Don Levin, JD, MPA, CLF, CSA, LTCP, CLTC

For many years now I have felt that participation in the long term care planning industry as a producer, agency leader, senior sales leader, and now brokerage leader, has been tantamount to my being on a crusade. By definition a crusade is a “vigorous campaign for political, social, or religious change.” While my passion has remained largely the same, my paradigms and methodology have definitely changed over the years.

Today, I am willing to talk to anyone about the subject, far more willing to educate and raise awareness rather than merely being focused on a sale. I have been known to articulate that “I do not care whether they ever buy long term care insurance, but that they will not have taken a pass on it because they didn’t hear about it from me.” This is especially true among family, friends, neighbors, and those that I purportedly care about. I cannot think of a more tragic scenario than one in which I visit an individual who is now bedridden because of a stroke, illness, accident, or other physical malady, and have him or her look up at me and ask, “We have known each other for all of these years, and yet you never took the time to talk to me about the protections afforded by a long term care insurance policy.”

The first question I have for all those reading this missive is: Do the people closest to you even know what you do for a living? If asked, could your family, friends, neighbors accurately convey the expertise and services that you have at your disposal?

Secondly: How do you view yourself? Do you place the same value on your professional acumen as does a doctor, attorney, CPA, financial advisor? Having made the transition from practicing attorney-at-law to long term care producer, I can honestly say that I did not view myself one iota differently. I dressed the same way, placed the same value on my time, and believed that I possessed expertise that my clients desperately needed.

While there are significantly fewer carriers in the traditional, stand-alone long term care insurance space, there are infinitely more choices in terms of policy construction and platforms available with the advent of living benefits, asset-based products, as well as annuities and life insurance with long term care riders. If anything, all of these additional options make the choices presented to the consumer all the more confusing and potentially overwhelming, often leading to paralysis through analysis.

In a recent webinar that I conducted for members of our brokerage, I confirmed that perhaps the greatest challenge for them in terms of talking to prospects is how to begin the conversation.

In the course of this webinar, one brave and honest soul freely admitted in his answer to the first question, that “I haven’t done a good job at letting them know what I do and how I can help them!”

The conversation then pivoted on how to begin these conversations.

Example One:
“Who do you know that has needed some form of assistance in their life? What was that like for them? Their family? How would a policy that provided financial and physical assistance have made a difference to them and their family?”

Example Two:
“Who are the two oldest people in your family? How old are they? Can you envision them needing some form of assistance with their own activities of daily living or because of their inability to be left alone from a safety standpoint? If these individuals could need assistance, can you envision a time that you or your spouse could require this care as well?

Example Three:
When interacting with professionals, tradesmen, and other individuals, I often begin the conversation with, “You have helped me immensely. I would love to reciprocate by helping you in a like manner. Have you considered how you can safeguard your retirement and family by performing some long term care planning while you are still safely in a non-crisis mode?”

Just this past week I was talking to my electrician who was doing some additional work in my home, and I casually asked him, “Is your retirement plan still on track, or did COVID-19 throw it off at all?” He then went on to share with me, with very few additional prompts from me, that his home was paid for, as were two rental properties, and that his accountant had recommended reorganizing his business as an S-corporation and various other tax modifications, and that things were very much on track in anticipation of a “semi-retirement” taking place at the end of the year.

After quietly but enthusiastically praising him for executing on the plans that we had talked about on and off over the years while he did work for me in my home, I pointed out that he was very much an aberration because quite a few people our age that I now encounter are refinancing their homes with new 30-year mortgages and, in the absence of pensions, were largely dependent upon Social Security for their retirement income.

He then added that he had done it without any health insurance in place for either himself or his employees. After a noncommittal grunt from me, he went on and shared that, but for the recent cash expenditure of $17,000 for some minor surgery (the hospital settled for 25 percent less if he was willing to write a check), they had largely “dodged the bullet” associated with major health issues.

While I was slightly stunned to hear this, I nonetheless kept marching forward and quietly shared that we were both approaching the age where the odds of needing a further “procedure” far more costly than his carpal tunnel surgery were about one in 15 and cited my own wife’s hip replacement surgery some six years ago. Despite only spending 26 hours in the hospital, the price tag for that surgery was in excess of $95,000! That certainly captured his attention as did my question, “What impact would it have on your plans for retirement if you or your wife needed to write a check for $6,000, $7,000, $8,000, or $10,000 each month for long term care? Would your plans go off the rails at that point?”

As you might expect, we are now looking at the calendar for a time when I can meet with both he and his wife after they have had a chance to discuss this potential fly in the ointment. Again, while I hope that they will allow me to assist them with this very necessary planning, if they do not elect to purchase a policy for themselves at least my conscience will be clear when I visit them at either their home or in a facility.

Other Strategies
For years now I have encouraged producers to attend Business to Business (B2B) conferences, Chambers of Commerce fairs, and any other event in which you can meet other business leaders and simply ask them what they do for a living and how they do it. This will in turn allow you to share the why we do what we do for our clients.

Another Thought
Marry your passions with what you do professionally. Years ago I had a former member of the Professional Golfers’ Association of America come work for me after he was forced to leave the tour to care for his ailing mother. He successfully merged his passion for golf and his new vocation as a LTCI producer by golfing regularly with different foursomes and, while out on the course, using these three hours to find what his fellow golfers did for a living and to share with them how he could help them secure their futures. This in turn led us to other marketing opportunities with the state golfing association.

One Last Thought
Do not hide your light. You are not doing the world or yourself any favors.
Referrals are not a favor that they are doing for you, but rather an opportunity for them to in turn help those that they care about the most.

“Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket; it is set on a lampstand, where it gives light to all in the house. Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds.”—Matthew 5:15-16

For many of us, the purchase of our homes and the financing of our children’s college education will constitute the largest expenditures of our lives. In both of these cases, we typically use financial leverage, i.e., debt, to attain these objectives. Why? Because it is largely financially impossible to save enough to purchase our homes outright, we will leverage our assets, earning power, and equity by obtaining a mortgage and use outside assets to achieve immediate needs. Similarly, many parents and students will use financial leverage to achieve the requisite college education in the form of student loans—an investment in their future earnings.

Another available form of leverage is insurance. Whether it is to protect against the untimely death of the principal breadwinner or to guard against the loss of a home or a business, we will resort to paying an insurance premium to guard against an undesired outcome.

For our parents and grandparents, the old 40-40-40-40 Rule was very applicable. It was quite common for members of their generations to work 40 hours a week, at the same company for 40 years, to receive a $40 gold watch upon retirement, and to then live in retirement on 40 percent of what they had previously earned. Those days are long gone, as today’s worker will often have employment at eight different companies, and the best that one can hope for today is some form of defined contribution plan with a level of matching funds from the employer as the employee largely funds their own retirement.

Today we are being bombarded with bad news about most American’s retirement savings situation. Some focus on how ill-prepared we all are, while others focus on the level of anxiety many experience in the face of rising costs and diminished retirement assets. Others will put forth discouraging reports about how retirement for many in the future is either a fantasy or distortion of reality. For most of us, retirement security comes down to two major needs: Having enough money to cover our living expenses and post-retirement healthcare costs inclusive of long term care expenses.

Fortunately, the federal government assists with some of the medical costs through Medicare, VA and ancillary programs for eligible recipients. Unfortunately, there is limited to no assistance with long term care (LTC) expenses and this situation will only worsen as the red ink of Medicaid strains every state’s budget.

Trying to save enough to cover living expenses and post-retirement healthcare expenses is an extremely challenging and daunting goal for most of us. For this reason, insurance leverage on the future health and long term care expenses is something most should explore while healthy enough to qualify for coverage and young enough to garner overall lower and discounted premiums.

That being said, please do not misconstrue the message of this piece; this is not a call to action directing people that they must purchase LTCI. Rather, it is intended as encouragement to start the conversation about how to cover these potentially overwhelming costs before they happen.

Many employers educated their workforce about LTCI in the past, but, since it has become more expensive and guaranteed issue is gone, it seems the conversation has stopped right when the baby-boomers, Gen-Xers and millennials need more than ever to understand the situation!

Most employers freely admit that financial wellness and retirement security is an issue and/or even a priority for them as they experience declining employee attendance and productivity due to the burdens associated with employees being forced into the role of caregiver for spouses, parents, or other family members. For this reason alone, now is not the time to ignore the conversation on how to handle what some say is the largest “unfunded” risk facing the baby-boomers—namely long term care expenses.

Today’s COVID-19 environment with its ancillary employment and insurance issues makes it the perfect time to conduct the broader retirement financial wellness discussion. The topic is not, and should not be, about, “We are offering a new product and you should buy it to solve this issue.” This is not a single product discussion like LTCI was in the past. Rather, the financial advisor/benefits broker and human resource executive should be conversant with the broad spectrum of products that are available to meet the wants, needs, and desires of their client or employee. There are multiple new products that can assist the professional in identifying the proper solution for the client and in meeting their different needs.

Employers should help facilitate this discussion because their workforce will not start it on their own. In most cases, the employer can today have an array of products that could be put forth to help address this massive unfunded liability. This would be similar to how high deductible plans helped many employers see much more value in critical illness and accident plans to supplement those high deductible costs that are being shifted onto the workforce. Today’s long term care financing crisis can help make a variety of old and new funding options more valuable and necessary.

In 1935, when President Roosevelt introduced Social Security benefits to retiring workers at age 65 as a supplement to their employer funded pensions, the average life expectancy was only 63! Social Security was never intended as the be-all-end-all retirement vehicle for citizens of this country.

Fifty years ago we only needed one good pension plan for our retirement, as people retired largely debt free, with mortgage-free homes. That is clearly no longer the case. Twenty years ago we only needed one good health plan for our healthcare. With the advances of pharmaceuticals, general medical treatment, and changes in lifestyle, life expectancy has continued to rise. Currently those who have reached the age of 65 can expect to live to age 86. As a result of this extended longevity, it is more likely that we will utilize multiple programs to solve for our retirement and for our healthcare. To cover high deductible costs we layer in CI, accident, cancer and HSA plans along with our own savings. For our retirement, we layer in 401k/403b, pensions, SSI, annuities, and savings. These multiple tools combine to create solutions for today’s reality and our own unique individual needs. Why would long term care be any different?

Twenty years ago we could largely get by with only one good long term care plan to solve for future expenses. Because of the same list of overarching changes, today solving for our future long term care expenses will often require multiple tools and certainly different alternatives within a broad population.

Today, expecting individuals or couples to purchase $8,000/month, five percent compound inflation with 10 years of benefit may or may not be any more realistic for most of us as is expecting a health plan with a $100 deductible and $300 out of pocket maximum or expecting an 80 percent defined benefit plan with four percent cost of living adjustments. Making sure we can be cared for in the setting and manner of our choosing, while not outliving our money or impoverishing our spouse, will likely require multiple solutions that come into play at different points on our journey.

There are many solutions that we might acquire over our life’s journey to help us achieve a lifetime of financial security and peace of mind. When we were younger and starting a family, we would will likely have purchased life insurance for the protections it afforded our families, but today it would make sense for it to contain a long term care rider. One might purchase $200,000 of life insurance that would provide $100,000 for long term care expenses. Clearly $100,000 will not be enough for expenses 30 years from now, but it begins to fill the bucket. Later, layering on a manageable LTCI policy for $200,000 to $300,000 of coverage can make sense. Then later, as we retire, we earmark part of an annuity payment or a fraction of our retirement savings to help with long term care. This type of layering can create an aggregate bucket that solves the majority of the challenge while simultaneously helping to solve for other needs along the way. Additionally, one product rarely works as the sole solution for the diverse populations in our workforces.

The general populace has undergone another paradigm shift in terms of where they now seek out their benefits, to include long term care planning, and that clearly has become the workplace.

Consultants and employers need to help us start the conversation in the workplace because starting to solve for this problem during our working years is when it can be solved far more practically and economically. One reason for this is that working age people are younger, more insurable, and the solutions are more affordable.

Even today, at the start of 2021, unfortunately, there remain nationally recognized radio talk show personalities recommending people do not explore long term care plans until age 60. They are wrong! You should not start to deal with the long term care problem at 60 if you can deal with it at 50. Obviously, they have never seen a Milliman report on LTCI medical declination rates at 60 or 65 vs. 45 or 50. They also have never tried to talk to a 65 year old that wants to solve this problem but now, because they followed their advice, cannot afford the solution. The cost of waiting to solve this problem is just like starting to solve for retirement at 60—most of us will not be able to pull it off. However, 45 and 50-year-old individuals can solve this long term care issue and, at those younger ages, it is not just the executives and “monied” few. Working age people are younger, more insurable and the solutions are more affordable. While life expectancy has continued to rise, and we are decidedly living longer, we are also dying slower! Retirement can stretch to 30-40 years rather than an historically much shorter period. Lifestyle choices, diabetes, obesity, as well as chronic and genetic pre-dispositions often render these products as unavailable and the single largest [often disastrous] cost in waiting becomes lack of insurability.

Many employers are newly offering extensive voluntary benefits portfolios but few of those products will be in place 20-30 years from now to help with retirement healthcare needs. Most of us are self-funding our future long term care expenses and we will be using the dollars we saved for retirement living expenses which are the exact dollars all the pundits are telling us we do not have enough of and from where all the ancillary anxiety is stemming. “Save more, save more” is the mantra across the country on this topic and very few would disagree with this. However, skipping the topic of long term care in what should be a holistic discussion for the different stages of what life should be is unconscionable. Let us start the conversation about Long Term Living in our workplaces now, because it is going to take some time to develop traction on this very tough topic and help today’s workers plan for a safe and secure retirement.

Just as we have been encouraged to save for retirement from our very first paychecks, so too must we be prepared to plan for our future long term care needs in retirement.

While we all know there is no such thing as a unicorn, that does not stop us from writing stories, creating cartoons, and other fairy tales about them. Nor is there concrete evidence that the Loch Ness Monster exists, and yet that tale persists. I have a friend who believes that he has seen Sasquatch. I would also add the concept of Time Management to this list of things that do not exist, yet people continue to dwell on it.

I firmly believe that time management is an illusion that a great many people pursue, but like a cloud in the sky, can be seen but never touched. I state this as an affirmation because I know that time simply cannot be managed. We can prioritize and micro-schedule, but we all receive the same 24 hours each day, the same 168 hours each week. Sixty seconds to each minute, sixty minutes to each hour. It is a law, and like all laws of nature and man, needs to be respected. Success follows when we are obedient to laws over which we have no control.

I recently had a conversation with a producer who spent 25 minutes lamenting at how poor he is at time management. After listening to him ramble (his choice of words) for those 25 minutes, he ceased and it was my turn. I immediately pointed out to him that he had referenced “time management” some seven times in those 25 minutes, and that he should not be so self-deprecating because of an inability to manage something as illusory as time. I shared with him that we have as much chance of managing time as we do of touching a cloud. “Once upon a time” I sat on the modern miracle of a jet plane, looked out the window at approaching cloud banks, and realized that, as we were flying into them and through them, there is never any tangible contact. Yes there is condensation on the outer surface of the plane, but for the passengers it is largely an illusion.

At the conclusion of my agent session I made that suggestion to him that, rather than attempting to manage something that is simply unmanageable, he would be better served if he focused his efforts to achieve happiness and success by attaining balance in his life and being proactive rather than unbalanced and reactive.

A series of conversations with this same producer, as well as several others, led me to share that achieving balance in one’s life is really a series of choices that we must make every day, to wit:

• It is about organization, not about making excuses.
• It is about exercising discipline and being diligent.
• It is about avoiding a state of inertia and rising above it.
• It is about prioritizing our activities, not managing the time.
• It is about never uttering “I’m sorry” when it comes to owning your business.

A long term care advocate can be successful by working an honest 40 hours per week. Yes, you heard it right. Not 60 or 80 hours, but only 40. An honest, yes, there is that word again, 40 hours will make an advocate successful at the Leading Producer level if he or she employs the above tools.

• It is about working smarter not harder.
• It is about creating and maintaining balance in the various spheres that comprise our lives—family, professional, personal, spiritual, physical, recreational.
• It is about maximizing—not managing—the 168 hours that we are granted each week.
• It is about focus.

Some life lessons gleaned over the years
More than a few years ago I learned, “Focus on everything is focus on nothing.” You simply cannot spread yourself so thin and expect to remain focused enough to accomplish anything at a level equating to success. That is a formula for mediocrity.

Second, what is your time worth? Only you can assess this and assign a value. It is important to remember and to discipline yourself so as not to chase meaningless opportunities.

Third, it is about answering the question: “Am I investing my time, or merely spending it?” Time invested in an activity such as reading to your grandchildren or family history and genealogy would surely trump the time spent playing Fortnight or spending hours on Facebook or Pinterest. Sorry, I am neither a gamer nor a social media junkie.

Simple math:

• 40 hours of work (five eight-hour days or four 10-hour days—it does not matter) broken down as follows:
  • Four hours education (workshops, webinars, conference calls, self-study).
  • Five hours marketing.
  • Eight hours scheduling appoints.
  • 20 hours of appointments.
  • Three hours of administration.
• 49 hours of sleep (achieving the optimal seven hours per night).
• Six hours of physical exercise (six one-hour sessions Monday-Saturday).
• Seven hours of personal spiritual time (one hour daily—scriptures, prayers).
• Three hours of church worship.
• Seven hours of service (extended family, neighbors, friends).
• 14 hours of recreation (two hours daily).
• Eight hours date night with significant other (Friday and Saturday).
• 21 hours of family time (for those who do not have immediate family, this could be phone, Skype, FaceTime, letter writing, etc.).
• Four hours of maintenance and housekeeping.

Leaves a reserve reservoir of nine hours, and we were generous with some of the above allocations.

These categories can be combined: A family activity that involves hiking or skiing would encompass family time, recreation, physical exercise, etc.

You work for yourself, which means that you are primarily accountable to yourself. To this end, the first question that you must ask, and answer, is: “Would you have hired you in the first place?” Follow up questions should then include, “Are you measuring up?” “Would you not fire you based on your current performance if it was coming from someone else?”

Remember that when performance is measured it improves. When it is measured consistently, it improves exponentially. So, stop managing something that is not manageable and focus on the greatest resource you have in your possession: You.

“All good performance starts with clear goals.” —Ken Blanchard.