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October 16, 2025 13 mins

"Hey Mike, can you really get long-care insurance though an annuity without any medical exams?"


 Discover the often-misunderstood parts of annuity income benefits that may help if you need long-term care assistance.

Text your questions to 913-363-1234. 

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Episode Transcript

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Mike (00:05):
Welcome to How to Retire On Time, a show that answers
your retirement questions. We'rehere to move past that
oversimplified advice and getinto the nitty gritty. As
always, text your questions to(913) 363-1234. Again, (913)
363-1234. And remember, thisshow is just a show.
It's not financial advice, somake sure you do your research.
David, what do we got today?

David (00:27):
Hey, Mike Can you really get long-term care insurance
through an annuity without anyhealth exams?

Mike (00:34):
Yeah. Yeah. Long term care insurance. Okay. They probably
sent in a typo.
That's okay.

David (00:37):
Okay.

Mike (00:38):
Yes. We're not the grammar police. That's okay. We'll get
it. So okay.
The question is about long termcare insurance, and can they get
it through an annuity? Alright.So, David, let me pitch you this
idea. I'm an insurance company.Right.
I make lots of money on takingon risk knowing the odds are in
my favor. K. But guess what? I'mgonna sell you an annuity. It's

(01:01):
gonna double your income eachyear for your long term care.
You're gonna have it for life.All is well, and I'm not even
gonna check your health.

David (01:08):
Woah. That sound like a good deal? Yes. If you're not
gonna check my health.

Mike (01:12):
Yeah. Doesn't it feel uncomfortable? It doesn't sound
give you a long term care likebenefit

David (01:17):
Yeah.

Mike (01:18):
Without checking your health?

David (01:19):
There must be a catch. There must be something hidden
in the fine print.

Mike (01:24):
Yeah. So let me say it back a little bit differently.
Long term care insurancerequires a health exam, because
if you're doing traditional longterm care insurance or asset
based long term care insurance,asset based long term cares, you
put a certain amount of money inthere, and then if you need long
term care assistance

David (01:44):
Uh-huh.

Mike (01:45):
That you're gonna get a nice benefit for a couple of
years. K. That's the idea. Youhave the benefit for life. You
with me so far?
Yep. They're gonna check yourhealth care, because it does
makes no sense in the world topay, like, let's say 50,000, and
get some huge benefit if in twoyears you need long term care.
That's not financially prudentfor the insurance company. It
doesn't work for them. They haveto check to make sure, and these

(02:08):
are my numbers, my opinions,that you won't use it for at
least ten to fifteen years sothat if you do use it, you're
the exception to the rule,you're the statistical outlier,
and that the insurance companiescan keep solvent.
If you use, let's say, indexuniversal life insurance,

(02:29):
they're going to check yourhealth. They need to know that
you're probably not gonna die inthe next ten to fifteen years so
that if you do, you're thestatistical outlier. And that if
you do need long term careinsurance, you've got the health
sufficient enough that in ten tofifteen years and you start
tapping into your death benefitbecause you've got terminal
illness, chronic illness,whatever the rider is. Riders

(02:51):
are the additional featurethat's with your insurance
policy that the odds are in thefavor of the insurance company.
K?
You with me so far?

David (03:01):
Yeah. Yeah. They're doing their due diligence because they
need to make the numbers work sothey can stay in business. If
everyone who created a policy,like, filed at once, then they
won't have enough to payeverybody. Is that right?

Mike (03:11):
Yeah. I mean, I guess this is so grim. I hope this doesn't
happen. But let's say a city ofa million people all got term
life insurance for a milliondollars.

David (03:22):
Okay.

Mike (03:23):
K? And then let's say in five years, there's a horrible
accident, and everyone in thiscity dies.

David (03:31):
Oh, yeah. That is grim.

Mike (03:33):
And it qualifies now for everyone's term life insurance
to go to some beneficiary. Thatwould really hurt an insurance
company.

David (03:40):
Right.

Mike (03:40):
Now I'm not trying to gloss over the tragedy of what
this is. Sure. I'm trying to behyperbolic in something that's
so crazy that hopefully thisdoesn't happen. But can you see
how that wasn't statisticallyprobable?

David (03:51):
Sure. Yeah.

Mike (03:52):
You don't buy term life insurance hoping to die in a
year or two. You buy in casestatistically it happens it was
the unexpected outlier. So okay.Now with the annuity, this is
pitched over and over again. Andwhat's almost never disclosed so
if you're thinking aboutannuity, read the contract.

(04:14):
Yeah. Maybe even upload it toyour favorite AI and have the AI
also help you understand it.

David (04:20):
For sure. Yeah.

Mike (04:21):
It's a good

David (04:21):
tool.

Mike (04:21):
AI are not attorneys.

David (04:23):
Alright.

Mike (04:23):
K? But it might help you ask a few questions that might
help prompt a furtherconversation. Annuities are not
good or bad. They're just atool. But in the products that
I'm aware of, there's many thatdo this, where your income
doubles for up to five years, ifyou have long term care needs,
that only lasts as long as thecash value lasts.

David (04:47):
Oh, is the cash value what you put in to fund the
policy?

Mike (04:50):
Yep. So this is not an illustration. Alright. I'm not
quoting any policy. I'm justsaying an example just to
illustrate kind of themechanisms here.
Alright. I love regulatorsbecause I think they do a good
service. I just don't wanna saysomething where they're gonna be
upset. So I try to over discloseeverything. K?
So I want people to understandthese concepts. Let's say you

(05:12):
put, I don't know, a milliondollars into a policy, and this
policy is gonna pay you 70,000flat income for life. So
remember, flat income, itdoesn't increase, so inflation's
gonna erode this over time. Sothat 70,000 eventually is gonna
feel like 30,000. So justcaveat.
Yeah. Sidebar. It's the flatincome. But if you need long

(05:33):
term care, that 70 thousand'slike a 140,000 for five years.
That sounds like a good deal.
But what happens is the milliondollars goes into an indexed,
usually around, like, bond fundsor something lower risk, so it's
got lower growth. And so within,like, ten, twelve years or so,
that cash value is gone. So ifyou needed long term care help

(05:55):
in the first ten years, maybeyou get it. But once the cash
value is gone, it goes back tothe 70,000. And they know if
you're needing long term carehelp in any capacity, you have a
lower life expectancy from thatpoint on.
I think it's like once you needlong term care, there's, like,
around three years to five yearsleft of life anyway. So they

(06:17):
don't mind giving you more ofyour own money back at a faster
rate, but once that cash valuehits zero, there's no death
benefit, and they just go backto the 70,000. And, yeah, they
can kind of just wait a couplemore years, and then you're
probably dead. So that's whythey don't check your health

David (06:34):
Okay.

Mike (06:35):
In advance, because the benefit is only based on your
cash value. And once that'sgone, what what do they care?
They already made money off ofyour money.

David (06:42):
Uh-huh.

Mike (06:42):
And when you grab enough pool of people together, the
odds are in their favor, so itworks out for them. The reason
why I'm saying this is it's nota bad policy. It's not a bad
strategy. It's not a badbenefit. But don't think you're
gonna double your income at 86years old when you need long
term care.
That benefit's gone.

David (07:00):
Because the cash value would already be gone by then.

Mike (07:02):
Cash value's usually gone based on what I've seen and
experienced and looked at aroundten, fifteen years or so Mhmm.
Based on what we've talkedabout. Now there's other
versions. There's other ways youcould structure the policy, less
income that allows more cashgrowth, so it kinda lasts
longer, but notice you had lessincome at the beginning. So to
get something, you've gotta givesomething up.

(07:23):
There's always this negotiationof what do you want, what do you
have to give up. Always gonnahappen. But don't think you can
cheat an insurance company, anddon't think insurance companies
are charities. They're not.They're not bad.
They're just a business. It'sjust insurance. But almost every
time I've explained that tosomeone, they said, well, I'm
glad I didn't buy it becausethat was never disclosed. I

(07:46):
said, great. I guess we've madesome progress here.

David (07:48):
Mhmm.

Mike (07:48):
And then we keep the conversation going. Long term
care insurance is as simple asthis. If you need it, you
probably can't afford it,realistically. And if you can
afford it, you probably don'tneed it. The only reason in my
opinion why you might buy it issurvivorship.
So just in case someone getslike, you're willing to pay a

(08:10):
premium to protect the survivingspouse just in case, because
there are certain lifestylegoals or risks that you're
concerned about, and you'rewilling to pay for that premium
just to have the peace of mind.That might be a reason. Another
reason is you just want thepeace of mind because you've got
this legacy intention, andyou're okay just paying for the

(08:31):
peace of mind. You're okaytransferring the long term care
risk to an insurance companyknowing the odds are not in your
favor. But notice how we'redefining things as they are.
Yeah. I've never actually sold along term care policy. I've done
so many illustrations.

David (08:44):
And what usually happens when you run those?

Mike (08:46):
The people that really want it are denied because they
know they're probably gonna needlong term care help sooner than
later. Uh-huh. So it's like

David (08:55):
The insurance company is nope.

Mike (08:56):
We'll check. Doesn't hurt anyone to try and get a policy.
If you know you might need longterm care sooner than later,
what if the insurance companymay make some mistake? That
could happen. Mhmm.
It's rare. I mean, it's worthchecking. And then for the
people that are really, reallyhealthy, I just do a quick cost
analysis and say, here's yourprotected category. Here's your
growth category. Here's thebenefits and risks of each of

(09:19):
them.
Here's the liquidity needs.Here's that health timelines.
You know your health. How do youwanna proceed? And once I lay
things out, they almost neverreally sign up because things
are explained as they are veryobjectively.
Yeah. I've never been invited tospeak at a long term care
conference.

David (09:37):
Yeah. And you're not doing yourself any favors now
either.

Mike (09:39):
But I'm I'm fine. I'm licensed to sell them, and I'm
fine giving a very openconversation about it, because
I'd rather you not buy it, andwe structured the plan. My
business does better,admittedly, when I give more
honest advice, when I give moretransparent advice Mhmm. Because
we make our money based on aflat fee schedule. So we need

(10:04):
retention.
We need that openness andtransparency. It's not about
putting all your money in themarket. We're indifferent on
where your money goes. But we dowell when we have that objective
conversation of what truly isright for you, and that does
make us slightly unique. It's asubscription model, basically.
Yeah. Well, how much does itcost to do the job? Great. Now

(10:25):
let's really dive into thedetails and figure out what's
right for you, because we'repaid the same regardless of
where your money goes. So thatalso kind of affects, I guess,
our horrible long term careinsurance, which are basically
zero.
Yeah. Because we've never soldone. But do you see my point
here?

David (10:41):
Yes. You just have to know what are the motivations
for either either the proposedinsured or the insurance
company, and do they line up?Where's the Venn diagram?

Mike (10:51):
Yeah. Now one last note on this question. We've had many
people come into our officealready with long term care
policies.

David (11:00):
Okay.

Mike (11:01):
And they were amazing. Uh-huh. They were priced wrong.
The insurance company eitherdidn't do an effective check on
their family history, or theywere just priced wrong, and they
got in at the good time, andthen they changed the prices,
but the insurance company in acontract has to honor it.
Uh-huh.
And I'm going, oh, hold this.You keep this thing. If they're

(11:21):
gonna try to increase prices,you know, in the seventies or so
on, there's a whole thing aboutthat to increase insurance
price. It has to go through theinsurance commissioner of the
state. Sometimes they'reaccepted.
Sometimes they're denied. Like,there's a whole process of that.
They can't do it willy nilly,but, oh, yeah, let's build in
assumed price increase on thesethings so you can keep this.

(11:42):
Because it is priced so well,it's in your favor.

David (11:45):
Those are gone now. Right?

Mike (11:47):
You're not gonna get those today. That's too The insurance
company's a wise doc. So I guessyou could say I have a really
good retention policy for theold long term care. The, you
know, the stuff that you gotfrom your work? Oh.
It's like a group long term careinsurance, something like that
years ago.

David (12:00):
Okay.

Mike (12:01):
And I was like a relic. You'll hold it dear and close to
your heart. But long term careis a tricky conversation. Just
don't think that it's aninvestment. It's not an
investment.
It's the transference of risk.And sometimes that transference
risk is a high premium.Sometimes you got lucky. Just
understand it's a cost benefitanalysis that needs to be done

(12:22):
for you to understand what thatshould look like. That's all the
time we've got for the showtoday.
If you enjoyed the show,consider subscribing to it
wherever you get your podcasts.Just search for how to retire on
time. Discover if your portfoliois built to weather flat market
cycles or if you're missing taxminimization opportunities that
you may not even know exist.Explore strategies that may be

(12:43):
able to help you lower youroverall risk while potentially
increasing your overall growthand lifestyle flexibility. This
is not your ordinary financialanalysis.
Learn more about Your WealthAnalysis and what it could do
for you regardless of your age,asset, or target retirement
date, go towww.yourwealthanalysis.com today

(13:03):
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