let's get those people in. You know, I can hear it.

Yeah. Listen, my dad was so stubborn when he was in this situation that, you know, in the people in the hospital, he was hitting the buzzer, you know, that little hand buzzer just constantly every five minutes, you know, calling him in there. So they, you know, you're getting out of bed. So they finally strapped him in the chair. I mean, they put him in the chair because he wanted to get out of bed and they strapped him in the chair.

And he was so stubborn while he was in the hospital that he bounced his way out of sheer will and strength out of the room and into the hall so he could talk to the nurses and some of them. I mean, I mean, it just, and once he got home, he, you know, trying to do things for him was just, so I know all about stubborn, you know, and just to say, I might be that way when I'm, you know, when I'm in that state. Yeah, I'm with you. You know, it's, it's, but that's the, that's the idea of going, okay, let's take a long-term view now. And, and really the younger, the better.

Oh, it is. I mean, I, I'm showing my policy to a lot of people that are my age because a lot of people coming in are 63, 64, 65. And, um, I'm 63 and I bought my policy when I was 53 and my wife was 52 and it's a 10-year pay. So this is the year that I finished paying for it.

And I show that to people or I talk about it. Um, and you know, it's got $130,000 of cash value into it. And that's about the amount of the paid-in premium. And, but I tell people that you buy a similar policy now at 63 or four, it's going to cost you about double that because you're 10 years older. But, um, so don't let those numbers scare you. We, we've got all kinds of ways to work and rework this. And don't let your health scare you away either because if you have health problems that certain policies aren't available to you, we've got others that are.

So if, if you're willing to consider taking part of your savings and putting it aside for this problem, we've got all kinds of solutions. Right. And from my perspective, it's not that dissimilar from, you know, what Jesus was talking about in Matthew, that if, if I don't understand what this oil is, it's no time to bury my head in the sand. It's time to figure out what's he talking about, you know, so I can have this settled in and digging into it in spite of the fact that's sort of a difficult conversation. Right.

And, but this is along the same lines. Yeah, it's very difficult. And I'm sensitive to that. But I'm, while I'm sensitive at it, I, I continue on until the people just tell me to stop. Okay. I'm not buying this. Okay. And I'm going to put that in the notes because I'm going to feel good in myself that I recommended it because I'm dealing with the children 20 years from now. Or maybe I'm not because I'm, but Tom will be.

Well, we'll hope you are, you know, let's just say. Yeah. So one of the things I wanted to talk about is how many people that we have from all over the United States. I mean, we're licensed in all 50 states in the District of Columbia. And this insurance stuff that we're talking about, hybrid long-term care, is regulated by the state insurance department. So you can imagine there's different things available, different options available in each state. And we're licensed and keep up with the available offerings in all 50 states in DC.

And thankful to the podcast and YouTube and the ability to deal on, on a Zoom meeting. I mean, we just now, our day is spent with people all over the United States. So there were different laws for life insurance in different states? Yes, for starters is they're similar because they're laid out by the NAIC, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, but then each state has their own little version. And where it comes into play is all these companies have to file these policies with each state insurance department. And so you can imagine that as an insurance company, and then they've got to tailor their version to whatever the laws of the state are, the whims of the insurance commissioner. So, you know, like California, for instance, the short-term care policy that you bought here in North Carolina is not available.

Okay? It just, they don't approve any short-term care policy. But there are things available. And then the things that are available are these hybrids we've been talking about, hybrid life insurance, hybrid annuities, traditional long-term care. But then California has its own version of that.

So then, I mean, it just, there's a lot of intricacies which we don't really need to explain to people because if you call us from California, we just know about the California stuff. And that's what we're going to recommend and do. The point I wanted to make is if you're listening to this anywhere in the country, we have options available for you in your state. And we can do it right over the phone. Yeah, and there's no time like the present, right?

Because the sooner you do it, you can see the more options you have and somewhat the better options you have, right? Oh, yeah. I mean, it's just, it's God's work. It's just, it's spreading all over the country. And it's really hard to find a specialist in long-term care.

I mean, it really is. I mean, you can call people up and say, do you offer policies? Do you have a policy? And a lot of people are going to say, yeah, we are specialists. We're trained in this. We have experience with it. And then, we have most of the available policies in all of these areas available.

And whatever's available in a given state, we have it, we're familiar with it, and we know what to recommend. So, and just through the use of Zoom and then the customer's willingness to work over the phone and over a Zoom, it's just opened up the whole country to us. Yeah, that's awesome. Well, we ran out of time again before we ran out of show, but thank you.

That's a lot of fun. And we'll look forward to what God does along all these lines. Thank you so much. Finishing well is a general discussion and education of the issues facing retirees. Cardinal Gray, thank you so much for joining us. We hope you enjoyed Finishing Well, brought to you by CardinalGuide.com. Visit CardinalGuide.com for free downloads of this show or previous shows on topics such as Social Security, Medicare, IRAs, long-term care, life insurance, investments, and taxes, as well as Hans' best-selling book, The Cardinal Guide.

We hope you enjoyed Finishing Well, brought to you by CardinalGuide.com. Visit CardinalGuide.com for free downloads of this show or previous shows book, The Complete Cardinal Guide to Planning for and Living in Retirement, and The Workbook. Once again, for dozens of free resources, past shows, or to get Hans' book, go to CardinalGuide.com. If you have a question, comment, or suggestion for future shows, click on the Finishing Well radio show on the website and send us a word. Once again, that's CardinalGuide.com. CardinalGuide.com. This is the Truth Network.