Maggie Linton
The Maggie Linton Show is a critically acclaimed Sirius XM radio show which offers stories about individuals who’ve reached for success and achieved their goals.
Part One! Part Two! Part Three!
Maggie and Chris had a three part interview which went over much more than just Life Care Funding. Maggie asked some very interesting and difficult questions, allowing Chris to show really what a Life Insurance Settlement plan can do for you. The interview quickly broadened to new subjects like long term care, entitlement programs, insurance, and overall family planning for long term care. The interview is over an hour long, but it’s a great listen and can answer any of your questions about Long Term Care and Life Care Funding. Above is the great three part interview, check it out!
The Maggie Linton Show
The newest weekday voice on Channel 110, this is the Maggie Linton show on sirius xm urban view
Maggie: Well welcome back, I was telling my producer, I said, I’ve been on a month now I’m not that new, we’re going to have to get that changed. How many of you know about long term health care and what do you know? And how many of you also know that there is a long term care commission? Well we’re going to be learning about that plus a whole lot more. From Chris… he’s senior healthcare expert on Obamacare, he is also CEO of life care funding. Thanks so much for joining me Chris. I don’t hear Chris… Oh hello Chris, yea now we got you.
Chris: …For a second I thought I got dropped…
Maggie: No no, we got you on, it’s ok no problem. Welcome, lets talk about your background because that’s pretty interesting within itself.
Chris: Sure you know I actually spent a number of years in Washington DC where I worked as a lobbyist for the insurance industry and watched you know the progression of what’s happened to the point of where we are today with seniors that are living longer and the cost of long term care is getting much more expensive. We’re now at a point where we have 10,000 baby boomers a day who are turning 65. And that’s just a huge addition to the population of people that qualify for medicare and social security, and cost the taxpayers a tremendous amount of money when it comes to supporting them for long term care expenses.
Maggie: And when we look at long term care, I know congress which I call the do nothing congress has been trying to … our social security, take it also to private sector that type of thing, and way too many of us, and I’ll raise my hand closer to retirement than I am to anything else. Really need to realize that we do have a few other sources for long term health care.
Chris: That’s right, you know long term care of any form, whether it’s home care assisted living, nursing home care whatever it may be, it’s a very expensive proposition and so few people in this country at any age, prepare for it and even understand the differences between the types of care or what medicare would pay for what medicaid would pay for, what has to be paid for by private funds and that’s a big reason why the long term care commission that met in washington just a few weeks ago, big session that basically came out with two big outcomes. One was medicare and medicaid is not going to be able to afford to keep up with 10,000 baby boomers a day turning 65, seniors living longer, the cost of care getting more expensive and that there was going to be a need for the private sector. Private market innovations were going to have to come forward and find other ways to help people pay for care and be prepared to handle those expenses.
Maggie: And when we look at the commission, are they going to continue to meet in order to help deal with some of these issues?
Chris: You know it’s a temporary commission it’s a bipartisan group that was appointed by members of congress, the president for both sides of the aisle, experts that deal with senior care, senior care finance, medicare, medicaid. It’s going to meet and provide its final report before the end of the year, so it’s a short term body with a very big assignment dealing with one of the biggest financial problems that this country is confronting today. I mean what’s driving the budget deficit and our financial problems really are entitlements. It’s the cost of keeping up with medicare, medicaid, social security, those are three of the biggest things that cost not only the federal government, but in every state that has to also bare a portion of the medicaid costs. That is one of the biggest budget items in every state and states are struggling with keeping up with those expenses as well.
Maggie: Yes definitely and we see so many as I look toward, I live in maryland, and a lot of money has now come in through casinos, but that’s still not going to solve the problem.
Chris: No, you know those things, casinos, lotteries, you know sin taxes, those are all bandages. You know the problem is how do you turn around the environment where medicaid in particular is the biggest funder of long term care services in this country and you have the smallest percentage of people who are on medicaid are consuming the largest percentage of the dollars because it’s being spent on long term care. They’re in nursing homes and other care environments that are very expensive. Now one of those private market solutions, is something our company specializes in, and that’s what we focus on. Life Care Funding, we’ve been in business since 2007 and what we do is we work with seniors who have a life insurance policy and instead of them abandoning the policy, we help them convert it into a long term care benefit that they can then use to pay for any type of care that they want.
Maggie: That’s what we were going to talk about next, so lets just go right to it. Once again if you have questions and comments, I know you probably have some questions for Chris because I sure can’t answer a lot of them. The number is 866-801-8255, once again that’s 866-801-TALK. Lets talk about the converting of insurance policies because that’s something that’s been out there for a long time, but a lot of people just don’t know about it. Because all we hear is about you know make sure you have part b paid for which is your long term care insurance.
Chris: Right right right, this is an alternative, particularly that will help a large percentage of the senior population because so many people still have life insurance policies, families that bought life insurance years ago when they’re children were young and now that they’ve grown up and the parents are seniors looking at long term care, too many of them will actually just walk away from a life insurance policy after paying premiums sometimes for decades. They’ll either just abandon it no longer paying the premiums or there might be a little bit of cash surrender value so they’ll take that and let the policy go. Well for the insurance company that’s a big, that’s a big boom because they’ve collected premiums for years and now they’re not going to have to pay a death benefit. Seniors and policy holders in general just don’t know that owning a life insurance policy is actually your personal property. It’s an asset, you own it, and have control of it just like a home, a car, a stock portfolio, it’s your asset and you have the legal right to convert the death benefit and take the present day value, some lesser amount than the full death benefit but a present day value and then turn that into a private protected long term care benefit account that will pay for any form of care that you want.
Maggie: Alright, we’ve got a call from James in Pennsylvania, go ahead please James.
James: Yes, hello good morning.
Maggie: Good morning
Chris: Good morning
James: Great, hey I was listening to you know … this thing about entitlement and what disturbed me is that, the baby boomers they’ve paid well into the entitlement programs and now we’re hearing that it’s not sustainable and we know that over the decades that congress has been borrowing against all of these entitlement programs and now they want us to repay for something that we already paid into. And I don’t think that’s fair. You know you looking for new paradigm for us to pay for something that we already paid forward to. I’m 47, I’m way away from social security, but yall telling me that after, by the time I’m 65, it’s not going to be there for me. SO my question is, why are you not looking at turning the program or having a program that would depending on how much you made like all these folks that pay into it, that’s … or that has reached the status, we start paying out social security to them. Why are we not looking at making, giving them a tax break more so than paying that money out.
Chris: Well I would just say this, there are certainly a number of proposals on the table that are being looked at to how do you extend medicare medicaid and social security and their ability to meet the promise of people who have paid into it. But just like pension plans all over the country, that are unfunded, the problem is, you know when the money goes in, it doesn’t go in into an account that’s marked with your name on it and the money’s waiting for you, it’s being spent today on people’s needs today. And as the, as more people become seniors and more people retire and there’s less tax base, and less people working to support that, you start to reach an impossible proposition that requires private market innovation to come forward which quite frankly is the hallmark of the american way. I mean whenever there’s a crisis, the private market steps forward and helps to solve that crisis with innovation. What we talk about is people who have paid into a life insurance policy for years and instead of letting that go and getting nothing in return, taking the full value present day of that asset and applying it towards those long term care costs, so that for seniors, they can keep themselves off of medicaid, becasue let me tell you something. You don’t want to be on medicaid, because if you’re on medicaid, that means you’re below the poverty line, you’re a ward of the state and medicaid’s going to tell you what form of care you’re going to get and where you’re going to go get it. If you’re private pay, then you are in charge, you’re in control, you’re making those decisions and that’s where people want to be.
James: Well I don’t agree with that because, I think anything that is private, first of all private company has gotten us into where we at today. From wall street to every company that have made millions and laid off hundreds of thousands of american citizens and then went off and took their … their industry and their jobs overseas. We can not depend on private companies. Depending on private companies actually strangles us because we no longer have control of cost. So I don’t believe in that, when it comes to the pension plan, most of… pennsylvania particularly, pennsylvania has not … to their pension plan for over ten years because when the market was good, the unions allowed them to defer these payments. Then when the market got bad, the government said, oh… unsustainable, so they tried to not pay that. So thankfully here we are the same dependant on government you know I mean to go off and keep their promises and we as average citizens have been working for 27 years and you’re saying that i have to pay more into my pension plan because you did not pay your fair share.
Maggie: Sir he didn’t say you necessarily had to pay more into your pension plan what he’s saying is, have insurance and insurance is something that everyone pretty much should have anyway. Not just necessarily general health insurance, but long term care or a general insurance. And that is what you can use as an asset to take care of you in the long term way.
Chris: Right, what we are always emphasizing to families, and we’re talking to families across the country every day that we’re helping them work through how are they going to pay for long term care, what’s the best form of long term care for them. What we see is so few families prepare themselves as you just said. They’re not doing their homework they’re not… you know it’s not that they don’t want to but it’s difficult to save you know we live in expensive times, they’re trying to put kids through college, and the cost of sustaining yourself in a nursing home for a year can be in the range of 100,000 a year.
Maggie: I was going to say more than sending your kid to college.
Chris: RIgh right, and too few people have prepared themselves not because they didn’t want to but many just didn’t know or were unable to and so what we’re trying to let people know is, is that it’s not a hopeless situation, you don’t just have to rely on the government to come in and take care of you, there are situations where if you have an asset such as a life insurance policy, although the insurance companies aren’t out there educating people about this because it’s not necessarily in the insurance companies best interest. But in the interest of the individual who owns a policy, they shouldn’t be throwing those policies away and they do by the billions every year. They should instead be converting those into a long term care benefit. It’s another way to be prepared and use an asset you’ve already bought into, you already own.
Maggie: Ok sir?
???: Thank you
Maggie: Alright… THank you We’re going to go to curtis in atlanta. Go ahead curtis.
Curtis: Good morning.
Maggie: Good morning
Curtis: What kind of rubs me the wrong way when I hear that term entitlement. You know Jimmy Carter when he was president, didn’t want to leave office in a deficit, so I don’t know how old you are my man, but he went to the american people on TV and borrowed 488 billion dollars from social security and the congress voted for it. After he did it, Reagan came in and spent the rest. Now they’ve rolled it over into the general fund. So when you say … don’t have enough money to pay for social security, the government spent our social security money, 2 trillion and now they give you a check and now because less people are working, they want to change the rules. Turn it over to the CPI, Obama wants to do that. It’s just wrong. These, you know I just can’t understand how you come with these talking points and just everybody starts saying the same word. It says federal contribution, federal insurance contribution act. I never saw the word entitlement on a social security check that I pay in, secondly these entertainers, they can do one concert paying the social security for a lifetime. Never have to pay into it again and the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. If the rich would pay their full share like apple, facebook owners, and all these other hedge funds paying their social security, it wouldn’t be broke. But you guys keep coming with that entitlement word…
Chris: Well you know… you know the word entitlement doesn’t mean that it’s a handout or charity, what the word entitlement means is your right. And when you turn the age of 65 it is your right to automatically for medicare and social security. Medicaid’s a little different. It’s a program designed to support the poor, the disabled and children. But what happened is, medicaid actually ended up becoming the default payer of long term care services in the United States. And the way people get on to medicaid to be, for it to cover their senior care and this is really what happens with a lot of middle class americans, they will do what’s known as spend down their assets. They will impoverish themselves to get below the poverty line, solid, middle upper middle class americans with plenty of assets, not enough to just sustain themselves indefinitely in a long term care scenario, but certainly not people who you would meet and think that is a person who lives below the poverty line. Yet they will spend themselves down to get below poverty and go on to medicaid to cover their long term care. What we’re trying to do is help people avoid having to put themselves in that position. Certainly medicare, social security, every american, bill gates, he will get medicare and social security and so will your neighbor when they turn 65, that is an entitlement, they are entitled to that, that is their right. Medicaid is something that people who become, put themselves in a position of becoming a ward of the state, then get their long term care covered, we’re trying to help avoid putting themselves in that position.
Maggie: Alright, we’re going to have to take a break. Thank you curtis for calling and if you want to hang on that’s fine with other comments, but we gotta take a break right now and continue. When we come back with Chris… he’s senior healthcare expert and is CEO of life care funding. Stay tuned.
You’re listening to the Maggie Linton show on sirius xm urban view. We’ll be right back.
And now, lets join Maggie Linton on sirius xm urban view channel 110
Maggie: Welcome back we continue now with Chris… he is senior healthcare expert and CEO of life care funding. Chris before, we’re going to go right to the next call it’s Doug from chicago and he’s got a question about life insurance and health. Go ahead Doug
Doug: I came up, started the show just a little bit late
Maggie: That’s ok
Doug: I have a whole life policy as well as long term care insurance. Now if I understand this correctly, if you just have whole or whole life policy … builds value, you can use that towards your health care when you get older?
Chris: You know any, actually Doug any form of life insurance will qualify. Your whole life policy could very well and it’s not a matter of what you may have in that policy for cash value, it’s really a factor of the death benefit and converting some percentage which could be as high as 60% or greater of the death benefit could be converted into a long term care benefit plan. And then a lot of people what they’ll do for those that have a long term care insurance policy as well as a life insurance policy, they’ll combine the two so they have the coverage of the long term care insurance policy and then they have the policy, the life insurance policy conversion benefit that they use to fill in the gaps and have additional money to spend, so they can really you know go into a high end assisted living community, home health care, you know whatever it is that they want to choose. When you’re a private pay, you can choose any form of care you want, and with life insurance you can convert any type of life insurance, whether it’s term life whole life, universal life, group life, any type of life insurance will qualify, so you’re in a really good position with those two policies.
Doug: Fantastic, now this, and that wording would be in my policy basically I could look through my policy and find that long term care conversion literature or…
Chris: No actually…
Maggie: No generally not
Chris: yea you’re not going to find that in your policy. Where you’re going to find it is, is in the private market. That’s where companies like what we do, life care funding, and you’ll find information about it on our website, lifecarefunding.com. That is a private market conversion, in essence what you’re going to do is you’re going to trade in the policy and the death benefit to get a living benefit in the form of this long term care benefit account. It’s an irrevocable FDIC insured account. The money that you would get out of trading in your life insurance policy, goes into that account and then is used on a monthly basis to spend directly towards your care.
Doug: Fantastic, you guys make me feel good about my future…
Maggie: Yea well, I was getting ready to say, the thing is is you just keep paying and you’re going to come out so much further ahead. Do what you’re doing right now, and continue that and you’ll come out the better for it
Chris: Absolutely, that is somebody who is well prepared, you’re well prepared Doug.
Doug: Thank you very much… guys
Maggie: Alright… Thank you Doug. You know when he said is it on my policy, that’s one of the problems hasn’t it been Chris is that the insurance companies haven’t wanted to tell people. That’s right. We’ve actually gone out and we’ve been fighting this fight, that’s why we’re looked at as senior care advocates, we’ve been out around the country, we’ve testified at state legislatures, we’ve helped champion actually legislation across the country to make sure that consumers are being informed of their legal right. You’re not going to find this in your life insurance policy. You need to find this out there in the market where this options available to you, and it means you have to be informed, you have to go out and look for this information. States have started passing laws to make sure consumers are being informed of it. Texas was the first state in the country to actually pass a law that says that their medicaid department has to inform anybody looking at medicaid that if they have a life insurance policy, they have the right to convert it and they can delay having to go on medicaid by staying private pay and choosing the form of care they want.
Maggie: Now what happens to that, well I guess it would be… if you should pass away before you finish using it though, does it go on to the family kind of like with an estate or something along those lines?
Chris: yea yea, it’s a great questions Maggie. Lets say we’re 100,000 dollar policy for round numbers and you got 60,000 dollars of benefit. In essence you would have traded in, and in essence really you’re selling off the life insurance policy, the 100,000 dollar death benefit to get 60,000 dollars today. It’s going into that private irrevocable FDIC insurance account. And if you were to pass away before you had spent through all of the 60,000, lets say half of it was still sitting there, 30,000 dollars. That would go right to your family. In addition, there’s always a funeral benefit that’s held in those accounts. So that if you outlive the benefit, one that would mean if you did need to you could go on to medicaid because you would have spent through it all and you would still be medicaid eligible. And there’s a funeral benefit as well. Either way you’re guaranteed to get the full benefit amount either over the monthly payments or anything that’s left over goes to your family.
Maggie: Alright, we have a call from Monica in Ohio, go ahead please MOnica.
Monica: Hi, hello Maggie, how are you?
Maggie: Good and you?
Monica: I’m great thank you, I really enjoy your show, and hello to your guest. My question is, at what age should you consider purchasing long term care insurance.
Chris: You know long term care insurance, you probably want it, well it’s a simple answer and this is the earlier and the younger you purchase it, the less expensive it’s going to be.
Maggie: The cheaper it is, that’s true
Chris: … so I mean I literally you know there’s always like that one person you know who’s just really well prepared and super organized and bought a long term care insurance policy in their 20s, but for the most part people tend to start looking at buying these policies in their 40s their 50s while you’re still relatively young and healthy, that’s going to get you better rates than if you were to try and buy it in your 70s and 80s. You know buying a long term care insurance policy, is sort of like buying homeowners or car insurance you know you can’t wait until you’re in your 80s and getting ready to move into a nursing home to buy long term care insurance just like you can’t crash your car and then go buy car insurance to cover the accident. You have to be prepared in advanced.
Monica: Ok, and then what about for aging parents who are already in the 70s. Like at the 75 mark, who don’t have, who have not made that purchase already. How would I as a child go about for the purpose of who’s going to be caring for them, go about, is it too late to purchase for them, or where are we at on that.
Chris: You know I would look at a couple of things. One, I would see do they currently have life insurance, because if they do, you’ll want to make sure you’re hanging onto those life insurance policies because you’re going to be able to convert it into a benefit. Second, depending on their health, you know it’s not impossible to be able to buy a long term care insurance policy or a life insurance policy, when you’re in your 60s, in your 70s. It’s all based on your health, you know you could be a very healthy non smoker non drinker, exercising in your 70s and still qualify for a relatively fair rate for life insurance or long term care insurance. First thing you want to do, if you have life insurance hang on to it, second thing you want to do is take a look and see. Is there still the possibility that you could buy either life insurance or long term care insurance because either one can then be used to help you pay for long term care.
Monica: Ok great, thank…
Maggie: I was going to say one thing here. You might check the AARP website because they’re pretty much good about at least what you might be able to do at a certain age especially if you’re over 50.
Monica: Ok great..
Chris: it’s a great point, AARP is a great resource.
Maggie: It’s a great source for a lot of information in particular about insurance and also, Chris’ insurance, lifecarefunding.com not your insurance, but his website is also extremely good, ok?
Monica: Wonderful, thank you so much for the information…
Maggie: You’re welcome… it’s our pleasure, thank you. Once again we’re talking with Chris… he is senior healthcare expert and CEO of life care funding. Chris, a good point like the lady said about buying it early, I know when I started buying mine, it was, I was it was about 40-50 dollars per month for the long term care because I learned because of my parents. You know, and the medicare or medicaid part b of your social security being the long term also, but it has gone up a little bit, but still nothing that I can’t handle, it’s way under a hundred bucks and I’m over 60. It’s way under a 100 bucks per year, I mean for that, per month for that, so it’s well worth it to look into it at any age if you can.
Chris: I absolutely couldn’t agree more. The only thing I would also say is you just want to make sure you understand who you’re buying the policy from and what it does cover. We do see scenarios where somebody with a long term care insurance policy assumes that they can get home care or assisted living and then they find out that the policy that they bought doesn’t allow for it, or that there’s a limit to the amount of care that they can get and so they’re coming up short. You just want to really make, don’t just assume all long term care insurance policies are the same, there’s so many different variations, and of course the more benefit and the more liberal it is, the more expensive it’s going to be. Also make sure you know what company you’re working with in just the last 2 or 3 years, some of the big long term care insurance companies have quit the market. metLife, no longer, Prudential no longer, Unum no longer sells long term care insurance and it’s a shrinking market. There’s really, you know I remember ten years ago there was a hundred or more long term care insurance companies, today there’s about a dozen, less than 20 left in the business. So you need to know your market before you purchase the product.
Maggie: Very true. We have James in Atlantic City, go ahead James.
James: Yes I was asking the question on, listen I really have a policy for long term care … since you brought that question up, can I keep that policy? I’m still paying into it, and how does it benefit me, I don’t really understand it.
Chris: You’re long term care insurance policy?
James: Yes I have a long term care policy that I had taken out years ago.
Chris: Yea I would make sure it’s enforced, and continue to pay those premiums, you don’t want to let, if you own a long term care insurance policy. You don’t want to let it go. It will help you, it may not give you 100% coverage for anything and everything you want, but it’s going to be a good start at least. So hang on to that policy, keep paying the premiums. Take a look at the policy and read it, or actually contact you know a long term care insurance agent and have them walk you through, what is this policy that I own, and what more potentially could I do if this is not everything that I think that I need.
James: I gotcha I gotcha, ok, and how do I go about if I wanted to convert a portion of my life insurance policy to long term care, can I still do that and how do I go online to find out that information?
Chris: Yes if you own a life insurance policy, and the conversion that we’re talking about really is for people who need the care now, that’s sort of an immediate need scenario, what you want to do is, as I said, understand your long term care insurance policy, what is you know what is that that you own. Look at your life insurance policy, make sur eyou keep it enforced, because right now you’re getting the benefit of that death benefit, if something were to happen to you, your beneficiary is going to get that full death benefit tax free. But as you get older and you get to the point where you need long term care and you’re trying to figure out how to make all the numbers work, you might be able to at that point take the policy, and it’s a very quick process, it actually there’s no fees associated with it, it’s takes about 30 to 45 days, you convert the death benefit, a portion of it into the long term care benefit and it starts making the payments every month. And you can combine that with the long term care insurance benefits. So you’d have the dual coverage in essence.
James: Thank you very much.
Maggie: Alright, thank you. And once you convert it, are you, can you still get interest on that money?
Chris: Yea, you can put it into, it can go into an interest bearing account, but what we see is that the, you know it’s not that those benefit accounts last for years and years and years usually they’re going to last for months to a year or two. So the interest is a minimal consideration. Really what you want is to get the most conversion value of the death benefit and then put it a position to give you the most coverage you can get for the form of care you want. Home care assisted living, skilled nursing, memory care whatever is necessary and what the person wants to choose.
Maggie: Alright, we were talking about what types of policy holders can benefit from this. What kind of policyholders and you know we were talking about long term and was it whole life? And there’s so many different kinds that people can pay into.
Chris: That’s right, there’s you know there’s term life insurance which a lot of people buy…
Maggie: And explain, because a lot of people really still don’t understand what term life insurance is.
Chris: Term life is, as the name implies, bought to cover you for a specific term, a period of time, you can get a 10 year a 15 year a 20 year and so you have coverage at a certain price which is usually the least expensive monthly premium amount, a term life policy for the most coverage. But it’s for a specific period of time, so lets say somebody buys one at the age of 40, and by the age of 60, when they know all of their kids have grown up, gone to college, moved on, the policy then expires. They had it for a 20 year term to cover them in case something were to happen. A universal life policy or a whole life policy are permanent forms of insurance. They will stay with you regardless of how long you live. And they will build up cash value, so as you’re paying in with premiums, there’s an amount that builds up in a policy which is known as cash surrender value and some people, lets say with a 100,000 dollar policy, maybe they end up with 5000 dollars of cash surrender value. Some people will say, I’ll take that 5000 and walk away from my policy. Others families we work with will say you know what, I would rather convert it and get a higher amount so I can apply it towards my long term care. Also group life policies, people who may have taken a policy out at work and now they’ve retired and many will keep those policies that also is a form of life insurance that can be converted to pay for long term care.
Maggie: Oh see I didn’t even realize that. Because a number of people over the years have had group life policies because of work. And some companies almost in a sense force you to take those policies out.
Chris: Yea, it’s like an automatic part of your compensation package, and then when you retire or leave, you have the option to take it with you and many people do.
Maggie: Yea but a lot of people don’t know they can.
Chris: Yea, yea and that’s another thing. People have, people, if you have a group life policy through an employer, union or anything like that you can take it with you. You know you have to file the paperwork and take over the policy and the premium but you’re going to get it at a very low cost and be able to hang on to that for the rest of your life.
Maggie: Wow, ok, see you just made me smarter. We’re going to take a break and we’re going to wrap up with Chris… when we come back, he’s senior health care expert and CEO of life care funding. You stay tuned.
And now lets join Maggie Linton on sirius xm channel 110
Maggie: Well welcome back, we’re continuing to talk about long term care with Chris… senior healthcare expert and CEO of life care funding. Chris we’ve got Wanda in New York. Go ahead Wanda.
Wanda: … my question is concerning a small life insurance policy I took out several years ago. It was very minimal and the company from metlife, the company kept trying to convert it to different things, but I never signed off on it, so I kind of don’t know the status of it, all I know is I get dividends from metlife twice a year. How would I go about figuring all that out. … policy that still… that I can convert later on or whatever?
Chris: Do you, do you have a copy of the policy?
Wanda: I do not.
Chris: I would say the first thing you want to do is, if you have one of those dividend statements you want to contact the insurance company, tell them, request a copy of the original policy. They have it, you as the owner are entitled to it, they will either send you a copy of the policy or a confirmation certificate of coverage, so you want to have that in hand, and from that you want to make sure you know what is the death benefit, what is any cash value that i have built up potentially in this policy, from that you’ll be able to determine what you could do to convert it in the future. Again it’s not something you’re going to want to convert until your need for long term care is immediate, but having that policy in hand means you have an asset, a tool that you’re going to be able to use when it comes time for long term care but you want to have a copy of it and make sure it’s in hand so you know what you have.
Wanda: Ok, thank you very much
Chris: Absolutely, contact the insurance company, they will give you what you’re entitled to have.
Wanda: Thank you
Maggie: And so often like you were talking about, so many of the insurance companies have gone out of business or been bought up by others and things like that, it really is important to have the paperwork isn’t it.
Chris: It is, and it’s always amazing to us how many families that we talk to that say we know we have a policy but we you know we’ve lost it, but even though you may not have a physical copy of it, you do still own it, and you should contact your insurance company and get a copy. Everybody should have a file of you know, their will, a copy of any insurance policies, copies of any bank accounts, if you have CDs, if you have a safety deposit box. People should have a file, I know it’s not a pleasant thing to think about, but in case something happens with either incapacitation, long term care, somebody’s deceased, you’re better off for all your family to have all your paperwork in a file where somebody knows where it is, instead of putting people through trying to piece together like detectives, what you have. There are literally billions of dollars of unclaimed death benefits out there because somebody died and the family didn’t even realize there was 100000 dollar a million dollar life insurance policy sitting there that they lost track of.
Maggie: A woman that I work with, her mom passed away and lo and behold, it had to have been a year or so later that she found out that her mom still had a policy like we were just talking about, group insurance through another company that she had no clue about. There was no paperwork or anything and the company actually contacted them for the yearly benefit or whatever the case may be and that’s how they found out about it.
Chris: Yea, they sort of stumbled into it, and fortunate for them that they did.
Maggie: Exactly, very fortunate because it wound up being able to pay for services for her dad because they were able to cash it in. We’ve got another…
Chris:…
Maggie: Go ahead
Chris: I was just going to say and this really kind of you know as we’re kind of getting to the end of the interview, this kind of goes back to the point that we always make and that’s to be prepared. You know people need to do their homework, they need to be prepared, you can’t just sort of ignore all this until you’re in a crisis situation, somebody’s laying in a hospital bed and then everybody starts looking at each other and says, do we have insurance? Does anybody know what mom or dad really had? He never talked about the assets or his bank accounts, does anybody have access to anything and you’ll be surprised at how many people are completely, it’s a mystery, what their own family members, what their own have to work with.
Maggie: And open up the dialogue. We have a call from Jason in New Orleans. Go ahead please Jason.
Jason: Hey how you doing today?
Maggie: Oh I’m good, I’m glad the guest just said what he just said. Because me and my sister talk all the time about my parents. ANd when we try to talk to them about life insurance or policies, I mean, you know my mom she gets real irate. And my mom’s brother just passed, and it turned her real ugly. You know, money had to be borrowed from family members, which the family thought he had a policy and it’s like you know me and my sister’s just trying to get something… I’m just trying to figure out what’s a good way to get to stubborn parents. That’s my question.
Chris: Well you know that’s such a great question. And it’s really , you know it’s that dynamic that so many people face around the country. Number one it’s an unpleasant topic to talk about, people would rather be talking about you know the start of the NFL season, than what’s going to happen if you die, or are you prepared to go into a nursing home. It’s just not a fun conversation and people avoid it. But they shouldn’t and they really can’t, you know. They owe it to themselves and to their family members to sit down and have that conversation and say, well we just want to be ready. We want everybody to be protected to be safe and to just have an open discussion. It isn’t about trying to figure out your inheritance and how much money you’re getting. It’s really a conversation to be had that’s in the best interest of your parent. Your loved one. It’s not about what you’re trying to do for you, it’s what you’re trying to do for them. ANd I think if you approach it from that perspective, it’s going to be received much better than some perception of you know, you’re trying to dig into their business to figure out what you have coming to you when you’re waiting for mom to kick the bucket which is not what you’re doing.
Maggie: The other thing I might suggest is you, just use the example of your uncle just passed away recently, and they saw how much hassle and things that you had to go, we just don’t want this to happen the same way with you two. And that might be another way, you know sometimes the glare that’s in their face might be something that is a wakeup call.
Chris: Yea if you have, and you know what, in today’s day in age most people inside their family can point to the experience of a loved one who had to go to a nursing home who passed away and no one knew what to do. There’s plenty of experiences that people can point to and say lets not let that happen to you mom or dad or my sibling. Lets be prepared.
Maggie: Alright, alright, thank you Jason, good luck. We got immanuel in pennsylvania. Go ahead immanuel.
Immanuel: Can you guys hear me ok?
Maggie: Yes we can now, go ahead
Immanuel: I do concur with your guest today. One of the things that I did with my parents, I’m an investment advisor, I’m 43 years old, my parents 67 and 62, so about three or four years ago, I went to my father, I said dad if something happened to you today, where is your paperwork. And matter of fact he took me to that location. It was interesting because it’s so powerful what… my mom was so removed from that. She actually and… got nervous just having that conversation of my dad passing away. And I tried to calm her, say mom this is very important. If something happened to dad or you we need to know where things are located, so fortunately my dad is pretty organized and he’s really been taking care of the family so those documents in place. And so, same situation, I have an Aunt 73 years old, and I said, and she only has one son, and she has a home that, two homes paid for, and retirements plans etc, and I said Aunt Margaret, if you die today, where’s your paperwork. Do you have a will? Say what? And she’s retired, I said well what are you waiting for?
Maggie: Because we’re all going to go out one way or another.
Immanuel: That’s right, so as a matter of fact, I called her every day that same week until she made an appointment with her attorney to get a will established for her son and for her family. But we, the ones that know better and prudent, I think we have to be conditioned to do more of this. And I just one thing by being professional dad can create a business of his own where people like me or your guest and other people, that’s a business opportunity for someone to go out to different homes and create a legacy plan for families because most families probably don’t even have a plan if something like this come about so…
Chris: You know that’s, you bring up a good point…
Maggies: A check list
Chris: And I’ll just say in terms of a business, there actually are companies online that you can subscribe to that offer like an online virtual safety deposit box for all those kinds of records so the family can access them. I’d google and look up those kinds of potential services as well as having a hard copy, you could have it digitally encrypted electronic, so that any member of the family could access it at, when the time comes.
Immanuel: Awesome, thank you so much.
Maggie: Thank you immanuel. We got Daniel in New York. GO ahead Daniel. We’ve got Daniel making no calls at this point. Daniel?
Daniel: Hello?
Maggie: Yes go ahead please.
Daniel: Hi thank you for taking my call. My grandfather passed away about 25 years ago, and according to my mother, he left a large sum of money in a bank to her name, however she has no documents … now she tried to find the bank, it’s in puerto rico, now she tried to find the bank, and she went to a few of them, but they keep telling her the one document she needs is his social security number which he does not have. Now is there anyway the gentleman on the show can guide me to where, I can help my mother get this money.
Chris: Well I would say this, if the missing ingredient is a social security number, there is a national social security database. Every social security number that’s ever been issued in the history of this country is registered and in federal holding. You can petition social security to get that social security number. You just, it would entail some significant paperwork verifying that your mother is you know the daughter of this person, she would have to have her birth certificate, I’m sure there’s some other paperwork involved to go through the verification process. But that social security number exists. If it was issued, it exists.
Daniel: Ok, so I’ll make sure I relay that information to her. Thank you again.
Maggie: Alright, thank you
Chris: Absolutely
Maggie: Thank you very much Daniel. WE’ve gotten some good calls today, and again lets reiterate about your lifecarefunding.com. Because again people need to know that they can be taken care of.
Chris: Absolutely and you know as we’ve seen over the course of our discussion and our callers, there’s a lot of questions, a lot of people who are trying, they want to be prepared, they want to be able to take care of their responsibilities, they want to be independent financially, they want to be able to handle their long term care needs. What we’re trying to do is help families through that process. If those families with a life insurance policy which as you can see there are a lot of people out there that have policies and they’re trying to figure out what to do with them. We provide an option to help them take that policy and turn it into a long term care benefit that they can then use to choose the form of care they want, stay private pay, avoid having to do something like go on to medicaid and be in control of their care, their future, not only for themselves, but for their families. We have a lot of good information on our website, lifecarefunding.com. There’s a lot of good information out there online, on the internet through google searches that we really encourage people to read up on, do their homework, there’s some great stuff out there that will help families better understand what they’re dealing with. And our company, and our website is one of those resources and we’re always looking forward to talk to families to answer their questions and help them through this process.
Maggie: And also, check your paperwork. That is probably the most important thing we can say. FInd out what you’re really covered for and if you’re not, get some insurance that helps cover that.
Chris: That’s right, that’s right. Check your paperwork, if you’re missing the paperwork, get the paperwork, keep it together, keep it organized, have a discussion among your family, have a plan, don’t let, don’t wait until a crisis to start trying to do something. Get a plan and prepare when you’re not in a crisis mode. Take your time, do it right, be ready for the future.
Maggie: Thank you so much joining me today Chris. Once again it’s Chris… he is senior healthcare expert and CEO of life care funding. You can find out lots more at his website lifecarefunding.com. We hope to have you on again sometime soon Chris.
Chris: Oh any time it was a real pleasure to be with you and to talk to your listeners.
Maggie: Alright, thank you have a great weekend.
Chris: Take care, alright you too, bye bye
Maggie: bye bye, thanks also to Adele coleman williams, michele palmer, executive director of the … center for loss and healing based here in washington dc and robin stockdale’s bereavement services manager of … hospice care which is based in hot valley maryland and also to carole brody fleet, her book again is happily ever after and her website is womeninstilletos.com. All contact information will be posted on my facebook page, Maggie Linton Show. On Monday, need a job but still not getting past the first interview, or not getting called at all? Well advice is on the way, we have stewart taylor back again, he’s an executive recruiter and president of top performers. Author and publisher Austin… will discuss his upcoming seminar that will feature New York TImes Bestselling Author, Jeffery… and update on March on Washington will come from Mark Thompson, who’s part of our family here at sirius xm. My new email address for any topic suggestions or comments is maggielintenshow@gmail.com Once again that’s maggielintenshow@gmail.com. And just a reminder, sirius xm is running a commemoration for whitney houston’s 50th birthday. It’s a day long special and it will feature music from her six grammy award winning career as well as personal memories from clive davis family members and more, it’s on heart and soul, channel 48, it’s already on right now it started at 9 o’clock and will run until 3am tomorrow morning. Once again that’s on heart and soul on channel 48. So, many thanks to my producers, Adele Coleman Williams, and Adrian Stout, have a blessed rest of day and weekend until next time seek peace and spread lots of love. I”m Maggie Linton.