Protect Your Practice with a Plan
Are You at Risk?
Do your clients depend on you to provide expert advice about their benefits and/or financial plan? Forgetting a funding solution for an extended healthcare event can create a liability for them…and for you!
After completing graduate school I embarked upon a career in financial services at American Express Financial Advisors (now Ameriprise). I remember one of our trainers providing insight (even back then) about the importance of educating clients regarding extended healthcare.
Protect Yourself (and Your Clients)
AEFA started including an LTCi plan as part of the “Advisor Checklist” to document the recommendation of some form of extended healthcare funding solution for clients. Nobody wants to create a plan which develops massive wealth only to see it disappear when the client has an extended healthcare event. Certainly no one wants to hear from the client’s heirs who realize an LTCi plan would have protected some (if not all) of their assets.
Hear it from Harley
Harley Gordon is an attorney who shares the importance of extended healthcare planning. Blue Cross gave us all a copy of his book as part of our training when we were creating marketing ideas for Preferred LTC. More than a decade later (as an independent) I met Harley at the ILTCI conference in Vegas and shared how much I appreciated the article below as a method of education for advisors, attorneys, and benefits consultants who may not have considered an LTCi plan as part of their practice. He is an exceptional speaker, and if you ever have the chance to attend one of his training sessions in person – I would highly recommend!
“I Don’t Mention LTCi Plans Because…”
Many agents and brokers hesitate to talk to their clients about LTCi plans because the industry has gone through so many growing pains over the last decade and it seems to be rapidly evolving. Sometimes I hear that agents and brokers don’t feel comfortable advising on LTCi plans because it is not in their wheelhouse, and they would rather stick to what they know. Whatever the case may be – it may be best to partner with someone who is independent and has decades of experience specializing in LTCi plans.
The bottom line in Harley’s story is that without documentation of the recommendation of an LTCi plan…his friend could have been subject to a lawsuit by the heirs. I can also take another message from this story. Perhaps if the advisor had partnered with an LTCi plans specialist…their client would have created an alternative funding solution and not liquidated assets for incredibly expensive care.
Partner with Us
If you don’t already partner with an LTCi specialist to serve your group or individual clients…consider working with the seasoned experts at LTCi Plans. We stay in our lane and provide excellent service for individuals, associations and employer groups. Industries served: academia, aerospace, medicine, telecommunications.
Founder and Managing Partner – John F. King, CLTC
