Fiduciary AdvisorAFC®Contracted Financial Counselor supporting military families

Long-Term Care + Retirement

If one of you needs long-term care,what happens to the other spouse?

You spent decades building your retirement. If one spouse needs extended care, income, investments, retirement accounts, or other assets may have to help pay for it.

The question is whether your retirement plan is ready for that.

Want to understand your options before deciding whether insurance belongs in the plan?

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Tell me what’s going on · Read personally · No predetermined next step

You may already have enough money to pay for care.

But is that how you want to use it?

Without a plan for how care would be paid for, the money usually comes from whatever is easiest to reach at the time.

Retirement income
Savings + investments
Retirement accounts
Home equity
Insurance
Family support

The goal is not automatically to buy insurance. It is to decide — before care is needed — which resources you would want to use, and what using them could mean for the rest of your retirement.

One care need can affect two retirements.

When one spouse needs care, the financial effect does not stop with that person.

Money used for care may also have been meant to provide income, support your lifestyle, stay invested, help family, or one day pay for the other spouse's own care.

The spouse who doesn't need care still has a retirement to fund.

That spouse may still need income for years, or decades.

There are still housing costs, taxes, healthcare, family commitments, and everyday living expenses. And someday, that spouse may need care too.

A care strategy has to work for both people.

The Money

If care were needed tomorrow, where would the money come from?

Income

Social Security · Pension · Other income

Would there still be enough income for the spouse at home?

Retirement + Investments

IRA · 401(k) · Brokerage accounts · Savings

Which accounts would you have to use to pay for care?

Home

Home equity · Other property · Possible housing changes

Would your home become part of the funding plan?

Insurance

Existing coverage · Long-term care benefits · Applicable life insurance provisions

What costs, if any, are already covered?

Family

Spouse · Adult children · Other caregivers

Who would actually help coordinate or provide care?

Having assets and having a plan for care are not the same thing.

Your Options

There isn't one right answer for every couple.

Depending on your finances, health, goals, and what you already have, a few different approaches may be worth a look.

Use your own assets

You may decide your income and assets are enough to pay for care if it is ever needed.

Use insurance

Insurance may cover part of the potential cost, subject to health eligibility, policy terms, and available benefits.

Use both

You may pay for some of the potential cost yourself and use insurance for another portion.

Keep what you have

After reviewing the numbers, you may decide no change is warranted.

The point of planning is not to arrive at an insurance recommendation. It is to understand what could happen, compare the choices, and decide what makes sense for your household.

Wealth Coordination™

Paying for care can change more than one part of your financial life.

Retirement: Would there still be enough income for both spouses?
Investments: Which accounts would have to be used?
Taxes: Could using those accounts create added tax consequences?
Insurance: What would you pay yourself, and what could insurance cover?
Estate: Would your estate decisions still work if a large share of assets went to care?
Family: Who would make decisions and help manage the care?

No single product answers all of those questions. Someone still has to look across the lines.

How Wealth Coordination™ works

Before deciding what to buy, decide what you're trying to protect.

What you already have.
Roughly where care money would come from.
How using those resources could affect the other spouse.
Which costs you are comfortable paying yourselves.
Whether insurance deserves a look.
Whether any estate or financial decisions need attention.
Whether doing nothing is a reasonable choice.

The outcome may be insurance. It may be a mix of approaches. Or it may be that your plan is already fine as it is.

Timing

The best time to understand your choices is before you need them.

Future care needs cannot be predicted. Neither can every future cost.

But you can decide now how you want your plan to respond if care becomes necessary.

Whether insurance is available to you, and what it costs, can also depend on things like age, health, underwriting, and how the coverage is designed.

Planning doesn't predict the future. It prepares the retirement plan for more than one possible future.

You don't need to know whether you need long-term care insurance.

Start with a simpler question:

What would happen to your retirement if one of you needed care?

We'll start with what you already have, what you're trying to protect, and the choices available to you.

Start a Conversation →

Tell me what’s going on · Read personally · No predetermined next step

Educational information only. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy, keep, or change any insurance policy or investment, and nothing here is tax or legal advice. Insurance availability, eligibility, benefits, and cost depend on the insurer, underwriting, your health, and the terms of any policy issued. Whether any approach is appropriate depends on your own situation. Advisory services offered through Core Planning, a Registered Investment Adviser.