A few questions about where, who and how can turn a vague worry about care into a real plan.

Someone turning 65 today has almost a 70% chance of needing some type of long-term care.¹ Even so, care is a planning conversation clients tend to put off. It’s uncomfortable to picture, and the numbers feel abstract.

So, set the price aside for now and ask clients what they’d want. Where would they receive care? Who would help? What would they use to pay for it? Once those answers are on the table, the cost question gets much more concrete.

Healthcare in retirement isn’t one bucket

Clients often assume Medicare will handle their healthcare in retirement. For acute care, such as doctor visits, hospital stays, surgery and prescriptions, Medicare and supplemental coverage do a lot of the work.

Long-term care is different. It’s help with everyday activities like bathing, dressing and eating, or supervision for memory loss, whether at home, in assisted living or in a nursing home. Medicare covers only limited, short-term skilled care, usually after a hospital stay. Medicaid generally helps only after a client has spent down their assets. For clients without long-term care coverage, care usually gets paid from their own savings.

Questions to ask your clients

Try these at your next review. There are no wrong answers, but each one helps shape the plan.

Where would you want to receive care? At home or in a facility? If home, is that a preference or a must? If a facility, what level of comfort do they expect? A basic community and a high-end one can differ by thousands of dollars a month.

Who would help? Is there a spouse, child or friend who would manage their care? Would that person organize the care, or provide hands-on help with bathing and getting around? And are they physically, emotionally and financially ready for that role?

Do you know what care costs where you live? Costs vary widely depending on state and type of care. Nationally, the median cost in 2025 was $129,575 a year for a private room in a nursing home, $74,400 for assisted living and about $80,080 for a non-medical caregiver at home.²

What would you sell to pay for it? If care cost $6,000 to $11,000 a month, roughly the national range from assisted living to a private nursing home room, which assets would they draw on first? And do they know the tax cost of selling them?

What the answers tell you

Put the answers together and a picture forms. A client who insists on care at home, has no family caregiver nearby and would have to sell investments to pay for it faces a very different risk than one who’s comfortable with assisted living and has a spouse ready to help. The first client may need far more dedicated funding, and that’s where insurance can carry part of the load.

The questions do something simpler, too. They get clients talking about care while they’re more likely to still have options.

Where you come in

You don’t need the funding answer on the spot. Ask the questions, listen to the answers and bring them to us. We’ll help you look at what it would take to cover the gap, from self-funding to traditional or hybrid long-term care coverage, and how to talk it through with your client.

Let’s talk

Have a client this could help? Bring the case to us and we’ll help you find the right next step.

Pat McEvoy
VP, Life Sales

Rena Nicholson
SVP, Life Sales

Call 913-814-0510 →