Latest / The Midlife Pivot / How to Protect Your Future Care Without Feeling Like a Burden w/ Suzanne Scheer | 011
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- The Midlife Pivot: Welcome back to the Midlife Pivot. Today, Nissette and I are talking about something that's easy to put off, but so important to our next chapter: planning for the care we may need as we get older. We're delighted to welcome Suzanne Shear, JD CLTC, a former family law attorney whose work focuses on helping people understand long-term care insurance and their options for the future. For Suzanne, this work is deeply personal. After navigating long illnesses with both of her parents, she saw firsthand the difference long-term care insurance made for her father and the challenges of arranging care at home for her mother. Those experiences helped shape her passion for helping families prepare before a crisis happens. So today we'll explore what long-term care insurance actually covers, when to consider it, and how planning ahead. Can help protect our independence, our finances, and the people we love. Suzanne, we're so glad you're here. Welcome to the Med Life Pivot. Suzanne Scheer: I'm getting goosebumps. I'm so excited to be here. Thank you. The Midlife Pivot: Goodness. We are so happy to have you. Honestly, as we chat about this a little bit more, obviously we've shared with you that this is something very personal to the two of us, and something we've Suzanne Scheer: Mm. The Midlife Pivot: tried to be, you know, we have tried navigating over the last, you know, probably almost six months now, six months, seven months. so we really felt that if we were lost and we were struggling with trying to navigate this, there gotta be other people out there that are feeling the same. same way. and it is kind of I I find it so unbelievable how worlds collide. You found me, I found you. It was this match made in heaven, in somebody that knew. And then, of course, socially, we we see each other everywhere now, which I love. And I love that my worlds are colliding. all because of my podcast, which our podcast, I'm sorry, our podcast. Suzanne Scheer: Yeah. The Midlife Pivot: But honestly, I really believe that this is going to be such a valuable resource for so Many, so many people that don't even know about it, that don't even know that this is an option out there. So we'll kind of run through some questions that we have for you in having you help us navigate this, you know, daunting topic that so many shy away from. So, Suzanne, let's get started by saying, you know, your work, as we said in the introduction, has such a personal foundation. would you mind sharing how How caring for your parents shaped your perspective on long-term care and influenced your pivot from family law into this work? Suzanne Scheer: Well, thank you so much for having me and thank you for asking that question. So I was just sort of going along. I I had my son was fifteen months old, I was an only child, and my mom fell and broke her hip. And when that happened, she impacted it hurt her spinal cord, which impacted her hands, and so I immediately had to take over my parents' finances 'cause my mom couldn't write very well. And so in some ways I was lucky because I at least knew what was going on, which is something we'll probably talk a lot about a lot today, but So much of the problem with families is that there's so much mystery involving what actually exists in terms of finances and planning or lack of planning and so that's a huge problem. But in any event, so I at that point I was working part time already and then, you know, my mom kept having more and more health issues and it just became too much and so I ended up I left, I stopped working completely and then a few years later my dad had a stroke and so It was really hard for my son. He was four and a half at the time. And my mom was already in a wheelchair. And so I had to try to explain to a four and a half year old what a stroke meant. And so, you know, I just I remember we were waiting for our car. The car was being serviced and I was trying to tell my son about it and I remember saying, you know, Grampy fell out of bed and he's gonna have a hard time walking. And so my four and a half year old looks at me, he says, So both my grandparents are gonna be in a wheelchair. I can't believe it. Four and a half. The Midlife Pivot: my goodness. But for that stage. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Suzanne Scheer: but I'll never forget that. But so that happened with my dad and he recovered somewhat but not not that well. And so they were both my both my parents were having things going on and then a few years later all of a sudden my dad had kind of at the same time a diagnosis of end stage dementia, which is odd 'cause usually it goes through stages, but he was already at an end stage and also prostate cancer at the same time, which I couldn't treat because of the dementia. So He would end up in a memory care facility. My mom was getting care at home, but was in and out of hospital and I was juggling all the different things and it was kind of funny. With dementia, a lot of times people's memories they remember things further back, but they don't remember the current things going on. And so one day I was visiting my dad and he was confused but not, you know, completely to the point of of not knowing what was going on. But you know, he thought I was still working because he remembered. you know, the prior memories I said I wasn't working, said he said he said, Well what do you do all day? You know. So The Midlife Pivot: Yeah. Right. And i and I and I can and I can completely resonate with what you're saying is because having stopped work and knowing just kind of being there now, obviously I'm in a fortunate situation 'cause my mom i is as you can see, fantastic. But Suzanne Scheer: Yes. The Midlife Pivot: it is a full time it becomes a full-time job, you know, in in trying to just na Suzanne Scheer: Right. The Midlife Pivot: and unfortunately she never, you know, really had any handle on the finances. w you know, as my Suzanne Scheer: Mm-hmm. The Midlife Pivot: dad aged and my dad was very independent and liked to be able to be in control over everything. and Suzanne Scheer: huh. The Midlife Pivot: it has, these last few months have been Honestly, my you know, friends will say, my god, you made you're always at your parents. And I'm like, Yeah, I am, because I'm making sure that we take care of and I'm fortunate because I do have two other siblings, but still, you know, I kind of took it upon myself for this to become my mission in making sure that my mom was gonna be taken care of once, you know, once my dad wasn't able to do it anymore. So I completely resonate Suzanne Scheer: Right. The Midlife Pivot: with what you're you know, what you're saying. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Suzanne Scheer: Thank you. Thank you. So so between my parents it was about an eight year period from what time my mom started having health issues until they both passed. They passed five weeks apart in two thousand ten. So that was really hard. The Midlife Pivot: wow. my goodness. Wow. Wow. We actually my my par my my parents my my husband we started too late. I mean this year 2026 was a disaster we year. It started in February and we were thrown into it. He was perfectly all right and all of a sudden hell broke loose. So it it's very Suzanne Scheer: no. The Midlife Pivot: hard. But we did have long-term care, which we'll talk about and I'll tell you my problems when you speak. Suzanne Scheer: Yes. The Midlife Pivot: I just want to say I want to start with the basics. What does long term actually mean? And what kinds of help can long-term care insurance cover, including care in one's own home? Suzanne Scheer: Great question. So there's a huge amount of confusion because people don't realize, they think Medicare will cover them or they think their health insurance is gonna cover them. But when we talk about long term care, what we're talking about is there's a s the basic scenario of it is things that you do that you probably did this morning to get ready for your day that they refer to as the activities of daily living. So you get out of bed, The Midlife Pivot: Rights, rights. Suzanne Scheer: that's transferring, you go to the bathroom, you take a shower, you get dressed, you eat, which is not not cooking, but either feeding yourself or remembering to eat, and then throughout the day you maintain continence. You can go to the bathroom when you need to go and you're fine with that. Those are the six activities of daily living for purposes of long term care. And so if you can't do two out of the six of those safely on your own for a period of at least ninety days, then that's considered a long term care event. Or if someone has a c severe cognitive impairment, that's another thing that's that counts. But a lot of folks it's at first it's those activities of daily living and you don't need a doctor or a nurse to help you with those things. And they're so they're not medical in nature. They're what they call custodial. And so if somebody the The Midlife Pivot: Okay. Makes sense, makes sense. Suzanne Scheer: example I like to use, 'cause it doesn't only apply to older people, it could be anyone of any age. So let's say someone goes skiing and they break both of their legs and let's just be stereotypical and say it's a big guy. And he has a little teeny wife who's not very, you can't can't help him in and out of bed. So let's say he needs help for three or four four months. And he needs help getting out of bed and getting to the shower because he's got broken legs or to the bathroom. If he needed help with that, he would have to call up if he wanted home home health care, he would have to call somebody up and pay out of pocket for that help. And it's somewhere in our in the DC area, it's somewhere around forty dollars an hour. So he would have to, in addition to all the expenses of running his household and doing everything else, He would have to pay another, if it's forty-four hours a week of care, it's almost seven thousand dollars a month. So that's just money that has to appear magically somehow. And The Midlife Pivot: Right, right. Suzanne Scheer: very few people have extra seven thousand dollars sitting around. so the idea of long term care insurance is that if those things happen and you trigger it the ways we mentioned, either with the two out of six activities of daily living or the severe cognitive impairment, then the long term care insurance would reimburse you for a portion of your cost. The Midlife Pivot: but I wanted to ask pertaining to this for example. So the person who's going to be looking after him, so she has to be clinical? I mean he doesn't need clinical help. So does she have to have what by clinical I mean they ask for certification for the for the aid. Okay. So Suzanne Scheer: Right. That's a great question. The Midlife Pivot: right, so what happens there? Suzanne Scheer: it depends on your policy. The older policies, which we'll talk about later, the traditional policies, they usually require that you to have someone either from an agency or someone who has some kind of certification and The Midlife Pivot: Yes. Suzanne Scheer: and they're a little bit more strict and then they reimburse you for that cost if the person meets those criteria. It but it doesn't have to be a doctor or a nurse or an RN The Midlife Pivot: Right. Suzanne Scheer: or anything. The Midlife Pivot: going on from what you were saying though, what's what resonated for me here was this younger guy that has an accident skiing, needs this long term care, obviously isn't in their, you know, later stage of life. Can one start a policy, stop it, and then start it again? Or once you've started the policy, that's it? Suzanne Scheer: That's a great question. No, it's like a hose that you can turn on and off or faucet. The Midlife Pivot: It is. We didn't realize you see, that was something we never realized. I thought that once you, you know, initiated your long-term care, you've been paying your premiums. You obviously Suzanne Scheer: Mm. The Midlife Pivot: stop paying your premiums once you initiate the care. Suzanne Scheer: Right. The Midlife Pivot: I thought that okay, then that's it. And that's why we waited so long. So you're telling me, and let's make sure that everyone understands that that's listening, what you're telling me is that you can start it and then do you start paying the premiums again? to then use it later on in life or Suzanne Scheer: Right. Well with the older kinds of policies, yes. I mean the if you start using it for a time you would stop paying premiums and if you got better and you didn't need any more then you would resume paying the premiums. Because with those older kinds of policies The Midlife Pivot: Interest see? Suzanne Scheer: you have to pay the premiums forever. but I'm gonna tell you The Midlife Pivot: Okay, okay. Suzanne Scheer: in a little bit about some policies that don't have that, but that's a different kind. The Midlife Pivot: It is so important to have someone like you explain it. Yes. Really, people should get you first before getting the policy. Because we had we didn't have that. We went ahead, We had an insurance broker. My ex son in law, no, my ex son in law said his father was had a ALS. ALS and he needed that and he said, You should do it too. So he got us involved with a long term. We never got somebody to explain it to us. We had a folder with all the instructions, whatever in there. And for the past Suzanne Scheer: Right. The Midlife Pivot: twenty five years, that's what we've had. We had it in a cupboard. Never knowing what to do with it. It and thinking, Suzanne Scheer: Course. Right. The Midlife Pivot: okay, so So the good news is is that we had the policy. The bad news is Suzanne Scheer: Yes, excellent. The Midlife Pivot: is that we didn't know how to effectively utilize the policy. Because there have my dad had, you know, and I think about I I go back to thinking when he had his hip replaced. You know, he had his hip replaced. We could have used it then. And then you know okay. Okay, I'm with you. I'm with you. Well I was well, it was a long recovery. Suzanne Scheer: Well, maybe maybe not. Depends how long of his recovery was. So typically typically it needs to be a they need to ex ninety days. So so the hip replacement, The Midlife Pivot: Ninety days. Got it. Okay. Suzanne Scheer: depending if there were complications maybe, but if he recovered very quickly, then it wouldn't apply for it. So The Midlife Pivot: Well they were, yeah. Wow. See how interesting that is, Mum? Yeah. Yes. Suzanne Scheer: Now I want to just qualify it. my background as a lawyer, I'm always qualifying things, so forgive me for that. occasionally The Midlife Pivot: No, please go ahead. It's important, of course. Suzanne Scheer: there'll be a policy where they will say once you turn it on, you have to you can't turn it off. But most of the time you have to look at the policy, but most of the time it works that way that if you recover then you can just stop using the benefits and then save the money for later, basically. The Midlife Pivot: Starting it. Got it. Okay. So we would have I mean, at this point, he's ninety-one years old, so we're gonna be using the policy. you Suzanne Scheer: Right. The Midlife Pivot: know, we probably still won't use it all up. I mean, hopefully we will, but but we but we probably won't. All right. So Suzanne Scheer: Right. The Midlife Pivot: so this I think will resonate with many listeners, listen you know, that are listening today. Is and why is this conversation especially relevant to women in midlife? And and this is definitely for me and how I've taking a look at this is how should one think about one's own future care while we may also be supporting aging parents, partners or children. Suzanne Scheer: That's an excellent question. I think it's very tough because the time when you should be thinking about long term care for yourself is almost always the time when you're in that either The Midlife Pivot: Right. Suzanne Scheer: sandwich or I have a good friend who calls it the panini generation because it's you're squeezed and it's hot and messy and sandwich is too tidy. Right? The Midlife Pivot: Yeah. I like panini better than sandwich because sandwich is too tidy and you're quite right and I definitely feel like I'm in that panini. I love that expression. Suzanne Scheer: Right. Yes, exactly. So so you're squeeze and you're you're so just everything is just so busy and hectic and the last thing you even have time to do is think about anything for yourself. But I would suggest that people think about it for themselves because the younger you are when you get a long term care policy you'll get lower premiums and you'll have a better chance of qualifying because your health has to be good enough to qualify. It's not just something that you can go online and say, I'd like to have this, please, and pay a bill. You have to go The Midlife Pivot: Yeah. Suzanne Scheer: through a process and qualify. So the younger you are, the better for that. And also the younger are the premiums will be less. And the newer kinds of policies that no one knows about, it makes me crazy that nobody knows about them, but unlike the kind that Amanda that your dad has where you pay the bill forever. And you don't get anything back if you don't use it, and the premiums can go up over time. Right. So The Midlife Pivot: As they have been. As they have been. Suzanne Scheer: there are these newer policies they call either hybrid or asset based. And what those do is they take They have two buckets of money instead of just having one like you're the kind your dad has. So the first bucket is either a life insurance policy or sometimes an annuity, but usually it's a life insurance policy. And then there's an attached second bucket that's an extension of benefits that has lots of leverage. So it For the money that you put in, it multiplies the money you put in. And the beauty with these policies, a couple of different things. One is if you don't use that first bucket of money, the life insurance policy part, if you don't use your policy and you pass away, the money goes to people you love. Tax free. Which is so nice. Or if you only use some The Midlife Pivot: That aspect of it. That is phenomenal. Yeah. Right. Suzanne Scheer: of it. Whatever's left in that bucket when you pass away goes to the people you love. And the premiums are locked in, even it like you can pay it over time. Let's say maybe yeah, like you could be maybe over let's The Midlife Pivot: That was my next question. That was my next question. Suzanne Scheer: a lot of people pay over ten years. They get it maybe in their mid fifties, they pay for 10 years, they're done by the time they retire. But similarly to what you said with your diet, like if they start using it before they're done paying, they would stop the premiums. But let's say they pay 10 years, locked in premium, it can't go up. They know how long they're paying, they know what's gonna happen. If they need care, they know the amount of money they're gonna have. If they don't need care, there's money that goes back to people they love that's either could be sometimes it's less than what they put in, but sometimes it's more than what they put in. It's not gonna really grow much, but you know that that money's gonna be used. Right, no. The Midlife Pivot: But it's still it's not wasted money. It's not wasted money. Like I feel like with my dad, we've been paying all this and we suddenly said, Well, we gotta we've gotta activate this policy, otherwise we're gonna lose all this money. And we've put away, you know, thousand I they've put away thousands and thousands of dollars. Yes, twenty-three years. yeah. Yeah. So Suzanne Scheer: Right. Right. The Midlife Pivot: so gosh, and yeah, yeah, I mean that is just that is remarkable. It's great. That's Suzanne Scheer: Right. The Midlife Pivot: I've learnt one thing in this process, and that is inform yourself. Yes. Suzanne Scheer: Yes. The Midlife Pivot: Information is the first thing you do before you sign a piece of paper. Inform yourself first, speak to somebody who's knowledgeable Suzanne Scheer: Absolutely. Absolutely. The Midlife Pivot: like you, and you know, we go from there. Yeah, no no no, I mean this is huge. Suzanne Scheer: And I'll say it's not right for everybody. I mean, if somebody is living paycheck to paycheck, then this kind of a product doesn't make sense because they need the money available to them. This really The Midlife Pivot: Of course. Of Of course. Yeah. Suzanne Scheer: comes into play with folks who have assets they want to protect. They've worked really hard to build up retirement accounts or investments or they've had an inheritance or something and they've got this money that they want to protect. And so the idea is, you know, you give the insurance pol insurance company X dollars and then in return, if you need care, they give you X times five, ten. depending on how you structure it and how young you are. And so you get this leverage and then any money that comes out for care comes out tax free. So it's not gonna cause you folks on Medicare have to pay higher premiums so their h income is higher. So that you know that it just it doesn't impact your tax bracket or the Medicare premiums and and it's a dedicated The Midlife Pivot: Yeah, yeah. Suzanne Scheer: source of funds that's separate so that if you need care, you know, okay, I've got this bucket of money and I can draw on this first and I can have some time. The Midlife Pivot: Right, and not struggle on your own and not figure out how you're gonna manage, Suzanne Scheer: Mm-hmm. The Midlife Pivot: you know, your own care, etcetera. Yeah. well talking about Suzanne Scheer: And and The Midlife Pivot: Medicare, Yes, many people assume that Medicare or their health insurance will cover whatever care they need. What do those programs cover? And where can f families find themselves facing unexpected expenses? I'm talking about the Medicare. Yeah. You know, can you rely on that? No. Suzanne Scheer: That's an excellent question. Yes. So right. Right. So if someone's on Medicare, let's say a common example is somebody has a stroke and they go to the hospital. Now they have to be admitted for at least three days for any of this to apply. So if they're just there for observation, it won't work. They have to be admitted for three days at least. And then if that happens and they still need care beyond that time, then Medicare will pay for the first twenty days of short term rehabilitation. hundred percent they'll pay that for them to go somewhere and they'll cover it. So that part's good. But then after the twentieth day, The Midlife Pivot: Yeah. Okay. You're on your own. Suzanne Scheer: from day twenty one to day one hundred, you have to pay a copay and it's not guaranteed that you're gonna get those extra eighty days. You have to progress in therapy. So they could say The Midlife Pivot: Hmm. Suzanne Scheer: to you at day forty, Well you're not making any progress, we're not gonna pay anymore and then the family's saying, Okay, well what now? Or even The Midlife Pivot: Right. Now we have to take this person home and manage this on our own. Suzanne Scheer: Right. Or at the end of the hundred days, let's say the stroke was very bad and they still need help. They're on their own. And people have no idea and The Midlife Pivot: This is and this is where your policy would kick in. Suzanne Scheer: then they're finding themselves, okay, I've I'm dealing with the the stress and you know, all that comes with having a family member with a health issue like that. And then but by the way, if they need care, you're gonna have to pay for it out of pocket. And people don't know that. Fifty percent of people in this country think that Medicare is gonna cover them. It cover it's their health insurance. It covers the doctor, it covers the hospital, it covers The Midlife Pivot: Right. Suzanne Scheer: it 'cause this care is not medical. That's the crux of it. This care is not medical and so it's not covered The Midlife Pivot: Yeah. No. Suzanne Scheer: by your typical insurance that you already have. The Midlife Pivot: Yeah. And it's exorbitant. All right. So then that takes me on to this next question that I have for you, which is so when would be the right time to explore? And I think we covered a little bit before, but the right time to explore this long term care insurance and how does age and health affect eligibility and cost? What would you say to someone who worries that they have left it too late? So I'm worried about that listener who's thinking to myself, my gosh, I you know, I'm fifty seven and I haven't thought about this yet. Is it too late? So let's kind of address more of that side of it. Suzanne Scheer: Right. Sure. It's definitely not too late. I'd say the earliest you can do it is the best, but very few people find themselves with extra cash in their forties, right? They're dealing with they're growing, you know, they're potentially a family, The Midlife Pivot: Families and Suzanne Scheer: get you know, they're working on their careers and so I mean if if folks have enough money and I'll tell you some scenarios that might come up for that in a second, but I would say for the most part we're talking about people fifties. are the common people getting this, but there's an option all the way up to age 87. So it really depends. It's it's not gonna be the same as someone getting it at 40 or 50. But there's some there are lots of different I feel like I have like tricks in my toolkit that I can pull out for different scenarios. But so I would say like, you know, like fifties or younger the better because they do look at your health. They want to see the medications you're taking. They want to know, you know, do you have are you diagnosed with anything? and there's just such a range of of conditions that, you know, one company might say this is a problem, another one might not. so what I typically do is when I'm talking to someone, I feel it's a very invasive process, and so I feel badly about that part because I understand I'm asking for almost all the most sensitive things that you there could be. I'm asking their health, I'm asking about their finances, I'm asking these things and And I'm not doing it to be nosy, I'm doing it because I want to figure out what their options would be. But let's say somebody has a complicated health situation, what I do is I get their health history and then anonymously I send it to all the different insurance companies. And I say, Here's this person's profile. Would they would you consider offering them coverage? And it's not a guarantee, but it helps me whittle it down and say, Okay, well, this company doesn't consider won't consider you, so let's not waste our time. And the reason that's so important is because if you get declined for a long term care insurance, you either won't be able to get it at all or you might have to wait to apply, or you could be very limited in your choices. And so it's very important that if anyone is gonna embark on this, work with a specialist and work with somebody who's gonna ask you about your health history and then if there's anything complicated, they're gonna check with the companies anonymously first to find out. A lot of times and I was guilty of this a little bit earlier on in my career when I was Starting out but a lot of times advisors will have one product that's the go to product for everybody and they don't necessarily get into the health history and they just apply for that product and the person either gets or they don't. Versus, let's see there are five or six different companies. Let's let's check with them ahead of time in a way that's not gonna prejudice you at all if you you know if they say no. The Midlife Pivot: Well that's if you find a good broker like yourself, then obviously that's what you're what you know, what somebody's looking for and it maybe even shop around in order to Suzanne Scheer: Right. The Midlife Pivot: make sure that that broker is advocating for you as the insured, making sure that that you're crossing every T and darting every I. Wow. Suzanne Scheer: Right. so, one thing I wanna say too, it's kind of neat. so my personal situation, I kept piling on policies for myself because my husband had been declined when he applied a while ago and so I thought he wasn't gonna be able to get coverage, but a new product came out in October of last year and I was able to get him coverage and he has an autoimmune d diagnosis, but no symptoms, so we don't even know if it's really the right diagnosis, but he has a lupus diagnosis that with no symptoms. So it's very odd. And it's usually women with lupus, not men, anyway. It's a weird thing. But because of that, he had gotten declined before and I was able to get him a policy that has remember I said before there for that first bucket of money it can be an annuity. Well, for his it's an annuity, which means you have to give them a lump sum. But in our case what we did was he had a life insurance policy with cash value. So it's a permanent a life a whole life policy. And we were more worried what would happen if somebody needed care. than if he passed away. And so we took the cash value from the insurance policy and exchanged it and put it into this product that's the annuity combined with the extension The Midlife Pivot: You know Suzanne Scheer: of benefits. So it was around one hundred and sixty seven thousand dollars and God willing when he's eighty three if he needed care, he would have twenty one thousand The Midlife Pivot: He has that. Suzanne Scheer: twenty one thousand a month tax free for six years. The Midlife Pivot: Wow. Suzanne Scheer: And it keeps growing by five The Midlife Pivot: Wow. Suzanne Scheer: percent compound every year. So like it gets like grows, grows, grows. And if he doesn't need care, then the death benefit in that one does grow. So it's you know, for folks of autoimmune disorders who've been told, you can't get long term care insurance for something new and there are always these new things The Midlife Pivot: There really is something out there that you can get. Wow. Suzanne Scheer: coming around. So it's kind of exciting that there are these options and so yeah, it's The Midlife Pivot: Yeah. Brilliant. You you've actually answered my next question, but I'll still put it to you in case there's a point Suzanne Scheer: Okay. The Midlife Pivot: there. What we have discovered is that there are so many different types of policies and the terminology can feel overwhelming. Would you Suzanne Scheer: Yes. The Midlife Pivot: mind explaining traditional long term care insurer insurance versus hybrid policies, including what happens if someone never needs care? Suzanne Scheer: Right. No, absolutely. So for years the policies were the traditional policies or they may be called standalone. And that's the kind it's kind of like a car insurance policy or homeowners insurance policy. You The Midlife Pivot: Okay. Suzanne Scheer: get it, you pay a bill forever, and the premiums aren't locked in, so they can go up and they do go up. And if you need right, The Midlife Pivot: Which is kind of like ours, yeah. Yeah. Suzanne Scheer: if you need care there's a lot of you get the best bang for your buck. You get you're paying in the least amount of money for the most amount of coverage. So that part's good. The Midlife Pivot: Okay. Suzanne Scheer: But like you're saying, like if you never need it, there's not any money that goes back to anybody. And then you usually have to hire someone from an agency or someone with some kind of licensing. So The Midlife Pivot: Qualifications. Yeah. Suzanne Scheer: it's a little bit more limiting and you have to send receipts in for and The Midlife Pivot: Yes. Suzanne Scheer: get approved. I've been on the phone with folks who've just been so frustrated that every time they want to change providers they have to call the company and get approval and it's it's it's it's it it's difficult. It's difficult. The Midlife Pivot: That's us. That is the policy that we have. which which has been very frustrating because they they advertise that they're there to help you find the provider, and then when you utilize that help, they can't find the provider. And then you end up finding your own provider and that person isn't qualified, so then you have to get them Suzanne Scheer: Right. The Midlife Pivot: qualified. my goodness, we have been, you know, it's been quite an experience. I've learned so much Suzanne Scheer: Right. The Midlife Pivot: about long term care in the last six months than I ever thought I would need to know. But it's exactly what you're saying. Suzanne Scheer: Right, right, right. The Midlife Pivot: But I guess in our in in kind of follow up to Mom's question is what happens if you don't need it? So then it just disappears, you you lose the cash, the money's just gone. Yeah. So these hybrid policies Suzanne Scheer: The the money's just gone. The money's gone. So people didn't like that. The Midlife Pivot: that you're s that you're now talking about that have cut become available definitely are Suzanne Scheer: Right. The Midlife Pivot: the way to go if you qualify for them. Suzanne Scheer: I I mean I that that I'm admittedly biased towards them when someone's able to do it because I like certainty. I don't The Midlife Pivot: Yeah, me too. Me too. Suzanne Scheer: I'm not one for surprises, especially when it's financial. Right? And so yeah. The Midlife Pivot: Right. A and that pretty much takes us onto the onto the next question, which is how does one typically help someone decide whether, you know, whether insurance is right for them and what should they consider about their savings, retirement income, family circumstances, and ability to afford premiums over time. Suzanne Scheer: Sure, I mean, you know, it's really looking at the big picture and saying, Okay, well, is there a sometimes people will have a chunk of money. Let's say somebody put money in a C D or some kind of savings account to say, Okay, well, I'm gonna use this money later for long term care. Well, that's not really growing very much and it doesn't any growth is gonna be taxable and it's there's some limits to it. So like if someone's in that scenario, they could take that money and move it to the insurance company, just one check, and then they can have the long term care and they're done, they don't have to pay anymore. That's one way people can do it. One other way is that I think is really I'm gonna do a webinar about this next month 'cause I I'm gonna really geek out for sure on this one. But people can use money from IRAs or other retirement accounts. They can move the money from the retirement account to the insurance company to make to fund their policy. instead of like the ring. The Midlife Pivot: not be penalized and not be penalised pulling money from the retirement? Suzanne Scheer: you're not penalized and then you pay tax over ten years, so you're still paying the tax. You can't avoid that unfortunately. But The Midlife Pivot: Okay. Okay. Suzanne Scheer: it's a way that you can just use that money where you don't have to take it out and pay the tax and then physically write a check every year. It's just it's just sort of a turnkey way to do it. And something that people don't know is that like once let's say a spouse has a lot of money in his in their iris and once people get to a certain age right now it's seventy three, eventually it's gonna be seventy five, but who knows what will change, but If you have an IRA that's not a Roth IRA, you don't have to worry about it. But the traditional IRAs where you haven't paid the tax yet, you have to take money out at a certain age and they tell you how much you have to take out. Well, if you're in that scenario and you don't need the money that you're taking out to live on, then you could transfer a chunk of money to the insurance company and then every year for ten years they just say, Okay, well we're gonna transfer money from bucket A to bucket B and we're gonna pay your premium on the back end. And you're gonna get your form as if you've taken the RMD. The Midlife Pivot: Yeah. Suzanne Scheer: And then that can create a benefit for h like if it's a husband's IRA, he can make do the IRA for him, make the benefit for long from here for himself. He can do it for himself and his spouse. He can even do it for his adult child. So let's say The Midlife Pivot: Wow. Okay. Suzanne Scheer: somebody has plenty of money, they don't need their RMDs from the IRA, and they want to do something for their child, they can take money from their IRA, put it with the insurance company, and then make a long term care benefit for their child. And the thing that's nice with that is that the law changed in twenty twenty, so if you inherit an IBRA from a parent, you now have to take that money out in ten years. The Midlife Pivot: Okay. Suzanne Scheer: It used to be that you could stretch out the benefit over your whole lifetime. And so this policy complies with that. So if the parent is taking these distributions, let's I have a someone I was working with is 85 and he wanted to do this for his daughters. So he let's say he he moves over this money From the IRA to the insurance company, and then let's say he passes away. If the daughters had inherited the IRA, they'd have to pay the tax and take out the distributions in any way within that same schedule. So they just pick it up themselves. But it's just an interesting thing. The Midlife Pivot: Very interesting. Suzanne Scheer: And then if somebody inherits an IRA from a parent, like I was saying they have to take it on the 10 years, they can use that money. So let's say your parent had an IRA and you inherit five hundred thousand dollars from the IRA and you don't The Midlife Pivot: Okay. Suzanne Scheer: need all that money. you have other money to live on. Maybe you didn't even know it existed, which is probably in a lot of cases, right? The Midlife Pivot: Like a bonus. Yeah. Suzanne Scheer: So you can take some of that money, take it, put it to the insurance company, and then every year for 10 years, they give you your tax form and you comply with the rules. And you can make a benefit for yourself and your spouse that although and that company has an unlimited benefit, which is they're the only ones that have that. So The Midlife Pivot: Yeah. Suzanne Scheer: that one's really a great option. If someone's worried about, you know, if you have a history in of dementia, you know that you had a parent who had needed care for 20 years and you're really worried about that. you can do something like that. So there's I mean, there are all these different ways of doing it and if nobody knows about it. It's right. The Midlife Pivot: Do that. Yeah. And people just don't know about it. People just don't know about it and nobody talks about it. And and and not only that, you get so bamboozled with a fine print. You know, say you decide, right, I'm gonna do it, unless you have somebody explain it to you, what would should we be looking for? Could you walk us through health benefits, waiting periods, inflation, protection, exclusions? and whether premiums can increase. You have talked about it a bit, but if you could just take us a little bit deeper. Suzanne Scheer: Of course. So when you're looking at the policy, you want to see what are the premiums going to be. Like I said, there's a whole whole variety now with these new products. With the old products, it's typically either a monthly or annual premium that you would be paying. And with the new products, you know, you've got a locked in premium. Either you pay all at once or you might pay over five years or ten years, or you know, you have different options there. You can pay annually or monthly. but you wanna look at what is your benefit today. And then you wanna look at, okay, well, these expenses, I mean the the cost of care is inflating at a higher rate than normal items, increase. And so you wanna put at least three percent compound inflation protection on there, which means every year both the monthly amount and your benefit total pool of money go up by three percent compound. So it's like growing, growing, growing, growing over time. So you wanna look at what is the benefit when you start out. And then what I usually look at what is it at eighty three because that's the average age of claim, but you can look, you can pick any year. when I am designing a plan for someone, I'll have what they call an illustration and it'll show okay, at age eighty five it's this much, at eighty six, like every single year shows you what is the benefit, The Midlife Pivot: Yeah. Suzanne Scheer: the monthly benefit, and then the total pool of money. So you want to look at all those things and get in the inflation. The Midlife Pivot: And I guess it's having somebody, and I guess also it's having somebody like you who really understands the fine print and is able to really Suzanne Scheer: Right. The Midlife Pivot: kind of delve deeper into it and say, look, don't Suzanne Scheer: Right. The Midlife Pivot: I don't want you to it's it's I think too many people try and do this on their own. my god. And that's the problem. I mean, that was us. You know, you kind of were told to do it, you bought the policy, you didn't really investigate it any further, and that was it. But having somebody that and I guess I've you know, I didn't realise that there really was somebody that could kind of dig in the weeds and get that information for once, you know, for somebody before you actually do it. So that is, Suzanne Scheer: Right. Right. The Midlife Pivot: I mean, that is that is huge. So I guess moving on, I would say for somebody who who is single, divorced, widowed, or doesn't have children nearby, what deserves particular attention? So how can one build a realistic care plan? And how can families begin these conversations before there's a crisis? Suzanne Scheer: Gosh, that's so many great questions there. I think someone who's single or doesn't have kids nearby, or or even if their kids are nearby, if they don't want them to be, you know, having to physically do their care. I think while you're healthy, it's just really important to learn about this and then find out if your situation is suitable If, like I said before, if somebody doesn't have a lot of extra money. You have to be very careful with it. I mean, there are ways you can do a small plan, even though it doesn't seem like a big benefit, that can make a big difference. People are surprised to find that out it's incredibly flexible. It's almost it's not fun like buying a car, but it's almost as much as many different choices as, you know, when you're thinking out do I want the heated seats, do I care about the heated steering wheel? What do I want? And 'cause each policy has its own features. And so It's not just something that I pull off of a shelf and say, Okay, everybody's gonna get this same thing. Like it's The Midlife Pivot: Yeah. Suzanne Scheer: it's very personalized to someone's situation. One thing I didn't mention is that some of the hybrid policies now have something that's called indemnity, which basically just means cash. But if you trigger a claim, if you're qualifying and you need you're, you know, able to get the policy to start paying out, instead of going through all the headache that you all have been through, The Midlife Pivot: Yes, Suzanne Scheer: they send you money. They just send you the money. The Midlife Pivot: And you end up doing or take care of everything on your own Suzanne Scheer: And you do what you want with it. The Midlife Pivot: and you can do what you want. my goodness. But that has to be a clause, right? That has that Suzanne Scheer: You can hire a family member. I'm sorry, say it again. The Midlife Pivot: has to be a clause in the insurance that says the policy that you're purchasing. It's part of the policy that you're purchasing. Suzanne Scheer: Well it's it's right. Right. That's part of the policy. I mean it's it's the design. The Midlife Pivot: Right. But this is what I'm trying to say, what what Suzanne's sharing with us is that there's so many options out there that people just don't know about. And while this maybe isn't sexy to talk about, you know, and and people do, Suzanne Scheer: Right. The Midlife Pivot: they shy away from it. It is so Fundamentally important to be able to protect your future. And that's Suzanne Scheer: Yes. The Midlife Pivot: what we're trying to teach those folks that are listening to this. So we can worry about our bodies and we can try and be healthy and we can try and eat right and we can exercise and we can take care of our midlife. But if we're not looking at the unsexy part of growing older, then we're gonna get screwed at the end of the day. And I think having Suzanne Scheer: Pretty much. The Midlife Pivot: somebody like you share this with us gives us. that ability to empower ourselves. And also I feel you don't have to concentrate on elderly parents. You can concentrate you can concentrate on a spouse. You know, one never knows in life, you know, what can happen to your spouse or whatever. Suzanne Scheer: Right. The Midlife Pivot: So there should be something, you know, to rely back on. My husband always used to say before, he said, why give it to the insurance? Why don't we just take the money, put it into What you call it? Savings account. savings account, getting interest on it. And eventually when you need it, and then you realize the cost of living has changed and has become so much more expensive, then I don't think you can do that. No, you d you start digging Suzanne Scheer: Right. The Midlife Pivot: into that, you know, you start eating away at it, you know, at what you've put away. And Suzanne Scheer: Right. Right. The Midlife Pivot: for savings, it just doesn't work, that kind of you know, you independent savings, Suzanne Scheer: Right. The Midlife Pivot: I should say. Suzanne Scheer: Right. The Midlife Pivot: versus having it in a policy that you can't touch until you need to. Yeah. Suzanne Scheer: Right. And a lot of people think that. They say, Well, I'm just gonna self they call it self insure, but you that's impossible because The Midlife Pivot: Right. Suzanne Scheer: insurance is transferring the risk to someone else. So there's no such that's a wrong term to use. But if you say self fund, I'm just gonna use my own money. Well, I find a lot of flaws with that for many different reasons. One of them is if you wanted to take a certain amount of money and have it grow to let's say a million dollars by the time you're eighty three in thirty years, that's gonna take thirty years. That's not gonna happen right away. But with these insurance policies, you give them One monthly payment, like I'll give you an example. So I got a policy when I was fifty four and I'm paying a thousand dollars a month for ten years and then I'm done paying. So when I made my first payment of a thousand dollars, if I needed care, I mean there's that waiting period, but after the waiting period I would have a pool of money of over five hundred thousand dollars day one. it's it's limited how much you can get per month. It's five thousand something per month. So it's and it's not a p The Midlife Pivot: Okay. Suzanne Scheer: well they don't just give me a check for five hundred thousand, but The Midlife Pivot: Right. Suzanne Scheer: the idea is turning a thousand dollars into a pool that's five hundred thousand immediately guaranteed. The Midlife Pivot: Wow. Suzanne Scheer: I mean, there's no way you can do that. You can't invest I mean, it just you just can't do it. And so the idea is that if something happens sooner, which it could, you've got the big pool and then it will keep growing. But the idea that you can you know, I guess if if everything goes exactly the way you want it to, and you invest a certain amount and you don't need care until eighty five and you've got thirty years for it to grow, maybe the stock market The Midlife Pivot: Yeah. Suzanne Scheer: will cooperate. The Midlife Pivot: Right. But you know, it's so interesting listening to all Suzanne Scheer: fit. Right. The Midlife Pivot: of this, Suzanne, because I was one of those people and my my husband used to get so angry with me because I used to always say, What are we putting away money for this? And why are we putting away money for that? Until you're finally in and unfortunate it hasn't happened to me, but you know, navigating this with my parents. I'm thinking to myself, my word, if we had not been proactive and done this, we would be in a flat tailspin right now. So for for Suzanne Scheer: Right. The Midlife Pivot: all of those that, you know And I'm talking to my kids who say, What do you mean I have to put away money in a 401k? Or what do you mean I have to put extra money? I want all my money. Suzanne Scheer: Right, right. The Midlife Pivot: And I was that person. You know, I worked for 30 years and I used to cry every time I got my paycheck because so much Suzanne Scheer: yeah, right. The Midlife Pivot: and he made me max out my 401k. I mean, I had to put the Suzanne Scheer: Right. The Midlife Pivot: most that I could, and you know, it was dual income, so we could we could afford to do that. But this is why we do it. This is exactly why we do it, is that we can't be so short-sighted. Suzanne Scheer: Right. I just want people to have right. Right. The Midlife Pivot: And not be so short sighted. Suzanne Scheer: I want people to have choices and options if they're ever in this situation, so that they can have their child or other family members as their companions and not as their caregivers. Right? And so and the other thing I want to say is The Midlife Pivot: Exactly. Right. Exactly. Yeah, I don't think I could be. Suzanne Scheer: that, you know, this insurance, unfortunately these policies are not gonna pay for everything. But if you can have sixty to seventy percent of your care costs covered from this and then you have you still have to take some of your own money, but it's not nearly as much, it's a lot easier. The Midlife Pivot: It it's a great option. Absolutely. Suzanne Scheer: So The Midlife Pivot: To wrap things up. If a listener finishes this episode thinking, I really need to address this, what are three practical first steps that you would suggest? And if insurance is unaffordable, if they don't qualify, what other ways can one prepare? Suzanne Scheer: That's a great question. Well I do want to say that regardless of insurance, estate planning is incredibly important for everybody and especially for young people, having a power of attorney in place The Midlife Pivot: Yes. Suzanne Scheer: is super important because if God forbid you get hit by a bus and you can't communicate and you need someone to access your accounts, regardless of how old you are, that's just something that's a non negotiable in my opinion. Even if you have to go on legal zoom or you have to just do something from the library or online, The Midlife Pivot: Fantastic advice. Suzanne Scheer: that's number one for everybody. that to get estate planning documents in order, especially powers of attorney, I feel like the powers of attorney can almost be more important than the will, especially for young folks who don't maybe have a lot built up, but anybody could be in that situation. So that's one I would say. The second thing I would say is, you know, get educated about long term care insurance and what it is and how it works. And that's that's one of the biggest focuses, you know, I'm constantly doing webinars and anyone who will let me talk to them, I will talk to them. They just have to tell me when to shut up because I'll keep talking all day. The Midlife Pivot: Yeah. Suzanne Scheer: you know, but just learn about it, understand that you don't already have coverage for this and find out, okay, well, given my situation, you know, it doesn't make sense or not. Talk to me, The Midlife Pivot: Right. Right. Suzanne Scheer: talk to go reach out to a long term care specialist. I don't know how other people work, but I don't charge for my time when I meet with people. The Midlife Pivot: Okay. Suzanne Scheer: Which is such a luxury compared to having been a lawyer and having to bill in either six or fifteen minute increments and having a clock run every time I talk to someone. So it's a real pleasure to be able to just be with people and talk with them and The Midlife Pivot: And clearly you're so passionate about it and you want to help somebody and you can see it, you Suzanne Scheer: Right. The Midlife Pivot: know, you I can see it in your knowledge and your expertise, and you're so passionate because you've lived, you've walked the walk, and it's not a pleasant walk to walk in. You know, as someone who's, Suzanne Scheer: thank you. Thank you. Right. Right. The Midlife Pivot: you know, doing it on a much smaller scale to what you had to endure, I can tell you it's it's horrible. You know, you don't want to see your parents' Suzanne Scheer: Right. The Midlife Pivot: age and you don't want to be in that situation, or even your pa your spouse or your You know, or yourself. You don't want to be a burden onto anybody else. And I think that's Suzanne Scheer: Right. No. The Midlife Pivot: what I've recognized in this is having my kids. Suzanne Scheer: Right. The Midlife Pivot: I don't want to be a burden to them. I don't want them to have to Suzanne Scheer: No. The Midlife Pivot: worry. I want to take care of my own future knowing that I'm going to be taken care of. Suzanne Scheer: Right. to I work with people all over the country. I'm happy to have I usually talk on Zoom or I can meet in person, but I'm happy to The Midlife Pivot: Fantastic. Okay. Suzanne Scheer: talk with people and teach them about it and find out what their situation is. And you know, if they've been declined before, there are these options now, like the kind I got from my husband. He was declined before and he was able to get that. So it's not saying not that there's The Midlife Pivot: Yeah. my goodness. Suzanne Scheer: a policy for everybody, but there are a lot of different things now. And then for folks who are older I mean I could go on and on, I won't. But I could. The Midlife Pivot: Yeah, no, for Suzanne, this has been, I don't want to, yeah, I want everyone to know. I mean, we'll share your information. This has been Suzanne Scheer: Uh-huh. The Midlife Pivot: so valuable and beneficial. And I certainly for the two of us who, as we, you know, keep s keep reiterating, we're in the thick of it. we wish we had had you, a year ago. Yes, we had the policy, Suzanne Scheer: my gosh. Huh. The Midlife Pivot: but even a year ago, because navigating it has been so overwhelming and just knowing so Suzanne Scheer: I'm sorry. I'm sorry. The Midlife Pivot: I'm just happy that we're able to provide a resource like you to our listeners so that you ca you know, they can and knowing that Suzanne doesn't even charge for her initial time, so let her be there to, you know, at least got Suzanne Scheer: Well I don't I don't charge for my when I'm working with people for insurance, I don't charge for any of my time. The Midlife Pivot: She doesn't charge for any of her time. We don't hear that anymore. Suzanne Scheer: I know, right? If I if I sell a policy, I get a commission from the insurance company. And The Midlife Pivot: That's Suzanne Scheer: if I don't, then I like to think that I've hoped that I've helped people. So that's really great. But one thing I want to add, if for folks The Midlife Pivot: Well that's phenomenal. That's phenomenal. Yes, please. Suzanne Scheer: who if they already have a policy or if their parent already has a policy, I I can give you something to put in the show notes, but I created a template that people can use to call the insurance company with their parent while the parent is healthy to get all the information The Midlife Pivot: Amazing. Suzanne Scheer: about how their coverage works. And there are two things that people should do if they haven't done it already. One thing is they should have somebody designated to be notified if a premium is missed. Because a lot of times with older folks, they forget to pay the premium. And if they forget enough times, the policy will get canceled. The Midlife Pivot: And that's Suzanne Scheer: And lapse, exactly. But you can notify s you can have somebody designated who doesn't live with you, like a daughter or son, or someone trusted. So that's one thing. You just have to get a form. It doesn't cost anything. You just call and ask for the form. The Midlife Pivot: Perfect. Suzanne Scheer: Then the other thing you want to get is have somebody put in place so that they can be notified or they can call about the policy to get information without the parent on the phone. So it's like third party authorization to be right. So so those are The Midlife Pivot: Like I have like I have with my dad. Yeah. Suzanne Scheer: two forms. If somebody is listening and they have a parent with a long term care policy or if they have their own long term care policy, those are things you can do where you just get on the phone, you ask for these forms, there it doesn't cost anything. And then the other thing I'll just add is if you don't have a copy of the policy, if you can't find it, have the company send you a copy of the policy. These are all things that don't cost anything and The Midlife Pivot: Yeah. That's fabulous. Yeah. Suzanne Scheer: and it can make the hugest difference if you're in the crisis trying to figure out like if what if your parent is in the hospital and you need to find out about the policy and they can't come to the phone and you The Midlife Pivot: Thirty. Yeah. Suzanne Scheer: call and they say, I'm sorry, I won't talk to you The Midlife Pivot: Yeah, yeah. No, this has been this has been absolutely invaluable advice. So I thank you so, so much. there is a lot for everybody to kind of absorb and digest and think about. we so appreciate your time. This has been wonderful, and I really think you have given a beautiful launching pad for people to empower themselves on knowing more about long-term care in the future. So folks. Please make sure you share this episode and let people know that someone like Suzanne is out there and you don't have to do this on your own. And there are in fact people that can guide you along the way. So share, like, follow us. Make sure that you tell everybody about the midlife pivot. And Suzanne, thank you. Thank you for your time. Thank you for being here. we really, really appreciate. And I guess we will see you all next time. Me too. Suzanne Scheer: Thank you so much for having me, it was such a pleasure.