Leon Mehl

Until recently, the thought of using a life insurance policy to pay for long-term care expenses, through loans or use of cash value, was practically unthinkable. However, with the first baby boomers reaching the milestone age of 65 on January 1, 2011, some insurance companies have begun offering long-term care (LTC) coverage for qualifying health events as a rider on term life insurance policies as well as whole life and universal life policies.

The basic concept is that the insurance company will allow the insured to accelerate the death benefit of the policy if the insured is unable to perform two of the six activities of daily living (eating, dressing, bathing, transferring, toileting or continence) or if the insured is cognitively impaired according to the definition included in the policy. The most attractive feature of this type of plan is the ability of the qualifying insured to use the money to pay for home healthcare, assisted living, or skilled care. The policy will even allow you to pick who your caregiver is - including family members.**