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“I do family planning.” That is one of the tag lines I have considered in describing what I do for clients. That may seem a bit misleading, I know. Actually, what I do is help people create a plan for the possible need for care should they become disabled during retirement. The fact is, long term care needs become a family affair. Just ask someone who has helped an elder with care or coordinated services between family members or professional care givers. Long term care planning using insurance as a funding source has, in fact, become a critical piece of a family’s financial plan going into retirement. So I think I will continue to tell people I do family planning.

I read Robert J. Powell’s news letter “Retirement Weekly” regularly. His January 1 issue talked about six things you need to know before you retire. Several key points he mentioned resonated with me. Here they are:

• You will live to be 100 and the cost will double at least once during your retirement years.

• You can withdraw only 4% of your principal if you want your money to last as long as you do.

• Certain kinds of protection are essential to your well-being and the well-being of your finances. A long-term-care event that requires you to spend time in a facility can do more damage to your portfolio than a bear market.

• Your planning will be better if you work with a professional adviser.

Wow. How direct can you be? The main point I want to make is we (you and me) need to have a way to leverage our money in case we experience a long term care event. The best way to do that is to talk with a professional LTC planner. That is someone who does this type of planning on a full time basis. This is NOT someone who “also sells that type of insurance” on an incidental basis. This is someone who knows the issues, knows the industry, and knows how to custom fit a plan for YOUR needs and financial resources. Yah, that’s what I do. That is all I do. Family planning for retired folks.