Duane Lipham

CLTC
Duane Lipham is a Certified Long-Term Care (CLTC) consultant who writes extensively on long-term...read more

Long Term Care Insurance: How to Choose the Best Elimination Period

In a long-term care insurance (LTCI) policy, the elimination period is often referred to as the policy deductible. In many ways it is similar to the deductible used in major medical insurance policies. One significant difference is this: rather than a certain dollar amount that you will initially pay for your own care expenses, there is a specified number of days for which you will be responsible for your own care.What are My Options? These days very few carriers offer...Read entire article »

Do You Really Need All Those Long-Term Care Insurance Options?

Long-term care insurance (LTCI) policies are very different from most other kinds of insurance. As a result, even the foundational features of these policies require taking some time to understand before making your final decision. But what about all the other options and features that are not built into the policy and require you to pay extra to get them? In my opinion, LTCI policies are best kept simple. If you have done your homework on setting up the...Read entire article »

Are Tax-Qualified LTCI Policies Consumer Friendly?

When the long-term care insurance (LTCI) industry was in its early stages, the policy features and design differed considerably from what we commonly see offered to consumers today.At the time, LTCI was a relatively new segment of the insurance industry, so there was little history that could be drawn from for reliable sources regarding pricing, underwriting procedures and policy design. As a result, it was kind of like the Wild West in that each carrier typically had their own...Read entire article »

Choosing the Long-term Care Insurance Company That’s Right for You

Becoming familiar with the foundational features and options of a good long-term care insurance (LTCI) policy requires taking the time to educate yourself before making your final decision. This will help ensure that you get the policy that will best fit your particular needs.The next step is to find the insurance provider that will suit you best. Since there are a number of LTCI carriers to choose from, here are a few suggestions for selecting a company that offers...Read entire article »

Tax Benefits for Long-term Care Insurance: What You Qualify For

If affordability is one of the concerns keeping you from investing in a LTCI policy, consider the tax benefits that go along with LTCI. What Congress isn’t Doing to Help It would be wonderful to be able to say that Congress has allowed all LTCI policyholders to deduct the full premium on their taxes. Unfortunately, our lawmakers have not yet enacted such legislation. As is often the case, they are waiting until the system is almost broke before they...Read entire article »