Washington State’s “Washington Cares Fund” (WCF) imposes an uncapped 0.58% employee-paid payroll tax ($580 per $100,000 earned) to fund a $36,500 lifetime pool (intended to inflate, beginning in 2027, according to WA’s consumer price index) for long-term care received in WA by vested employees. A claimant must require help with at least 3 activities of daily living (11 ADLs are listed on WCF’s website).

We're kicking off November's Long-Term Care Awareness Month on Halloween, Monday, October 31 to get the message out that you don't need to be scared of long-term care conversations!

NAIFA's Limited & Extended Care Planning (LECP) Center is hosting "Don't Be Scared of Long-Term Care," a free, day-long virtual program from 9 am to 5 pm. Included are interactive sessions from industry leaders who will address the scariest of topics in the long-term care arena. 

Steve Cain is a self-described “LTC insurance nerd” dedicated to being a lifelong learner and advocating for Main Street USA.

Getting Started

A 25-year veteran of the insurance industry, Cain started his insurance career after playing two years of minor league baseball. When he returned home to Los Angeles, he took a temporary job providing support for a company specializing in long-term care (LTC) insurance. He learned about LTC from his job, but he learned its value from watching his mother handle LTC events for both of her parents. He saw the impact dealing with LTC without proper planning had on her and knew he needed to help families like his own.

When Bruce Palmieri, CLU^®, ChFC^®, CFP^®, applied for a life insurance policy in 1990, he didn’t expect to find a career—but that’s just what happened. His Northwestern Mutual advisor recruited him into the business and, over 30 years later, Palmieri is a stalwart of the insurance and financial services industry.

Serving Main Street USA

Palmieri primarily works with clients who are looking to retire soon and want to make sure they have their finances in order. He helps them plan for the future, delving into the details of their retirement accounts, employee benefits, life insurance, long-term care planning and more. By taking a holistic approach to each client’s unique circumstances, he’s able to help them build a strategy that works for them.

Increased awareness of long-term care (LTC) insurance means increased interest in LTC coverage. However, not all clients qualify for a traditional LTC rider.

Each week, NAIFA partner E4 Insurance Services presents Building Relationships Every Week (BREW) webinars with insights to help you grow your practice and serve Main Street USA.

Financial exploitation of older adults is rampant, and the problem will only get worse as America’s population continues to age.

In fact, the rate at which adults over the age of 60 can expect to experience financial exploitation—1 in 20—is higher than the incidence of many age-related diseases, according to research published in The Journals of Gerontology. And that’s likely an underestimate because many older adults are unwilling to report exploitation.

Loyal NAIFA-CA member Louis H. Brownstone, CLTC, proposes a new solution for long-term care insurance planning in a recent Broker World article. Brownstone is the owner of California Long Term Care Insurance. A NAIFA member since 2007, he is the Government Relations/APIC IFAPAC Chair for NAIFA-San Francisco Peninsula and a NAIFA Financial Security Advocate.

Congratulations, Louis. We're #NAIFAproud of your commitment and dedication to our industry.

The Intercompany Long-Term Care Insurance Conference (ILTCI 2022) is taking place March 21-23 in Raleigh, NC, with sessions featuring NAIFA thought leaders and a special NAIFA networking event. The ILTCI’s annual educational conference is for representatives of the long-term and extended care insurance community and other strategic allies, including providers, public policy institutions, professional organizations, federal, state, and local government agencies, and the public. Online registration for the event is open.

Join us on March 17, 2022, at 2 pm eastern for the special webinar "Designing Insurance Solutions to Address Clients’ Macroeconomic Concerns."

The discussion will feature John C. Snider II, JD, AVP and Associate Counsel with the Advanced Markets Group at John Hancock. Snider will discuss inflation, rising interest rates, geopolitical instability, and other economic factors that affect Main Street Americans.

Don’t miss this opportunity to learn how to help your clients find the right life insurance for their unique situation and how to plan for their long-term care needs. 

Technology might not seem like a likely tool a financial advisor can use to build client relationships. It almost goes without saying that older generations prefer human interaction versus digital services when it comes to their finances. And surveys have found that even tech-savvy millennials are more likely to get help with their finances from real-life advisors than from robo-advisors. 

So how can technology help financial advisors strengthen and add value to their relationships with clients—especially older clients—when it lacks the human touch? After all, a computer can’t hold your hand during a market downturn. 

But there is new technology that can enable advisors to build their businesses by giving them the ability to better assist aging clients and clients taking care of aging parents at the stage of their financial lives where they need the most help. That new technology is Carefull.