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For nearly 30 years, I’ve educated families about insurance.

Today, I want to talk about something bigger than selling a policy.

I want to talk about protecting the people who will eventually have to step in when we can no longer do everything for ourselves.

Because long-term care isn't simply a nursing-home problem.

It can mean your wife becomes your caregiver.

Your husband stops working to care for you.

Your daughter rearranges her life.

Your son starts paying bills.

Your family coordinates medications, doctors, meals, transportation and caregivers.

Someone may eventually have to help you get dressed.

Someone may have to bathe you.

Someone may have to feed you.

Someone may even have to clean you and help you use the bathroom.

We don't like talking about that.

But avoiding the conversation doesn't change the possibility.

Research cited by LIMRA estimates that 56% of Americans turning 65 will need some level of long-term care services, while 45% will need paid services and 14% are projected to incur more than $100,000 in out-of-pocket costs.

Yet LIMRA estimates only about 3% of Americans over 50 have long-term-care insurance protection.

That's an enormous gap between the risk families face and the protection they have.

My father is now 96.

If it weren't for my sister, brother-in-law, older brother, myself, my Uncle Alden, caregivers, neighbors and others stepping in, we could have faced the decision of placing Dad in a facility.

But then comes the next question:

Who pays for it?

That's when this stops being a financial-planning discussion and becomes real life.

I remember beginning my insurance career at 27 and having these conversations with my own parents and family.

Like millions of people, everyone thought:

"We've got that covered."

Then my mother passed away.

Within hours, we discovered that what we thought was covered wasn't completely covered.

I watched my father write a check for approximately $15,000 while grieving the loss of his wife.

I will never forget that.

I want to ask better questions.

Do you know exactly what your insurance covers?

If you died tomorrow, would the people you love have enough money to handle everything that follows?

If you lived another 30 years but needed help for the final five, how would that care be paid for?

Who would take care of you?

Could your spouse afford to stop working?

Could your children?

Would your savings survive several years of care?

Would your family have choices — or would financial circumstances make the decisions for them?

Those are the conversations I believe we need to start having.

We work.

We build.

We raise families.

We chase opportunities.

We pay bills.

We plan vacations.

We tell ourselves:

"I'll get to it."

I'll review my life insurance later.

I'll talk to Mom and Dad later.

I'll look into long-term care later.

I'll update my beneficiaries later.

I'll get the will done later.

I'll organize the paperwork later.

The sun comes up.

The sun goes down.

Another year disappears.

And eventually...

Later becomes today.

At 27, I understood insurance professionally.

At 56, I understand it personally.

Insurance isn't ultimately about a policy.

It's about dignity, choices, independence and protecting the people you love from carrying a burden you might have been able to prepare for.

I'm more determined today than ever to educate families about life insurance, long-term care and what these products can — and cannot — do.

Not because everyone needs the same policy.

They don't.

Not because insurance solves every problem.

It doesn't.

But because every family deserves to understand the problem before the problem arrives.

So I'm asking you to have the conversation.

Not someday.

Now.

And I'd love for you to answer one question in the comments:

That conversation may be worth more than any insurance policy I could ever sell.

Rene’ Manfre
Insurance Professional | Business Owner | Consultant | Advocate for Better Planning

www.manfreandassociates.com

www.wypmedia.com