/ by Don Connelly / Long-term Care / 0 comments
If you’re like most Advisors, you are good with numbers. You model market returns. You stress-test for inflation. You plan for taxes. But there’s one line item that too often gets ignored, one that can blow up a retirement faster than any bear market ever could. It’s not a stock market crash or a bad investment. It’s not inflation. It’s long-term care.
And the reality is this: for many of your clients, the potential cost of needing care late in life is their largest unfunded liability, often bigger than their mortgage ever was, and in many cases exceeding a million dollars over time.
Long-term care is the silent threat. I’m not talking about a rare “what-if.” Seventy percent of Americans over the age of 65 will need some form of long-term care. That means for the majority of your clients, this isn’t just a possibility. It’s a probability.
And yet, few clients have a plan. Why? Because they can’t visualize the numbers. They don’t see it on their net worth statement. And if you’re not putting it in front of them, they assume it’s not worth worrying about.
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If You Manage Retirement Risk, You Must Manage Long-term Care Risk
/ by Don Connelly / Long-term Care / 0 comments
Most advisors take great pride in managing retirement risk. We build income strategies. We stress test portfolios. We plan for sequence-of-returns risk. We monitor inflation. We rebalance against volatility. We talk about probability curves and withdrawal rates and longevity assumptions.
And we should.
But there is one retirement risk that quietly sits outside the portfolio review — and it has the power to undo years of careful planning: long-term care risk.
If you manage retirement risk, you must manage extended care risk. Not sell it. Not specialize in it. Not turn every review into a product discussion. Manage it. Because retirement planning without addressing extended care is structurally incomplete.
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Long-Term Care Red Flags: 7 Signs of Client Avoidance—and How Advisors Can Respond with Calm Authority
/ by Don Connelly / Long-term Care / 0 comments
You and I both know the long-term care conversation rarely begins with urgency. It begins with avoidance. People don’t reject LTC planning. They sidestep it. They delay it. They minimize it. They chalk it up as a “someday” decision.
They nod politely during meetings, they even agree it makes sense, and yet…nothing happens.
Why?
Because talking about long-term care means acknowledging aging, vulnerability, and dependence. Those are uncomfortable topics. And discomfort breeds avoidance.
If we wait for clients to bring LTC to us, we’ll wait forever. Our job is to recognize resistance early, name it gently, and guide the conversation forward with clarity and confidence.
Below are seven long-term care red flags that signal client avoidance of the topic — and what you can say in the moment to turn hesitation into progress.
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Talking to Clients About Long-Term Care: The Million-Dollar Retirement Planning Risk Advisors Can’t Ignore
/ by Don Connelly / Long-term Care / 0 comments
If you’re like most Advisors, you are good with numbers. You model market returns. You stress-test for inflation. You plan for taxes. But there’s one line item that too often gets ignored, one that can blow up a retirement faster than any bear market ever could. It’s not a stock market crash or a bad investment. It’s not inflation. It’s long-term care.
And the reality is this: for many of your clients, the potential cost of needing care late in life is their largest unfunded liability, often bigger than their mortgage ever was, and in many cases exceeding a million dollars over time.
Long-term care is the silent threat. I’m not talking about a rare “what-if.” Seventy percent of Americans over the age of 65 will need some form of long-term care. That means for the majority of your clients, this isn’t just a possibility. It’s a probability.
And yet, few clients have a plan. Why? Because they can’t visualize the numbers. They don’t see it on their net worth statement. And if you’re not putting it in front of them, they assume it’s not worth worrying about.
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Use Emotional Connections to Open the Door to Long-Term Care Discussions with Your Clients
/ by Larry Nisenson / Long-term Care / 0 comments
Opening a conversation with a client about a plan for long-term care can be tough. Insurance agents often ask us:
“Where do I begin?”
“How do I bring up such a sensitive topic?”
“How do I avoid common objections and misconceptions?”
Long-term care planning conversations seem to be laced with land mines, possibly threatening your relationship with your client. But once you master our tried-and-true way to start these conversations, the rest flows easily.
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