Morningstar: Are Long-Term Care and Longevity Insurance Right for You

Read this Morningstar article on Long-Term Care and Longevity Insurance (a.k.a. Annuity or lifelong income stream).

Gives some perspective on how people in US look at retirement planning and what tools are available to assist in terms of regular income provision and aid for long term care. As the article suggests, there is difference in whether the long term care monthly benefit can be utilized for home nursing versus claims for care in a nursing home facility.

In Singapore, we have various tools at our disposal for retirement planning. A typical scenario might be as such:

Medical Care

• Medisave-approved Integrated Shield Plan (for hospital treatment)
• Critical Illness cover (for lump sum claim payout against Critical Illness e.g. cancer, heart attack, stroke, Alzheimer’s)
• ElderShield and/or private insurer ElderShield Supplement (for long term care)

Regular Income

• CPF Life (national annuity scheme to start from 2013; nominal monthly payout amount, non-inflation pegged)
• Private insurer Annuity/Insurance (without/with inflation hedge via participating bonus)
• Capital drawdown and/or recurring income from other Investments (e.g. equity, bonds, dividends/coupons, property rental, business income etc)