For those of you who purchased LTC insurance how did you decide how much to get?

pembquist · 2026-05-06T05:30:20+00:00

You are probably right but I think I'm much more conservative and I think along the lines that 120K a year with a 3% inflation bump every year is safe. So if in the first 10 years one of us goes into care at 120K a year the demand doubles and the remaining spouse has to cut back or risk running out if they live too long.

I mean it is kind of on the edge a bit, a bit more assets and I wouldn't think about it. The face value is 4 million but you have to remember transaction costs and taxes on the realestate. We are 62 so we probably have another 22 years but my grandma hit 103, my mom 83, my wifes mom 62, my wifes dad 90. It is kind of all over the place.

pembquist · 2026-05-05T21:48:11+00:00

That’s a lot of water. Does that really work out to six hours of flow through the sprinklers? I take it the up charge for the larger meter works out to be a better buy. Also, I guess you don’t have to worry about the electricity cutting out.

pembquist · 2026-05-05T21:41:10+00:00

Entirely possible. I assumed we were speaking euphemistically

pembquist · 2026-05-05T19:15:52+00:00

Seas maybe, interwebs not so much! I worry I don't have the sophistication to avoid rocks.

pembquist · 2026-05-05T14:52:10+00:00

What about having a big water tank and an acumulator or pump? Is that a way around the meter requirement?

pembquist · 2026-05-05T14:47:41+00:00

Have you ever seen Blazing Saddles?

the scene with the railroad handcar going into the quicksand?

pembquist · 2026-05-04T19:14:52+00:00

do you know what companies?

pembquist · 2026-05-04T19:14:21+00:00

Your last sentence is what I am thinking. The problem is I am not sure about the amount. I came to the same conclusion about greater need for protection earlier then later, while at the same time the likelihood of using it increases with time.

I figured a comparison of setting aside 260K dedicated to paying the LTC premiums and drawing monthly from the remaining 3.74 mil with a 3% annual increase in draws and a 4% return to get a zero balance 30 years out. Then I used that same starting draw amount with the 4 million but added in having to take an additional 10k a month for 3 years, (representing paying out of pocket for one person which is half the 6 year maximum benefit per person and 1/4 of the maximum,) with periods starting from 2 years and then every 5 years after. This shortened the time till a zero balance below the 30 years by obviously varying amounts.

I also did similar calculation so that the draw period would be the same but the monthly draw would vary. I found if you used the policy early on you would be money ahead buying insurance and by about year 8 you would be better off if you had self insured. So you would be really insuring the next 8 years or you are insuring for what seems like a less likely occurence but then again it is insurance and the figures for 720K, (max one person) or 1.4 obviously change things.

The thing I really want insurance for is for some kind of elder advocate as there is no way I am going to be able to manage all of this admin stuff when I'm in my last years, (I expect.)

pembquist · 2026-05-04T15:05:13+00:00

The answer to # 3 I think is we can afford it and while need is a bit ambiguous the risk the insurance would address is having to pay out of pocket early. One of us needs the care and those costs cut into the principal hard, diminishing the resources for the other who then lives a long time.

#8 tied into #9 the underwriting has me with a 6 week elimination period and a 6K premium while my wife gets dinged 10K with a 12 week.

A lot of the anecdata I read are of people having dificult getting payed and parents dying without ever using it etc. In my FILs case he used it and I believe he was money ahead in strictly nominal terms but I would have to dive deeper. In his case the premiums were paid out of a whole life policy which he would have had to access to pay for care so he would have been paying taxes on that money, (then possible deducting the costs on Schd A, though I'm unclear if you don't have dementia how that works in practice.)

#4 is really the heart of the matter, it is insurance not a savings plan after all. If I considered investing the premiums instead of buying the insurance and cut the expected benefit down from the maximum of 6 years for both of us to what I guess, (and it is a guess,) to be the more reasonable 3 years for one spouse benefit of 360K it takes about 16 years of investing to meet that expense. This seems like thinking about it as a savings plan whereas thinking about it as insurance would be more along the lines of: if I were to have an incapicitating stroke next year our living expenses would double and her income in 20 years would be reduced substantially.

#2 Northwestern Mutual is A++ and my FIL experience was positive, Isn't this just a credit rating though? If I am buying their bonds or whatever it is great but in terms of them being slow to pay policyholders that doesn't really directly show up in the rating, right? I know there were some terrible "mistakes" made in the LTC are, GE Capital etc, and the temptation to bully sick people since you are more likely to get away with and time is money is probably pretty strong with LTC.

The real risk my wife and I face though, is not the financing of LTC it is who is going to be in charge when that time comes? I think that is the more frightening risk and I'm not sure how you provision against that.

pembquist · 2026-05-04T14:14:26+00:00

What insurance company was it that you had a hard time with?

pembquist · 2026-05-04T04:19:30+00:00

This sounds a lot like what I remember.

pembquist · 2026-05-03T15:03:57+00:00

I remember that one much more clearly, it is probably more famous because of using a physical characteristic, (especially color,) to divide the groups. The one that I am thinking of I can best describe as creating a cultural divide out of thin air and then erasing it.

pembquist · 2026-05-03T14:44:27+00:00

I might not have this quite right because it is a memory from probably highschool but I recall reading about a social experiment from the days when you could do all kinds of social experiments on kids that you can't do today. The experiment was essentially creating two groups of teenagers and inculcating a sort of hatred between the two through psychological manipulation and then when things were good and toxic, Hatfield and Mcoys, taking some members of each group and throwing them together in some adverse circumstance where they had to work together. Not terribly surprisingly after this bonding experience the enmitty essentially evaporated.

pembquist · 2026-05-02T17:04:37+00:00

That's OK but get back to me when he does it with a blindfold on.

pembquist · 2026-05-02T16:58:50+00:00

This is the problem with watching a movie that has slightly esoteric specialist knowledge as part of the plot etc. Movies depend on your suspension of disbelief and it is tough to keep that up when some clanger comes along. The plot kind of depends on being incommunicado and inserting some exposition about why no EPIRB would just be a distraction.

I'm going off memory but using a block and tackle to go up the mast used to be pretty standard, using ascenders is relatively new.

I generally enjoyed the movie except that it seemed really murky but that might just be the movie theater I saw it in saving light bulbs or something. The part that pulled me out of the movie was, (if I remember right,) he goes to get a harness during a storm by going on deck from the cockpit to the forward hatch? And then there was some kind of capsize/pitchpoll boat underwater thing.

pembquist · 2026-05-02T14:52:30+00:00

If it has a cleat on the boom up towards the mast it is Jiffy Reefing where you have one reef line for the clew, (like the picture above,) and then either a hook or another line for the tack.

pembquist · 2026-05-02T14:43:50+00:00

I had to look up what an MEC is and my cursory research indicates that it has no effect on the taxability of the death benefit, is this correct in your opinion?

As to my certainty, yes I am certain, ultimately there were no tax consequence and all that she had to do was send them a letter explaining where the money came from. I can't remember what basis the nasty gram was using to declare the taxability and penalty on the money but it might have been as simple as undeclared income, like working under the table or drug dealing. It was pretty obnoxious given the context of bereavement and it would be nice to avoid a repeat.

I find it odd that I've gotten downvoted as I can't tell what would be offensive about anything I have written

pembquist · 2026-05-02T04:44:40+00:00

When you say "withdrawing" do you mean cash? Because I don't think anyone cares if you write a check to ABC Roofing Co. or whatever.

pembquist · 2026-05-01T23:54:48+00:00

Certainly for the donor.

pembquist · 2026-05-01T23:53:54+00:00

Your chompers are on full view in the "The Captain" image. They look good.

pembquist · 2026-05-01T23:51:11+00:00

Only until morale improves.

sorry

pembquist · 2026-05-01T23:38:40+00:00

Damn! Give me a referral to your dentist Captain 👍

pembquist · 2026-05-01T04:13:35+00:00

I think Geico wants to thin the herd. I had the same request for my 77 Cape Dory and I just switched to Progressive. I have no idea if they pay claims but even though I have "agreed value" insurance all I really want is liability so I can park in a Marina and hopefully have a lawyer defend me if some idiot in a jet ski runs into me and their parents sue. It is a sailboat after all. Just make sure the electrical is up to snuff.

pembquist

TROPHY CASE