As the workforce ages, it seems age is not always accompanied by wisdom, as research from Prudential Financial shows just a small number of employees understand the benefits of long-term care insurance. How apt then, that November is Long-Term Care Insurance Month.
According to Prudential’s study,
* Three in 10 workers say they don’t have a plan or don’t expect to need long-term care services for them or their spouse. (Not good.)
* Among those that do have a plan, their expectations may be unrealistic given the rising costs of long-term care. The most common sources of funding cited for long-term care were 401(k) or retirement savings, followed by Medicare. (Even worse, given what we know about savings rates.)
* The education gap is greater for women. Women tend to do more of the caregiving and have more experience with caregiving, yet they are less likely to have a plan for their own long-term care needs compared with men. (Why ladies, why, must there be a gender gap for everything?)
So, I know it may seem like every month is some sort of “awareness” or “education” month — and
