It’s true. Believe it or not, I finally found an insurance agent who has secretly confided in me that he’s not a big believer in insurance. Very bizarre, don’t you think?
Why a Guy Who Hates Insurance Decided to Sell Insurance
Some of you already know Walt Ptashnik, he’s the long term care insurance specialist we refer all of our clients to who need long term care insurance or have questions about their long term care insurance policies.
Walt’s Mom Loses Almost Everything
Several years ago Walt watched his mother become financially devastated because his father needed care for about a year before he passed away. His expenses in just that short period of time added up to almost $100,000.
After Dad passed away Mom lost almost half the Social Security, a big chunk of their savings were used to pay for Dad’s care, and with the late nineties stock market drop a large part of her remaining investments were gone. For Walt, having to watch his mother in her mid-eighties watch her pennies was pretty sad, which is why he’s become so passionate about long term care insurance. He wants to save people from having happen to them what he’s seen happen to his mother. After having gone through that experience that’s all it took for Walt to become an advocate for long term care insurance, making sure people have the coverage they need based on their own unique situation.
Rather than work for a single company Walt is an independent agent able to represent virtually any company. The companies he recommends typically have to meet at least three criteria:
When I asked Walt the best age to purchase long term care insurance he said there is no reason to wait, as rates are based on age and health. For example, if you need care at age 80 and you’re age 50 today you’d pay on your policy for 30 years. If you waited until you were age 60 to purchase a policy and still needed care at age 80 you’re going to pay the same amount of money for the policy but now you only have 20 years to make those payments. So your payments (premiums) will be higher.
A Shocking Statistic
Most people think that long term care expenses come at the end of their life, from things like stroke or Alzheimer’s. What shocked me was when I learned from Walt that today 40% of all people receiving long term care are under age 65. These people are usually recovering from accidents, mostly car accidents, but he also knows of a fellow who fell out of a
tree in his early 40’s and needed a year and a half of care.
In the Orlando area the current cost of care runs about $50,000 to $60,000 a year.
So if you talk to Walt he’ll tell you to buy long term care insurance when you’re as young as you’re going to be. More importantly, get it before your health changes and since you never know when that’s going to happen the best time is probably now.
Here’s Walt enjoying time on his boat the
All That Jaz
Walt told me another story about his father-in-law to illustrate his point.
Walt’s father-in-law retired at age 65 and just wanted to play golf. Then shortly thereafter he ended up having a hip replacement, got out of the hospital, developed pneumonia, goes back into the hospital, eventually comes back home, falls, ends up back in the hospital, kind of like the domino effect. So, since you never know when your health is going to change you should make sure you have a plan in place to pay for these kind of expenses. If you don’t have enough money to pay out of pocket, what’s going to be your plan? Shoot, even if you do have enough money to pay out of pocket, you may find that insurance is a cheaper alternative.
Walt Is Living a Worry-Free Retirement
My definition of a worry-free retirement is, as this newsletter suggests, being able to do what you want when you want where you want. If you think about Walt then he’s
essentially retired because the majority of his time he’s doing exactly what he wants when he wants where he wants. Walt has three passions in life. One we’ve just been discussing, long term care insurance. The other two are boating and cooking.
Ever since Walt was a kid he wanted to crew on a boat. Now in his early 50’s he finally has that opportunity. He doubles as the first mate and cook on a 76’ motorboat called Sailsmanship.
Walt tells me Sailsmanship is available for charter, probably starting at $17,000 per week, depending on where you want to go.
Walt’s been around boats all his life. He has his own boat. His reputation as a cook usually has friends talking him into catering their parties, which he ends up doing about once a month.
So, if you have questions about long term care insurance I highly recommend you contact our long term care insurance specialist, Walt Ptashnik. You can reach him at 407-886-2023.
You can also get a special FREE REPORT from Walt, Avoid the Three Biggest Mistakes in Buying Long Term Care Insurance, by calling his toll-free recorded hotline, 1-877-409-3500, 24/7, for a toll-free recorded message. I highly recommend you get his FREE REPORT.
