Higgy Baby – I read the policy and don’t remember there to be a lump sum payout, but there also wasn’t a lump sum pay in. I’m sure there are zillions of types of these policies these days, and I assume that the one that you are describing has a different set up than the one that my parents used.

After really thinking about all of this, I am somewhat convinced that if you start early and set aside your own investment for long term care, you are likely to come out ahead. Hard to say though.

It doesn’t seem that the following applies to you, but the other difficulty that I see with these policies (almost by definition) is that they have to be enforced by someone other than the insured (since the insured is presumably ill enough to require long term care). In our case, my brother and sister and I (in the middle of what was already a very difficult time) had to find and figure out how these policies worked and what needed to be submitted to get benefits. I am certain that without our help my parents would not have been able to jump through all the hoops that were necessary. So, if you do get this sort of policy, you need to be sure that you’re going to have someone (or better yet a number of people) who will be able to figure this all out for you.

And thinking about this is very depressing. Good luck with your efforts.