Life Care Funding was founded in 2007 with a simple mission: Help families pay for the expensive costs of long term care. We knew there were millions of seniors across the United States struggling with these costs that were ill prepared once the need for care arrived. We also knew millions of seniors owned life insurance policies that they were needlessly abandoning for little to nothing in return. We knew the legal rights of policy owners, and recognized the viability of the secondary market for these policies to be sold for their actual market value.

But we knew we had to make this option work for seniors and their families struggling with the unique challenges of addressing an immediate need to pay for long term care costs. It became necessary to create a new vehicle for them to access this value for their policies in a way that would be quick, non-threatening and would ensure that the maximum value for their policies would be there to pay for their long term care costs. We created what is known as the Long Term Care Benefit Plan, and over the course of the last decade it has become a mainstream way for families to pay for long term care costs.

Today, there are over 5,000 providers of home care, assisted living, skilled nursing and long term care supports and services across the United States who offer this program to families as a financial lifeline.  There are thousands more insurance agents, financial advisors, and attorneys now offering this option to families as a part of their practice. They, and many more, have come to recognize the need to access financial tools not just to plan for the future, but also and maybe even more importantly to be able to address the costs of care at the time that care is needed.

The Long Term Care Benefit Plan fills that gap where either a person has not planned for their future care needs, or they are coming up short. Instead of needlessly abandoning a life insurance policy and going straight onto Medicaid, the owner has the option now to convert that policy into a way to help pay for any form of senior living and long term care they want. They are able to extend their ability to remain private pay and choose any form of care they want. Once they spend through the account they are able to go onto Medicaid because the Benefit Plan is a Medicaid qualified spend down of the policy’s fair market value.

Highlights of the Long Term Care Benefit Plan:

• Specifically for people that have an immediate need for Senior Care of any form: Homecare, Assisted Living, Nursing Home, Memory Care, Hospice (usually within 90 days)

• Works for in-force Term (convertible or non-convertible), Universal, Whole and Group policies with death a benefit of $50,000 and above

• Simplified underwriting requirement (review of medical records from last 2 years and phone interview to confirm need for care and type of care to be funded with Benefit Account).

• The entire proceeds from sale of the policy will go into an irrevocable, FDIC insured bank account (average value for a policy is 45% with a typical range of 30%-60%)
  • The account is irrevocable to protect the money for the account holder
  • The account is a Medicaid qualified spend-down so once the account is spent-down the account holder can immediately switch to Medicaid to pay for their care
  • The account is tax advantaged because the funds are spent on long term care for someone who is diagnosed with a chronic or terminal condition

• The Account preserves a funeral benefit for the family or it will pay the entire balance to the family if the account holder dies before the account has been spent-down.

• The Account pays a monthly benefit directly to the care provider of choice (the account is flexible and adjustable to meet changing needs of care so there is no set benefit duration, but the Life Care Funding average over 10 years is extending private pay for enrollees by 19 months)
  • Amount and provider can be changed with 30 day notice
  • Additional amounts can be drawn for special need circumstances

We are proud and grateful for the opportunity we have had over the last ten years to work with so many families and professionals seeking nothing more than to help people dealing with a long term care crisis. Our program has helped hundreds of families across more than 35 states. We have paid out over $10 million in long term care benefits and delayed their need to go onto Medicaid, sometimes indefinitely.  In the process we have given dignity and choice back to families who don’t want to become a ward of the state, but want only the best care they can afford for themselves or a loved one. We have saved tax payers millions of dollars and we have pumped vital private pay dollars into the long term care system.

As we look at our next decade, there is still so much more that needs to happen. Not enough policy owners are aware of an option like this and continue to throw away life insurance policies after years of making premium payments. Not enough care providers and advisors are aware of how this option can help families desperately trying to find a way to pay for care. And not enough lawmakers and regulators are aware of this way to help the citizens of this country struggling with the costs of long term care, or the potential for tax savings by tapping into billions of dollars of worth of life insurance policies that are being thrown away every year.

The mission that we founded Life Care Funding on a decade ago remains our call to action—help families pay for the expensive costs of long term care!