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Life often has a way of taking unexpected turns, especially when we get older. While there’s no way to know for sure if you’ll need long-term care in the future, it’s quite likely considering that people are living longer than ever—in fact, 69% of people will use long-term care services at some point.

As you draw closer to your golden years, getting long-term care insurance (LTCI) can be a smart decision to ensure peace of mind and financial stability for both you and your loved ones. With many options available, making the right choice can feel overwhelming. Use this checklist to help you evaluate and take that next step toward getting coverage.

1. Understanding Long-Term Care and Early Planning:

• Define the types of care: Understand the various forms of long-term care, such as nursing home care, home health care or assisted living. Determine what kind of care you or a loved one might need. It’s also important to think about the kind of care that LTCI doesn’t cover, which typically includes care provided by family members or medical care costs.
• Start early: The sooner you start evaluating your long-term care insurance options, the better. Early planning can allow for better financial preparation and a broader range of choices.

2. Exploration of Insurance Options and Policy Features:

• Traditional vs. hybrid policies: Traditional long-term care insurance (also known as a standalone policy) covers nursing home care, home health care and assisted living, while hybrid policies combine the death benefit of life insurance or annuities with long-term care benefits.
• Policy features: Look into the specific features like the daily or monthly benefit amount, length of benefit period and the elimination period. Consider inflation protection to ensure the benefit amount keeps pace with rising care costs.

3. Costs, Premiums and Coverage Specifics:

• Premium costs: Understand the cost of premiums and assess if they fit within your budget. It’s also important to understand whether the premiums can increase in the future and under what circumstances.
• Coverage details: Know which services are covered, which are not and any conditions or restrictions. This can help you avoid any surprises later.

4. Provider Reputation, Financial Stability and Legal Consultation:

• Provider reputation: Choose companies known for servicing long-term care policies well. Check the financial strength ratings of the insurance company.
• Legal and financial advice: Seek advice from legal and financial professionals familiar with long-term care planning to understand the implications of long-term care insurance.

5. Family Discussion and Continuous Evaluation:

• Family discussions: Engage family members in discussions about long-term care planning to ensure everyone is on the same page. LTCI is also there to help your loved ones, as it takes the pressure off your family to provide care.
• Continuous evaluation: As needs change over time, review and update your policy regularly, especially after major life events. It’s always a good idea to review any form of insurance annually.

By following this checklist, you can make informed decisions that provide peace of mind and financial stability for yourself and your loved ones. Evaluating long-term care insurance options is a crucial step in preparing for life’s uncertainties. A licensed insurance agent can help you take the next step of getting coverage.

Too often, families are left unsure of the way forward when grieving the loss of a loved one, as plans for their final arrangements and corresponding finances are left unsettled before their passing. Taking a proactive approach to end-of-life planning can help ease these burdens and support a smoother transition for your loved ones.

Tips for preparing your end-of-life finances

Consider who you want as beneficiaries of your estate. Ensure you take time to consider which family members you want to have as decision-makers and beneficiaries of your estate. You may also need to update them across different financial accounts. For example, your spouse may have died since you originally listed your beneficiaries, which could affect the plan for your estate. Changes like these should be reported as encountered and can help your assets be released quickly after your passing.

Get life insurance coverage. Life insurance is one financial resource that helps make it easier for your loved ones to carry on financially after you die. Your beneficiaries will initiate a claim once the death certificate has been issued, and they’ll receive the death benefit (cash) to use how they see fit. This could mean funding your funeral costs, paying off your medical bills and much more.

Appoint an executor and power of attorney (POA). Even with the most meticulous pre-planning, there are often loose ends left untied. For this reason, it’s a good idea to have a trusted family member or friend appointed as the executor of your will and possibly a power of attorney who can step in and make decisions on your behalf should you be unable to.

Finalize plans in a written will and last testament. Once you speak to your loved ones and confirm who will facilitate your end-of-life plans, meet with an estate lawyer to have your will and last testament notarized. This will include the outlined roles of your family, any beneficiaries and an advanced directive should you see fit.

Consider meeting with funeral or burial experts to pre-plan your services. Pre-planning and budgeting for any services after your passing is an excellent way to relieve some of your family’s stress. Consider whether you want to be buried or cremated, where you would like to rest and any third parties you would like to have officiate. Further, write your preferences into your will to help give everyone peace of mind. While not legally binding, it helps guide your power of attorney on how to proceed during a challenging time.

Enlist the help of experts

Once your documents are finalized and you’ve made copies for the necessary parties, consulting with an attorney, financial professional and funeral consultant can help ensure everything is set in stone. An attorney will notarize your will, a financial professional can help you understand your life insurance options and your estate’s worth, and a funeral director can help ensure your end-of-life preparations are precisely what you envision. While this can feel like a somber task, it can help ensure your wishes are met and take stress off your loved ones in the future.

Life insurance is a topic usually associated with adults since it provides peace of mind for those who have someone depending on them financially. But there is life insurance coverage for minors as well, known as child life insurance or juvenile life insurance.

It can sound unnecessary or even a little morbid, but child life insurance offers an array of benefits, including financial planning and future insurability for your child. Let’s dive into what child life insurance is, its purpose and the key considerations when exploring this option.

Understanding Child Life Insurance

Child life insurance is typically a permanent policy designed to serve multiple purposes. Its primary function is to offer a death benefit in the tragic event of a child’s passing. While no parent wants to contemplate that scenario, it can ensure financial support for your family during an emotionally challenging time.

Another common reason parents (or grandparents) get coverage for their child is to build cash value over time. This cash value is not only a monetary asset, but also a tool for supporting their future financial needs.

Who Benefits from Child Life Insurance?

Child life insurance can help with a few key things: guaranteeing your child’s future insurability, forming a fund for major expenses later in life through the cash value and providing a death benefit if needed.

1. Future insurability:

   It can’t be overstated how important this first part is: securing your child’s future insurability. Unfortunately, you can’t predict what health conditions may impact your child as they age. Depending on the situation, they could be uninsurable later in life. If they’re insured now, they’ll be able to keep that permanent policy for life regardless of any health issues that may arise.

   Plus, life insurance premiums are typically more affordable the younger and healthier you are. By getting coverage for your child at a young age (as early as two weeks old), you can safeguard your child’s access to insurance and get a better policy at a more affordable rate than if they tried to get that same coverage as an adult.

Cash value:

Secondly, child life insurance acts as an investment for giving your child a strong financial start in life. The cash value that accumulates in the policy can be tapped to fund major life milestones, like getting their first car, paying for college or even a down payment on a house later on. The beauty of child life insurance lies in its flexibility—the cash value can be utilized at the discretion of the policy owner for any purpose you wish.

Death benefit:

If the unthinkable were to happen while a child is still young, the life insurance death benefit would be there to provide financial support for things like a funeral, medical expenses or leaving a legacy. Take the Koonsman family, for example, who made the fortunate decision to purchase permanent policies for both of their daughters when they were young. Their plan was to gift the policies to their girls once they were grown. Instead, they used Hope’s policy to pay medical bills and start a foundation in her honor after she died unexpectedly at age 19 from a birth defect that they thought was long in the past.

Getting a Child Life Insurance Policy

Purchasing a child life insurance policy is relatively straightforward. Through a licensed agent, parents (or grandparents with parental consent) can initiate the process of life insurance planning for their child. Generally, healthy children can be covered with ease, involving a questionnaire and a medical record check. In most cases, there’s no requirement for a physical examination if the child is born healthy. However, if a child is born prematurely or with health concerns, there might be a waiting period until they’re a year old or older.

Child life insurance policies are permanent, providing coverage throughout their lifetime, but flexibility remains a hallmark of these policies. They can be canceled at any point through cash surrendering, cashing out the policy’s value or discontinuing premium payments. If cashed out, there might be tax implications for permanent policies. Notably, these policies also enable policyholders to take out loans against the cash value, so it’s important to consult an insurance professional about your options.

 

In conclusion, the benefits of child life insurance extend far beyond its surface. It’s an investment in your child’s future insurability, a vehicle for financial planning and a means of establishing a strong foundation for life’s milestones. Whether you’re a parent or grandparent, exploring child life insurance could be key to unlocking a brighter future for the ones you love.

When it comes to parenting, your to-do list can seem never-ending, from signing up for school activities, to projects around the house, to planning for the future. It seems as soon as you check something off, a few more to-dos jump right on the list.

If you’re a single parent, that list may be even longer—and more complex—especially if you are your children’s “one and only.” And you could be feeling the pressure: Three quarters say they felt overwhelmed with becoming a single parent, and more than a quarter (27%) admit being very overwhelmed, according to Life Happens’ new survey, “Single Parents and the Financial Future.”

What’s more, single parents say they’d need a minimum of $332,705 in savings to feel at ease about raising their child. In fact, making sure their kids will be OK financially is something that the average single parent thinks about five times a day on average.

However, four in 10 single parents admit that they didn’t start planning for their child’s financial future until their kids were 4 to 6 years old—or even later. Only 10% started before their child was born, according to the data.

Don’t Leave It to Chance

Does any of this sound like you? If so, have you asked yourself: “What would happen if I were no longer in the picture? Where would the money come from to take care of my children?”

More than a quarter of single parents surveyed (28%) say they’d let others raise money on a crowdfunding site to provide for their children. Only half say they’ve purchased life insurance to protect their children’s financial future if someone else had to take care of them.

Given that life insurance is an affordable solution, why aren’t more single parents considering it? The truth is that most people overestimate the cost of life insurance by three times or more (2023 Insurance Barometer Study by Life Happens and LIMRA). So, it does stand to reason that if people think it would be out of their price range, they wouldn’t even consider it.

But let’s put it into perspective: A healthy 30-year-old can get a 20-year $250,000 level term life insurance policy for around $200 a year. That works out to about $4 a week. And if something were to happen to you, that $250,000 would go to ensuring your child’s future would be everything you dreamed it would be.

If you need any inspiration (or motivation), watch Summer’s story here. She was a young single mom who was, tragically, hit by a car and killed when she was just 22. Her son, Nathan, was just nine months old. When she was pregnant, she put a life insurance policy in place for just $12 a month that ensured Nathan’s future would be bright no matter what happened.

Don’t let being unsure of how much or what kind of life insurance to buy stop you from getting coverage. To start, you can do a quick calculation with our Life Insurance Needs Calculator to get a general idea of how much you may need. And if you want help choosing the right kind of policy that fits your budget, you can talk with an insurance professional at no cost or obligation. If you don’t have someone to work with, you can use Life Happens’ Agent Locator here.

Some things can take a “set-and-forget” approach, but your life insurance shouldn’t be one of them! A lot can happen in a year. Think about the changes you’ve seen in your own life: maybe you’ve taken a new job, expanded your family, bought a house, or any number of things.

Since life insurance provides vital financial protection to your family should anything happen to you, it’s important to review it annually to ensure you have sufficient coverage aligned with your ever-evolving life circumstances.

Let’s look at the key factors that make reviewing your life insurance annually a smart choice.

Why Should You Review Your Life Insurance Annually?

You’ve had a job change.

When you start a new job where your earnings are projected to increase, make sure to review your life insurance policy. As your income rises, your spending habits may also change, so ensure that your policy can still provide adequate coverage for your family’s growing financial needs. This same principle applies to a substantial raise or promotion at the same company too.

What about if you’ve recently retired or are planning to retire soon? While it might seem like your time for life insurance is over, this job change is also an important time to review your life insurance policy and make sure that you have the right amount of coverage as you look toward covering your final expenses, paying off any debt and leaving a legacy.

Moreover, if you rely on life insurance provided by your employer, changing jobs would mean that your insurance coverage will be directly affected since policies through work usually end when the job does. This makes checking your insurance policy even more important.

You’re starting a new business.

Starting a new business means incurring more financial and tax obligations. So, whether you’re starting an online store or establishing a brick-and-mortar business, ensure that your insurance coverage can meet your needs.

This way, your business and family can avoid financial turmoil in the event of your passing. Plus, you can also adjust your life insurance coverage to distribute your current estate—including your new business—equally among your beneficiaries.

You’ve had a change in your beneficiaries.

Every year, you should check whether your list of beneficiaries still has the people you want to benefit from your life insurance policy.

The main goal of life insurance is to provide cash to your loved ones when you die, so you want that money to go to exactly who you intended. For example, you may want to remove your ex-spouse as your beneficiary after a divorce or add your adult child as a beneficiary after they turn 18 or 21.

On top of reviewing the beneficiary list of your assets upon your death, you should also consider how your insurance payout would work for each beneficiary based on their location or your relationship. And, of course, it’s important to let your beneficiaries know about your policy and keep them in the loop!

You have a new marital status.

Whether you’re recently married or have gone through a divorce, it’s important to update your life insurance policy to match your current marital status.

If you’ve just tied the knot, reviewing your life insurance ensures that your spouse is protected financially if anything happens to you. You probably have more financial obligations now as a party of two than you did when you were single. How will your partner cover all those expenses without your salary?

Similarly, if you just got divorced, updating your policy guarantees that your children and loved ones are the ones who receive the death benefit rather than your ex-spouse.

Your family has grown.

Whether you’ve had a baby or adopted a child, it’s important to adjust your life insurance policy accordingly. You have more to protect with your life insurance coverage. As children enter the picture, the cost of your expenses goes up. How would your family pay for childcare, groceries, bills and even future college tuition if you were no longer there to contribute to the costs?

Life insurance can help cover those expenses and more so that your children can maintain the same lifestyle after your death.

You bought a house.

If you’ve recently purchased a house, review how you can adjust your insurance policy to ensure that your beneficiaries can cover the cost of your new property in the event of your death.

A period of grief is no time to be forced to sell your home, pack up the family belongings and move to a new neighborhood. Make sure your policy can cover the cost of your mortgage payments, so your spouse won’t have difficulty paying it on one income.

On the other hand, it’s also a good idea to review your policy if you’ve recently paid off your mortgage or refinanced your home.

Your health status has changed.

Updating your life insurance may not be the first thing you think of when you experience a health change, but it’s also an important time to review your policy.

If your health has taken a turn for the worse, that can be a reason to increase your coverage or examine additional coverage opportunities. On the flip side, an improved health diagnosis from losing weight or quitting smoking, for example, might help you get a better rate.

Life Insurance Policy Review Checklist

These life changes are just a few of many times that it makes sense to review your life insurance. When reviewing your policy annually, it’s best to make the necessary changes to ensure that it still addresses all of the factors below:

• Your death benefit is sufficient to cover the current financial needs of your beneficiaries in the event of your passing.
• Your beneficiary list includes everyone you want to benefit from your life insurance.
• The type of life insurance policy you have still meets your needs and expectations.
• Your premium payments are still manageable and affordable.
• Your policy isn’t going to lapse soon.
• You’re taking advantage of any new coverage options that your insurance company may offer.

One of the best ways to make sure your loved ones are fully protected is to work with a licensed insurance agent who can walk you through the entire process.