I have been my husban's caregiver for over 20 years. The last 5 years have been the hardest and I am completely drained and on the verge of breaking physically, mentally and spiritually. Years before my husband became sick he had bought several term life insurance policies including disability weavers when our kids were young. Before our 2 youngest graduated from high school, my husband became seriously sick and became totally disable in his mid 40. Thankfully the disability waivers kicked in and took over the insurance premium payments for the past 20 years. Recently I was informed by the insurance company that as soon as my husband turns 65 years of age which will be in 3 months, his term life insurance policies will be converted into whole life on their anniversary dates and the premium payments still will be taken care by the waivers. Been a full time caregiver to my husband for over 20 years, I am now at the point of breaking down physically, mentally and spiritually. The amount of my husband's disability income and IRA made him in-illegible for Medicaid. I need help and guidance to get my husband into a long term care facility. Been under stress and depressed for so long I have problem processing information. Please be specific. Thank you.

What about when they outlive their policy? All those premiums down the drain...

Please explain how $350 per month can pay for in home care giver as you say below?
"Mary cannot continue to make the payments on this policy and considers letting it lapse. Instead, she ends up converting it into a long-term care benefit plan that pays $350 every month, for 15 months, enough money to hire a home caregiver to help her take care of Bill".

I actually purchased a convertible LTC policy that, if I do not use for long-term care, will be a $100,000 insurance policy. I also have another LTC policy I got through my work--it's expensive, so I almost hope I get to use it!

TERM with a value of at least $50,000 may be converted.

It talks about "cash value," but Term Life has no cash value... can this still be converted then? Would the value for Term Life just be the total premium dollars you've put into it thus far??

Can the care be used for a ND, supplements, physical therapy, mental counseling, or things like that?

I, you, can convert any Existing Policy with a Death Benefit (Face Value) from $50,000 to 1 million, The results are (for folks in need of Long Term Care ),usually more favorable than a straight out life settlement, (which is also doable),

There are indeed cautions that must be understood that will apply to most instances on this forum; for those doing a life settlement only that being consideration of later(if needed), MEDICAID Eligibility, A life settlement may very well cause eligibility problems, vs. the conversion ability to pay for care & IS MEDICAID APPROVED.

With proper planning it will not be considered an asset; and will not affect VA eligibility. A life settlement would.

The owner of a policy may change the beneficiary. It is property and assignable.

Note to KM1027: you have been given faulty info; you are not "forced" to merely surrender at cash value. Policies can be Term, whole Life, Universal Life, Group, (once converted you no longer have to pay premiums) I know this as I have counseled and helped families with this option. Unused converted benefit will then be passed on as per stated instruction of the "insured"

Doesn't the death benefit go to the beneficiaries a priori, as in isn't that a given, by default?

There is another excellent option for large policies, which is a life settlement. Rather than give the policy up for the surrender value, policies with a death benefit of $100,000 or more should be evaluated to see if a life settlement could bring the family substantially more than the surrender value. If the policy owner wants to leave some of the death benefit for the beneficiaries, that can often be arranged as well.
Thanks,
Rick K.

There may be some confusion ; each case has it's own considerations.

Term Life has no cash value, and as soon after no payment is made , and grace period passes it has no standing

Whole Life and Universal life MAY have cash values, and can become paid up for a period or life.

Also if a loan is taken against a policy Death benefit, it may or may not have to be repaid, depending on the cash value & account value status.

Depending on the loan status the it will determine if any additional funding from the policy is available.

A life insurance policy is YOUR property and is Assignable, just like any other property

Dear KM1027:

Your "insurance Man" is misleading you; Life Insurance is a an assignable asset.
Any Policy with a FACE VALUE of at least $50,000 can be converted. It is NOT up to the individual carrier to decide, This is also a Medicaid Approved Spend Down. If the terms the conversion will provide are more than the cash value the carrier wants to provide You should do it. Accepting Cash Value may result in a penalty period for MEDICAID, if not used properly.

This is not always true. I checked with my insurance man as my husband is in a nursing home and her tells me that the life insurance policy we have cannot be used in that manner. It is not a term policy, but a actual life insurance and so I am forced to turn it in at cash value, as I can't afford to pay for his care anymore. KK

so Decatur, who is "we"?

So True. There are many considerations in the transition involving elder care.
Aspects of Medicaid, how to treat assets, how to insure the avoidance of probate,
using this (MEDICAID APPROVED) life insurance conversion option to increase ability to extend privater pay, or obtain home modifications to extend time at home.
and Asset/Estate preservation methods

We offer this Life insurance conversion (and are an authorized Life Care Funding Agent ) to our clients in Georgia as well as Crisis Medicaid Planing, and preemptive estate preservation, and for those who qualify, explanations and solutions to obtain VA Aid & Attendance.

There are many ways to solve long term care insurance needs. Stand-alone traditional long term care insurance is only one of them. For many people who do not want or can’t qualify for this type of coverage, there are other alternatives. Traditional LTC insurance requires ongoing premium payments that are subject to rate increases in the future. Also, it has a "use it or lose it" structure so if you never need care you will receive no financial value for your payments. While this type of coverage has helped many families across this nation it is not always the right solution for everyone. There are other options that can guarantee that your premium payments will never increase and that you will always get some value out of your policy whether you need long term care or not.

We had to use Mom's policies to pay for the 20 months she was in Assisted Living. Lucky for us, she had my husbands, her sons, name on it. We had no trouble using it to pay for her care and without losing a great portion of it. She had put his name on all her accounts and the house. It made things that much easier to get her affairs in order once she passed. Btw, he also had POA and medical POA. The life insurance company we dealt with actually was a huge help in making sure she ended up with the great majority of money to pay for her care. Good luck to all of you going thru this trying and sometimes frustrating time.

Hybrid policy and traditional long term care (LTC) insurance products is no longer applicable in Lindipan's case, it only applies if you are planning to buy insurance, however, in this case, her father is already ill and 83 years old, he would likely be declined. I think what applies to her is the long term care assurance benefit plan where you can convert or transfer an in-force life insurance to enroll in ltc assurance benefit plan to help pay for the cost of ltc services.

Hybrid policies, I think, are something to look into if you're considering long-term care insurance. But like what it said here, it's not for everybody. You have to make your own independent research and try to look for an experienced LTC adviser/agent who can work with you in choosing the best type of policy based on your personal circumstances. And don't buy anything that you are not confident you can afford way into the future.

If you're in doubt of the benefits of traditional long term care insurance, you can check out hybrid policy or combination products. This type of insurance works this way, you'll invest in life insurance and you'll choose long term care benefit as your rider. In short, you'll have both death benefits and long term care benefits. This is a perfect fit for people who will only need long term care for a limited period of time and want to leave something to his or her beneficiary once the inevitable happens. It's like hitting two birds with one stone with this policy type. However, you need to make sure first that this policy can serve you well. It would help if you can have your needs assessed first in order to make the right choice of policy.

Lindipan - this is an amazing product mentioned in the article. However the product offered in this article above is not available through MetLife and that is why you had no success there. I know the company who makes this available and I am hoping you reached out to them because I do not see any contact information available for you within your comments.

Additionally, I do not trust that MetLife will "hold" dad's paid into money until death without charge, which the do not disclose,if as they say he stops paying premiums we have asked for information and forms multiple times and only got a form informing us that they changed dads address in FLA to mine in MA. I called them and had them change it back to dads, which they did, but still haven't sent us policy conversion /premium suspension info. What is wrong with these people???

We have investigated this with my dad's life insurance policy with MetLife. We have not been able to get any explanation for them. They have increased his premiums each of the last two years and he didn't get notified. His premiums are automatically deducted from his chking act. So for the last two,years they have been underpaying on the policy. Now he owes a balance along with the new increased premium. When we asked MetLife about this they said it is the policy holder to call MetLife and inquire. SERIOUSLY? They expect an 83 yr old man with LBD and total body atrophy who needs 24/7 care to check with them? Aside from this issue with MetLife, we are trying to find out if we can in fact convert into a long term care plan (not policy) and they had no idea what we ere talking about. So, his choices are to forfeit the policy entirely, or set it up so he will not pay any premiums but supposedly they will hold and pay upon death the amount dad has paid into the policy all these years...which is about 20k. We also got DPOA for dad and mom and got it notarized in FLA where they live. We got it notarized at their bank (bank of America) , and was then told they would not accept it as official. Supposedly because it has to be signed by an agent..???? The form was obtained off the Florida legal forms site for POA/DPOA yet the bank won't accept it. Why, what is the problem. As dad's POA, I am his agent , so want are they talking about. There is no money for lawyers. This was supposed to be simple. Anyone have info/advice. We applied for free legal assistance (by phone) from an organization in dads Fla county. They required a copy of the DPOA, which I sent, same one bank notarized, and awaiting word of acceptance. Why is it so hard to get assistance in FLA for ailing, aging parents??? So frustrating. They live there, I live in MA and feel like I get no where .