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Considering long term care insurance is especially important for those who remarry. Blending families at any age is difficult. It doesn’t get any easier later in life when care needs are looming and questions regarding the couple’s estate bubble to the surface. Family relationships can get ugly, especially for blended families. Hear this: “Blood is thicker than any promises made!” If you are a loving committed remarried couple, the only way you can assure what you want to happen will happen is to provide resources to make it happen. To assure that each of you is provided for later in life, long term care insurance may be the very best solution, regardless of the amount of money in the bank. This truth came to the front in a recent interview with clients.

In my interview with the couple I learned that the wife had cared for her elderly mother and later her ailing step father in her own home. She adjusted her work and social schedules to accommodate their needs. She spent her own money at times to provide for their care. You know, “the things that any good daughter would do.”

She expected her step children to do the same for her.

This sentiment was never spoken between the husband and his wife until our interview. I asked the question, “Is leaving an inheritance to your children important for you?” She said, “No.” He said , “Yes.” You see, they were his children, not hers. Very telling. He was interested in long term care insurance to assure his children would receive the bulk of his estate. She had no such concerns. After all, his children would care for her. Like she did for her parents. There was no need to save the estate from spend down.

I left without a decision from either of the spouses. The wife stated that they would have a talk with the kids during the holidays. I wish I could listen in.