Google “Long-Term Care Planning” and you’ll find plenty of noise — horror stories about premium spikes, insurers exiting, or families left in crisis. The media, in a similar fashion to this KFF Health News piece, loves to frame LTC as nothing more than an insurance product that’s broken.  However, that narrative almost universally misses the entire point because the truth is that Long-Term Care Planning isn’t a product — it’s a process.  And when consumers or the advisory community skip that process, the results are mismatched solutions, empty promises, and families in chaos and crisis when care is eventually needed.  Here are five reasons why…..

Government-Created Distortions

Medicaid pays for more than 60% of nursing home care¹, creating the illusion that “the government has it covered.”  Medicaid planning attorneys reinforce that default, showing even modestly affluent families how to hide assets rather than prepare responsibly.  Meanwhile, Medicare agents are handcuffed by the government’s very own Scope of Appointment rules and can’t even bring up LTC Planning during enrollment.  This dangerous mix drives distortions and the delusion that LTC Planning is optional — until reality hits.

Advisory Community Failure

The advisory community avoids the LTC discussion because it’s complex, health-based, and uncomfortable. They’d rather manage assets, talk tax efficiency, write a trust, or sell the next shiny product.  Unfortunately, their silence now leaves millions of Americans exposed, defaulting to self-funding without realizing they’ve taken on unlimited, unplanned, and/or unfunded liability.

Misinformation and Useless People

Too often, the media or so-called “experts” claim that today’s policies are less generous than those offered a decade ago, or worse — that the market lacks LTC Planning solutions. That’s patently false. Either they don’t understand the marketplace, or they’re paid to keep repeating bad information.  Most of today’s leading LTC Planning solutions are built on sustainable pricing, guaranteed premiums, and multi-purpose benefits — often delivering a clear Live, Quit, or Die value proposition. They’re far more durable and far more valuable than the poorly designed and mispriced products of the past.

Carrier & Product Failures

Stories about insolvency or endless premium hikes prove that price is the determining factor in the absence of value, and show the danger to families buying on price without due diligence.  Facility-only policy and spiraling premiums weren’t planning scenarios — they were failed product purchases outside of a process.  Without carrier vetting, underwriting alignment, and care-preference mapping, clients end up with coverage they can’t use or can’t afford.

Just Stay In Your Lane!

The Medicare agent shouldn’t experiment with estate planning. The estate planning attorney shouldn’t play portfolio manager. The financial planner shouldn’t moonlight as a tax preparer.  Yet somehow, LTC Planning is the one area where everyone — qualified or not — pretends they know what’s best. They don’t.  When a member of the advisory community strays into LTC Planning without the expertise or process, the damage is worse than a mismatched product. They create a void, a default, or a false sense of security that inevitably collapses — leaving the consumer and their loved ones to clean up the mess. That’s not just bad business — it’s malpractice.

When LTC Planning gets reduced to a product pitch, a measure of assets, or simply an afterthought, the consumer will ultimately pay the price.  When it’s treated as a process to determine the plan for, quantify future care needs and risks, aligning goals, evaluating health, and integrating tax/legal/estate factors — the right strategy will emerge naturally, and families will maintain choice, control, and clarity.  A good place to start is with the LTC Planning Assessment or Checklist for LTC Planning below, as both incorporate the HALO™ analysis to quantify risk and set appropriate planning targets.