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Broke my heart the other day. I talked with a family I was working with to get coverage in place. When I called the home I learned that the wife had just been discharged from the hospital. The diagnosis was heart failure. The prognosis was not good.  Her opportunity to put a long term care insurance plan into place had just gone down the drain. We both talked about the “if only’s.” If she needed care in the future the family’s retirement funds were now at risk. If she needed care, the adult daughter, a nurse, was going to step in. What else could she do? The family would have to rely on her background and experience to help them through it all. It could likely mean a major change in the daughter’s  life and in the lives of her two children someday in the future.

In these situations, when care needs are looming, the family never knows when, never knows for how long, and never knows what the total cost may be. It is the kind of risk most people would choose to buy insurance to cover. I hate this part of my job. Everything we talked about during the last several months about the importance of having coverage in place is now very likely to unfold in this woman’s life.

When I talk to people about possible outcomes with the need for care, it is hard to describe the urgency for the need to take action. When I first met this family my client had just been in her garden picking peppers, beans and cucumbers. In fact, she sent me home with a bag full of garden fresh produce. She was very sweet to share that part of her life with me. And now this. When I first looked at coverage for my family I was motivated because of my own heart problem. Other people have experienced recent events of other family members or friends. Many of us understand the urgency. Would you drive your car without having it insured? How long would you live in your house without having insurance in case of disaster? Not very long in either case. In most cases, when we become aware that a significant risk is present, most responsible people will quickly move to cover it.

I need to improve how I transmit the urgency to cover the risk for long term care sooner rather than later. I would hate to talk to someone else about the “if only’s!”