Are many people missing an important piece when it comes to planning for the future? A recent survey points to the answer being yes.
Specifically, the survey suggests that it is very common for people to not have a plan in place regarding future long-term care needs. The survey was of financial advisors of high net worth individuals. According to the survey’s results, fewer than one-fourth of individuals with a high net worth have established plans related to long-term care.
It can be very risky for people, whatever their wealth situation, to ignore long-term care planning.
While you may hope you will never need significant long-term care, the reality is that long-term care is in many people’s future. AARP estimates that, of individuals currently older than 65, over half will end up needing such care.
The costs of such care can be significant. They can rather easily land in the realm of tens of thousands of dollars a year.
Given these costs, without proper advanced planning, a person could end up:
- Not being able to get the type of long-term care they would most want.
- Having to compromise their other financial goals to pay for long-term care.
When it comes to long-term care planning, the earlier the better. So, when working on estate planning, it can be very important to not forget about getting a long-term care plan in place. Skilled lawyers can advise individuals here in New Jersey on what long-term care planning steps can be taken as part of the estate planning process.