By Mandy Froelich | BH Financial Planning
Dear reader,
Robert and Genevieve Brechtel – married nearly 75 years
I never understood the importance of having a plan in place for medical and long-term care coverage until my grandparents got sick.
In their last years, I watched as my big, beautiful Catholic family came together and helped ensure their needs were met. The nurses in my family provided free, skilled assisted nursing care. My 9 aunts and uncles and a handful of their children volunteered time to make sure they had food, company, and regular house cleanings.
Fortunately, they both passed in their home and never had to permanently move into a nursing home. Sidebar – my grandma stayed in a nursing home for 6 weeks after she broke her hip. Had she stayed, I know her quality of living and life expectancy would have diminished.
My grandparents were luckier than most. As I later learned, many elders in our society are forced to both sell their biggest assets and liquidate their retirements to medical costs and the attention provided by skilled assisted nursing care. And, dear reader, I believe it’s one of the biggest travesties.
Watching the color drain from someone’s face as everything they’ve worked toward their entire life is sold is one of the saddest experiences I’ve ever experienced. And, it’s a major reason I do the work I do today as a financial planner.
Medical care money isn’t just for when you’re old(er)…
Believe it or not, you might need medical care money before you reach the age of 70. Let’s say (and God forbid, I hope this doesn’t happen to you – but humor me) you were hit by a bus tomorrow. Do you have long-term medical care insurance to guarantee that your bills would be paid and your medical costs covered? This goes beyond the scope of what standard health insurance covers.
If you’re thinking, “Well, no. And gosh, that doesn’t sound good…” then I invite you to speak with me about alternatives that are available to you today.
If you’ve attended any of my webinars, events, or in-person meetings, you’ve probably learned that my team and I recommend cash value whole life insurance as a strategy to eliminate debt, build liquidity, save for retirement, and put a plan in place for medical care money.
Whole life insurance with cash value is a great investment vehicle for a few reasons:
- It provides guaranteed dividends (5% compounding growth)
- It’s a tax shelter (you can borrow money from it and walk away without paying taxes on the money you pay into it)
- It’s a litigation-proof environment (which is part of the reason we suggest business owners create their own policy as a write-off for their businesses; all monies paid into the plan can never be litigated against)
- It covers self-completion with a death benefit, active day 1
- It is flexible and enables you to access your money whenever you need it, typically within 24-48 hours (unlike a 401(k) or inflexible IRA plan)
- And it includes medical care money when you need it
On that last bullet point, let me explain…
If you at any point (whether 24 years old or 89 years old) lose the ability to perform 2 out of 6 Activities of Daily Living, you can qualify for up to 24% of the death benefit of that policy every year, up to 4 years, up to $1,000,000.
What that means is that the tax shelter you are using to quickly pay the debt off (btw, typically in under 9 years or less) can also prepare you for medical care costs down the road.
That, my friend, is a game-changer. What that means is that from this one, simple strategy (which is the #1 strategy in the U.S. to eliminate debt), you can grow your money with guaranteed dividends and ensure that your family will avoid going into debt and having to pay medical costs in the event you can’t work and/or need skilled assisted nursing care.
Knowledge is power – the importance of now vs 1 year from now
Because this strategy is a game-changer for individuals and families, our team helps you find money that is available through a cash flow analysis and spending planner exercise, so you don’t spend any more money than you currently do today. We don’t want you to go further into debt or add strain to your already tight budget.
We do all of this for free because if we’re so good at what we do and believe in it, our collective opinion is that we should put skin in the game to help you get ahead. The one thing I don’t want you to do is to sit on the education provided by me and my team until it’s too late.
Case in point: I met a wonderful, young family about one year ago and we educated them on this strategy that would benefit them and their growing business. Like many people, they’ve been conditioned to think “insurance” = “bad”, and so shied away from the plan even after seeing their Big Picture report. It just wasn’t enough of a priority.
Unfortunately, one of the parents was recently diagnosed with cancer. She’ll never qualify for this type of strategy again. To make matters worse, they don’t have any planning in place to help cover her leave of absence or the medical treatments that will shortly ensue.
Dear reader, this is what breaks my heart. I can educate and share the information, but unless you decide that you’re enough of a priority and the tools presented to you are worth investing in, nothing will change.
Knowledge is power… but only when you put it to use. If you agree, then please get in contact for your FREE zero-cost, zero-obligation cash flow analysis to understand your current financial planning.
We’ll discuss the four pillars of foundational planning (which includes medical care money) and see if you’re on track to meet your goals. Again – there is no cost or obligation. At the end of the day, you just have to decide that you and your family are worth the time it takes to learn and really dive into your planning.
Have questions? Please get in touch. We’re an education-focused firm and are here to support you.
Thank you,
Mandy Froelich
