Fidelity: $85k needed for long-term care costs
The Boston Globe, June 26, 2008
A 65-year-old couple needs $85,000 on average to cover
insurance costs for long-term care such as nursing home stays in
retirement, according to a study to be released Thursday by Fidelity
Investments.
The
finding underscores the need to financially prepare for the possibility
of eventually needing assistance to get by -- a burden that often falls
on elders' adult children, who can jeopardize their own finances by
caring for an ailing parent while finding they must cut their work
hours.
Setting aside adequate savings heading into retirement can
help defuse family tensions should physical or mental illness hit
parents who slowly realize they can no longer perform tasks such as
household chores, or bathe or dress on their own.
"If you plan
adequately and you have the ability to pay for assistance in whatever
form that might be, it makes it easier on everybody if you can do
that," said Kathleen Kelly, executive director of the Family Caregiver
Alliance, a San Francisco-based nonprofit that helps families cope with
adults' disabilities. "Families really want to do the right thing, but
there are so many pressures on them."
Fidelity, a Boston-based
financial services firm whose mainstay is mutual funds, surveyed
insurers offering long-term care policies to come up with the estimate
that a couple aged 65 this year can expect to need $85,000 to cover
annual premiums for long-term care coverage throughout retirement.
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