Buying Tips for CARP Members - Auto & Home Insurance


	Protect Your Independence, Dignity And Life Savings Be sure you make the decisions about your care for the future With Canada’s aging population and growing concerns about the services for the senior market, you may be concerned about publicly funded programs being adequate to meet your future care needs. Further, if you’re among the majority of Canadians who will ultimately require long term care, you may wonder who will decide where or how you obtain those services? If you’re properly prepared, the decision can be yours. The Misconception About Long Term Care Insurance Costs Many people do not see the need to protect themselves with long term care insurance, believing provincial health plans will continue to pay for their care. In reality, with government coverage limits being continually scaled back, expenses can be significant – potentially reaching thousands of dollars per month. What Exactly Is Long Term Care Insurance? Long term care insurance is designed to help you pay for expenses incurred as a result of a loss of independence. Three types of policies exist in the market: • Reimbursement policies – reimburse some or all of the long term care expenses, up to your designated limit. • Indemnity policies – reimburse you for a designated amount, provided that 'qualified' expenses have been incurred. • Income based policies – paid out to the policyholder in the event of a loss of independence regardless of whether expenses have been incurred or not. Tax-free monthly benefit payments are not dependent on admission into a care facility or receipts for care received. Premiums are based on your age at time of application – the sooner you apply, the lower your monthly premiums will be. Long term care insurance is an integral component of any solid financial strategy and should be considered in your financial security portfolio. It allows you to protect your independence, dignity and life savings if you can no longer care for yourself. Furthermore… • Make the right choice now to secure the quality of your later years Make the right choice now to secure the quality of your later years These days, more and more baby boomers are faced with the sometimes daunting reality of financing long term care – not only for their parents, but for the care they may eventually require themselves. Many Canadians still mistakenly assume their health care needs will be looked after for them, with little personal financial impact. The reality is, government insured health services are diminishing. For the first time in history, more than four million Canadians are over the age of 65, and the proportion of the population defined as seniors is expected to double in the next 20 years. The result is that more people will require health care services, further straining our already overburdened system. Add to this the fact that many Canadians have arrived at retirement with alarmingly insufficient savings. Many have found themselves trapped between rising health care costs and lowered investment returns. Long term care, be it in a facility or at home, can quickly devour a lifetime of savings and take a significant physical and emotional toll on the entire family. A sound financial plan includes taking steps to prepare for a time when you can no longer care for yourself – to protect your independence, your assets and your dignity, preserving the quality of life for yourself and the people you love. The solution is long term care insurance, which provides a monthly, tax-free benefit payable when one can no longer perform two or more activities of daily living, or suffers a cognitive impairment such as dementia. Long term care insurance takes the financial worry out of long term care, and provides alternatives to at-home care by family members. A variety of policy plans exist. Various inflation-protection options are offered to guard against erosion of the policy's purchasing power. The benefit period chosen may provide a few years of income or be of unlimited duration. Certainly nobody wants to get old. But, as the saying goes, it’s better than the alternative. The good news is that with long term care insurance, you can choose how and where you receive care, while protecting hard-earned nest eggs and preserve legacies within families. By making the right choice now, you can greatly improve the quality of your later years. X CLOSE


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