Chris Orestis of Life Care Funding appeared on the WOCA radio talkshow ‘Health Matters’ with hosts Hosts Larry Whitler and Robin MacBlane. Click below to listen. Larry Whitler of WOCA brings a personal element to the conversation of funding long term care. Chris discusses the option of using life insurance to cover the expenses of long term assisted living for seniors who cannot qualify for medicare or afford to pay for long term care.

WOCA “The Source” talk radio of Ocala on station 1370 AM services the Gainesville-Ocala area. ‘The Source’ broadcasts radio programs with conservative views including ‘Health Matters’ with Larry Whitler and Robin Macblane. ‘Health Matters’ program features discussion on a wide range of health related topics.

Health Matters on WOCA Radio featuring Chris Orestis:

Larry Whitler:
Alright 18 minutes after 11 o’clock, nice looking wednesday morning, hope you’re doing well, I have a story to tell you I mean know some of you have heard me tell it before, but our guest on the phone hasn’t heard me tell it and I want to use it as a way to introduce him.

I worked at an assisted living facility for three years. I’ve been in radio forever, but I took a hiatus from radio, I got sick of it, I said I’m not doing it anymore, and I found this job where I worked with elderly folks, you know older retired people I should say. And I know I’m getting there myself but I worked for three years doing this, probably about twelve years ago now

Robin Macblane:
Mhm

Larry Whitler:
Right? And I came back one time from running an errand or something and I came back and I saw one of the residents in a wheelchair, an old man. Um I said, what are you doing, where you going? He’s like I’ve gotta leave, I said what do you mean you gotta leave. Well they kicked me out. Oh come on, I thought he was kidding me, I really thought he was kidding me. I went inside, all the nurses, all the ladies were crying because they knew they had no choice. This guy had to leave because he couldn’t pay anymore.

Robin Macblane:
Right.

Larry Whitler:
He ran out of money

Robin Macblane:
Yep

Larry Whitler:
I think just so you know the ending of the story, I think he ended up living with his brother up in New England somewhere ok, but the idea that somebody could be kicked out, you say ok, so this, bottom line is, the job I am doing is really a business.

Robin Macblane:
Right.

Larry Whitler:
I’m helping out a business and they have no choice if somebody can’t pay their rent and of course they can’t exist if everybody’s in there for free.

Robin Macblane:
Exactly

Larry Whitler:
So you can’t blame them either. Right. And fortunately this man’s case, he had family and you and I Robin, made that experience into something else that we’ve done and we take our music that we play and we show up at these places so in a very very casual way we get to see some of the living conditions of some of the different facilities. And they’re almost all pretty good. Ah, no forget the word almost, they’re all pretty good.

Robin Macblane:
Yea

Larry Whitler:
But you do see the ones that are the homes of some people who really didn’t plan, didn’t have money.

Robin Macblane:
Mhmm

Larry Whitler:
Right? And now let me combine that with this statement, we quite often in talk radio will demonize lobbyists, right? And I’ve been cautious about this because I’m well aware that some of the folks up in Washington DC or in Tallahassee who are lobbying our elected officials are actually doing something that’s going to be very good for all of us. Such is the case with our next guest, just so you know. Chris Orestis… I hope I have his information correct, otherwise he’s going to say What are you talking about? I’ve never lobbied anybody. He is the CEO of life care funding and an insurance industry lobbyist who created, listen to this, he created the model to provide an option for middle class people who are not wealthy enough to pay for long term care and not poor enough to qualify for medicaid. That was this man’s, the guy I just described to you.

Robin Macblane:
Yea

Larry Whitler:
That was his circumstances. And he’s going to tell us some alternate ways that we might be able to do this and what he was able to do legally with legislation that helps all of us. Chris Orestis… you you you should be the guy who we put on the cover of Rolling Stone, not this stupid bomb, I say this has been bothering me all morning long, but I mean somebody like Chris who’s actually done something heroic.

Chris Orestis:
Well thank you so much for saying that, and it’s a pleasure to be on your show. I did work in Washington DC for a number of years and I learned a couple of things as I was working with the insurance industry. One was that seniors who own life insurance policies were throwing those policies away. Billions and billions of dollars a year worth of policies were being thrown away by seniors because they either couldn’t afford to keep making their premium payments

Larry Whitler:
Yea

Chris Orestis:
Or they were starting to think about getting ready to get on medicaid and a life insurance policy is an asset that will count against you for medicaid eligibility, we looked at that

Larry Whitler:
Oh wow

Chris Orestis:
And we said wait a minute, there’s gotta be a better way cause the life insurance policy has a lot of value and a senior can actually, they have the legal right to convert that policy and use a portion of that death benefit as a living benefit to help pay for long term care and we went out, and started our company, Life Care Funding, over five years ago to put in place the mechanism to help seniors do that.

Larry Whitler:
Ok, so was that something that was always available but we needed a campaign to enlighten us? Or did legislation actually have to be passed to create that?

Chris Orestis:
Everybody who owns a life insurance policy, it’s their legal right to do it. It’s an asset, a life insurance policy’s an asset, no different than home, a car, or anything else. The problem is that life insurance policy owners don’t realize that.

Larry Whitler:
Does it matter if it’s term life or some other more, you know, more expensive, you know more fancy life insurance…

Chris Orestis:
No! Any, in fact every type of life insurance can you can use it, convert it, turn it into a long time, into a payment for long term care whether it’s term life, universal life,

Larry Whitler:
Really?

Chris Orestis:
Whole life. Even group life policies somebody might have kept after they retired from their company.

Larry Whitler:
So, ok just go back twelve years or so to the man I just described. Could, if somebody had known better could he have tapped into that? … He don’t know the guy but I mean…

Chris Orestis:
Absolutely, In fact that circumstance you described is the circumstance with families that our company helps every day. We get calls from assisted living communities, nursing homes, home healthcare companies with somebody in that circumstance. Or somebody that can’t afford to even afford to move in, they’re trying to figure it out. And they’ll tell us, we’re working with this family, they can’t quite afford to move in or stay in but they do have this life insurance policy and they were getting ready to get rid of it. But we understand that this is something that could potentially be used to pay for long term care. We will then walk the family through the process, hold their hand, take them through it, do the conversion, and they’ll take that life insurance policy and in essence, they’ll trade it in…

Larry Whitler:
Wow

Robin Macblane:
My Gosh

Chris Orestis:
… and in return, a fully funded long term care benefit account. So lets say the gentleman that you ran into had had a $100,000 life insurance policy…

Larry Whitler:
Ok, Ok

Chris Orestis:
He might have turned that into a 40, 50 or $60,000 benefit account that could have kept him in that assisted living community for another 2, 3, 4 years.

Larry Whitler:
Yea

Robin Macblane:
Oh wow

Larry Whitler:
Ok now, but he still has money for his funeral expenses? A lot of times that’s what people buy these policies for.

Chris Orestis:
Correct, Correct. Now, lets, and lets not confuse that. Lets say a small, 5 or $10,000 funeral policy is specifically for that. That should be kept and used for … policy uses, but somebody with a larger policy. Lets say it’s $50,000 to $100,000 or more of death benefit. So many families, when they get to that point where they’re trying to figure out how to pay for long term care are going to dump that policy.

Larry Whitler:
And they dump it why? Because they, they look at the premiums as a burden?

Chris Orestis:
RIght, the premiums are something that just become too expensive. Remember they bought a life insurance policy maybe 20 or 30 years ago to protect their young family in case something happened to them. Now that they’re in their senior years and they’re looking to move forward to long term care. The family doesn’t have to worry about that any longer. Now what they’re worried about is how to take care of mom or dad who 20 or 30 years ago was worried about how to take care of them.

Larry Whitler:
Ok so,

Chris Orestis:
Here

Larry Whitler:
Go ahead, I’m sorry I stopped you it sounds like you’re going to say what I was just going to ask you.

Chris Orestis:
Well, what I was just going to say, so now here’s an opportunity to use that life insurance policy to take care of an immediate need for long term care so that, the mother, the father whoever is in need of that care can choose the form of care they want if they convert the policy put it into a protected long term care benefit account, they’re private pay. That means they can decide, do I want homecare, do I want assisted living. What’s the best form of care that I want to choose. They can make that choice. They’re in control of their decision making process. As opposed to if they were to go on medicaid and now the state is telling you where you can go and what you can get.

Larry Whitler:
Alright…

Robin Macblane:
Exactly

Larry Whitler:
Let me tell you what happened, was it last year Robin? Was it one year ago?

Robin Macblane:
Yes

Larry Whitler:
One year ago, my mom got to the point where we, my family and I, decided to have her go into assisted living facility, beautiful facility in town. Not a clue what to do. Ok? In spite of the fact that I had those three years. By the way those three years I was an activities director so I really didn’t know much about the goings on. I was just having fun playing, but the point is, I relied on professionals to advise me what to do. Nobody brought this up. Is there a reason for that? I mean nobody ever said this is an option.

Chris Orestis:
Well

Larry Whitler:
Not that they steered me wrong, don’t, I hope, if they’re listening I don’t want anybody to think I’m unhappy with their service, they were very good to us. But this never came up as an option.

Chris Orestis:
Yea it’s not that they steered you wrong, it’s that they just didn’t know. And this is one of those, one of those sort of best kept secrets. The life insurance industry really has no interest in informing consumers that this is an option that they have. Because if you lapse or surrender a policy, that means they don’t ever have to pay the death benefit in the future.

Larry Whitler:
Oh wow

Chris Orestis:
If you traded in the policy to use it for long term care that means eventually a death benefit is going to be collected because the policy’s going to stay enforced. When our company works with a family they’ll trade in the policy to us, we’ll take over the policy, keep making the premium payments to keep it enforced and we are going to fund and administer the benefit account for them to make sure that every month the payments they need for home, assisted living, whatever it is that they need are being covered.

Robin Macblane:
Wow

Chris Orestis:
So the insurance companies would prefer that people don’t know about this and it’s not something that they’re out there informing people about. Our company’s mission, and that’s why we really love these opportunities to get on and talk to folks like you, our company’s mission is to go out there and inform people. Let them know and one of the things we did is, we championed legislation around the country. Florida was one of, is one of the states that have actually introduced the bill that Texas has now passed into the law that mandates that seniors need to be informed of this option. In this state,

Robin Macblane:
Oh

Larry Whitler:
That’s a good idea

Chris Orestis:
before they go on to medicaid so that they have an opportunity to use a policy they stay private pay, choose their form of care. And delay having to go on medicaid also, obviously saving the taxpayers money.

Robin Macblane:
Now

Larry Whitler:
And not lose the house, cause that was another…

Chris Orestis:
No, Right. You don’t need to lose the house, you don’t need to give up anything because if you’re private pay and delay going on medicaid, you’re in control. But once you go the medicaid, you have to get rid of all your assets, you have to get rid of everything and now the state is in control what’s going to happen. And obviously

Larry Whitler:
Yea

Chris Orestis:
people would prefer to stay in control and the states would prefer that people stay in control and stay independent.

Robin Macblane:
And now sometimes when parents are, become parents they have this baby so they’ll go out and buy this … Life Insurance policy for the baby.

Chris Orestis:
Right

Robin Macblane:
Can you have this rider put into the individual insurance policy just to make sure that you know once this baby grows up, you know it won’t be forgotten, and it will be in there in black and white?

Chris Orestis:
You know the insurance companies now are selling more policies with riders to be able to do that, but it can be an expensive rider to purchase.

Robin Macblane:
Oh, oh

Chris Orestis:
What we do is we focus on seniors who have bought policies years ago where these riders didn’t even exist, and it’s, they’re just trading in the policy whether there’s a rider or not, everybody has the legal right and an option to trade in a life insurance policy to a company like ours. This is what we specialize in. To then convert it into a long term care benefit, the money is locked up in a protected irrevocable account

Larry Whitler:
Right

Chris Orestis:
And the payments are made automatically every month on behalf of the family out of the accounts straight from the bank to the care provider to make sure that every month the cost of care is being provided for

Larry Whitler:
Wow

Robin Macblane:
And when the person does eventually die, is the death benefit going to go to the survivors or do you keep it?

Chris Orestis:
No they would have traded in the full death benefit to get it’s present day value now,

Robin Macblane:
Oh ok, ok, there you go

Chris Orestis:
so lets say, you know for a $100,000 death benefit, they got 50 or $60,000 today, they’re going to sign over the policy to get the most value they can get today and then use it to pay for long term care.

Robin Macblane:
Oh ok Excellent

Larry Whitler:
Wow, so many different

Chris Orestis:
Which, which has the benefit of now they’re no longer responsible for making those premium payments. It’s no longer an asset that’s going to count against them for medicaid eligibility, so if they do spend through the account

Larry Whitler:
Right Right

Chris Orestis:
Lets say over 2 or 3 years, they’re then able to seamlessly go right on to medicaid because they don’t have the asset anymore counting against them.

Larry Whitler:
Ah, here comes the point where I know that once we’re done somebody’s going to call, maybe not today, maybe next week even and they’re going to say Larry, what do I need to know about this and my answer is always the same. You need to go to the person who is telling us about this, or the website that was provided, so do you have a website that I can write down

Chris Orestis:
Oh, yea no, Absolutely I would, the name of our company is LifeCare Funding, and that’s also the name of our website. LifeCareFunding.com

Larry Whitler:
Ok, and actually Robin has that already on the WOCA.com website on the guestlist for today, for this show and it will come alive at the 11:20 slot. Chris, this is good information. I, in fact… slip in real quick, do you have to run or can I ask one simple quick question?

Chris Orestis:
Please

Larry Whitler:
One of the things that was suggested a year ago was reversed mortgage. Sounded like a good option, we didn’t do it, but it sounds like this is a better option.

Chris Orestis:
Well you know reverse mortgages, you have to pay the money back, the house is encumbered, you have to be living in the house so

Larry Whitler:
Oh Ok

Chris Orestis:
So if somebody wants to do a reverse mortgage to move out and go into assisted living, they’re not going to be able to.

Larry Whitler:
Oh Ok, ok

Chris Orestis:
With the life insurance policy conversion, you’re using an asset that you already owned to get it, to get the most value out of it today. You’re never going to have to pay anybody back anything. You’re not paying interest, you’re not paying premiums any longer, so you’re taking an asset that many people are just throwing in the trash for nothing

Larry Whitler:
Oh wow

Chris Orestis:
And getting a significant amount

Larry Whitler:
That’s crazy, yea

Chris Orestis:
… that is your money free and clear to do with, … to use to pay for long term care

Larry Whitler:
Good information Chris. Again, I thank you for coming on the air with us and thank you even bigger than that for what you’ve done for all of us by the lobbying work that you have done. It’s, which is one of the sad things… having gone through it myself, and realizing that these people who were helping me really wanted to help, these were wonderful people, but obviously did not know about this option.

Chris Orestis:
Right

Larry Whitler:
The website is LifeCareFunding.com, Chris Orestis thank you for being on the air with us today

Chris Orestis:
Thank you so much for having me