For a moment, think of a unique place you've visited — a museum, a beach, a cruise ship.  Picture the sights.  Remember the smells.  Feel the atmosphere.  Now, imagine sharing that memory with a client.

Quick….Do the same for a memory care unit or an assisted living facility.  

What's that?  You've never visited one?   Then how exactly can you realistically help clients "plan" for it?

While most in the advisory community claim to help clients implement Long-Term Care (LTC) Planning, too few can describe a private room in a memory care facility or have relationships with professionals who support families seeking care.  Without a thorough understanding of WHAT 75 million Americans face heading into retirement, that's not planning — that's guessing.

Planning for Care Means Understanding Care

You can't truly plan for long-term care until you've seen it, walked it, and talked with the professionals who live it every day.  And no, reading industry stats and quoting Genworth doesn't count.  Real planning starts with understanding what care looks like, feels like, and costs in your community, not in a spreadsheet.

If You've Never Been There, You're Not Planning

Want to see a family panic in real-time?  Wait until they need care with no guidance and no local contacts.  You can't just hand clients a checkbook and wish them good luck.  That's why relationships with Home Health Care agencies, care managers, and placement specialists aren't just helpful — they're essential.   They're the real-life implementation team for the plan you pretend to be designing.   Every advisor, planner, CPA, and attorney working with pre-retirees or retirees should make it a personal requirement to:

• Visit a local independent living facility.
• Walk through an assisted living and memory care community
• Observe a skilled nursing facility — yes, the one attached to a hospital[GU1] 
• Ride along with or shadow a home healthcare agency
• Sit down with a placement advisor, geriatric care manager, or care navigator who helps real families find care options and make difficult decisions every day.

You'll learn more in 30 minutes with a local placement professional than in 10 webinars or searching for LTC providers on Medicare.gov. 

Planning Means Preparing Clients — Not Abandoning Them

Long-Term Care Planning isn't about predicting whether a client will need care — it's about ensuring they're ready with more than the ability to write a check if they do!  The tax, investment, legal, etc. conversation is incomplete without developing relationships with those providing logistics, placement, and care coordination or education that sets expectations about the physical, emotional, and financial toll associated with a loved one's need for care.  Asset allocation, investment returns, and so on, do not concern clients and their families when it's crisis mode and Mom needs care!

If You Don't Understand Care, You Can't Protect Wealth

The purpose of planning is protection….Protection of assets….Protection of dignity….Protection of families when chaos hits.   If you don't genuinely know what care looks like — if you haven't walked the halls, met the professionals, and heard the stories — you're not protecting anything.  You're just hoping, and hoping isn't planning.  Real Long-Term Care Planning starts by understanding the realities your clients will face and knowing why you're helping them plan in the first place.....not just the numbers, documents, or forms you put in front of them.  

When it comes to Long-Term Care, will you be the advisor they thank or the one they blame?

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