Approaching Retirement at 65 - What kind of insurance do we need or not need?
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Anonymous
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Due to the upcoming financial reset at retirement, what kind of insurance should we have? Our home is paid off, and we have a significant amount in savings, and we are in good health.
- Life insurance ? (we have a policy now, should we cancel it) - Burial insurance? - Nursing home insurance? What else? |
Anonymous
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Life insurance is for income replacement so if you are no longer working you shouldn't need it. I guess an exception would be if you are relying on the pension of a spouse with no spousal benefits.
It's probably too late for long term care insurance as it will be expensive the closer you are to needing it. If you are planning a mega funeral and don't expect to have assets at that point them maybe burial insurance works. Otherwise just set money side for that. I plan to be cremated and the ashes spread at my favorite spot so it shouldn't be expensive. Plus I have plenty of money to cover it. |
Anonymous
No to all 3 if you are well enough to be self-insured |
Anonymous
| Do your own homework - you're retired, you'll have plenty of time figure this out. |
Anonymous
It's hard to know what is necessary and what is a scam. All day long there are commercials about burial insurance, the $9.99 plan. My parents had those plans and the policy paid out about $10k but I think they may have paid much more than $10k because they lived into their 80s. I never questioned it when they were alive. I thought old people need that type of insurance. Scam. |
Anonymous
| How much does long term care insurance cost? |
Anonymous
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Think about the purpose of insurance. It is to protect you against unlikely but potentially catastrophic expenses. So dying when you are in your 40s or 50s, for example. Dying when you are retired is neither unlikely nor financially catastrophic. So you don’t need it. Same for burial insurance (which is also inevitable, so it is really a form of saving for the poor, rather than insurance). So you don’t need it.
Nursing home insurance is the one that comes closest to fitting the bill. There have been a number of threads on this - search for LTCI - and see if it’s right for you. Unfortunately it is extremely expensive, particularly at your age, and you may be better off self-insuring against this risk. |
Anonymous
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Life insurance is to replace income while you are working or to help care for your children if you die. There is typically no need for it in retirement.
Long-term care insurance may be wise if you are at an income level where you can't afford to self-insure (meaning you can't cover it yourself) but you are not destitute. It's expensive, though. The only insurance I plan to have in retirement is property, auto, umbrella, health (Medicare + Supplement Plans D, G) and dental. |
Anonymous
| We cannot answer this question without knowing what you have saved for retirement and what you expect to receive by way of pensions and/or Social Security. In other words, what sum of money are you working with? |
Anonymous
Same for me. LTC insurance will be prohibitively expensive if you haven’t gotten it before age 65. Also it sounds like a better deal than it often turns out to be. My spouse is in the LTC business and has always said we will not be buying it. |
Anonymous
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Burial insurance? No - if you have money to live, you have money to be buried
Life insurance - only if you have dependents who depend on your $ now. Long-Term Care - are you CERTAIN that you will use (as in you have a genetic disease that you know you inherited)? Then maybe. If you have no idea, probably no. My late-80's parents have been paying for this for 20+ years (so they got in when it was "good") - and it still sucks. They refuse to use it, it's $15k a year EACH, and when it pays out, it will be low - not enough to cover a day in a facility. So I'm sour on it. |
Anonymous
Our liquid assets (cash, stocks, bonds, crypto) are $1m + SS. Home paid off. No debt. |
Anonymous
As people live longer, more LTC plans will not be fiscally sound and will go under. Their financial plans assume they won't pay out for more than 3-6 months, not for someone using the full 2-3 years (or as is the case for some older plans, for 5-7+ years for dementia/assisted living). Much better to save and fund it yourself. |
Anonymous
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You need a drug plan. You may want a Medicare supplement plan either asca retirement plan from employer or some other source
Homeowner's with liability umbrella. |
Anonymous
| Instead of burial insurance should you pre-pay for funeral costs? Anyone do that? |