Long-term care insurance (LTCI), also known as nursing home insurance, is the only form of insurance that will pay for long-term nursing home care. If you are single, the odds are 50 percent that you will need long-term nursing home care at some point in your life. If you are age 65 and married, the odds are 75 percent that you or your spouse will need long-term nursing home care. The average nursing home stay is 2.5 years, at an estimated national average of more than $75,000 a year. And yet, most people do not have long-term care insurance. One…
Strategic use of life insurance frequently is a key aspect of comprehensive estate planning, solving a wide variety of estate planning challenges from providing liquidity to pay estate taxes, to charitable bequests and ensuring the continuation of a closely-held business. One of the key characteristics of life insurance, however, making it such a versatile estate planning tool, is preferential tax treatment. Properly structured, life insurance proceeds pass tax-free to beneficiaries, and earnings on investments held within certain types of “permanent” life insurance also generally accrue tax-free. According to a recent article in The Wall Street Journal, there is some national…