Always Ageless w Valerie v August 11 Guest Chris Orestis

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:24):
Did you know that seventy percent of people over sixty
five will need some form of long term care, but
most have no plan to pay for it, Or that
the biggest risk to your retirement may not be your
bank account, it could be your mindset. You might think

(00:44):
you're ready for retirement, but can you honestly say you're
a retirement genius?

Speaker 2 (00:49):
I can't. Would you like to be I would? I'll
bet you would too.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
Or Welcome to Always Ageless with Valerie van is over
and today we're taught talking to the man who's made
it his life's work to help people retire smarter.

Speaker 2 (01:05):
Healthier, and happier.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
Chris Orestes is also known as the retirement Genius. He's
the person when you walk into a room and see him,
you immediately know I'm going to like that guy.

Speaker 2 (01:18):
That's someone I want to get to know. That's certainly
how I reacted.

Speaker 1 (01:23):
Most impressively, however, retirement Genius is the number one most
quoted resource in the insurance and retirement industry, and that
is pretty impressive. He's got a personality quiz for you
that might just surprise you. Insights about long term care
and lifestyle planning that you haven't heard anywhere else, and

(01:46):
stories that will make you rethink what retirement really should
be like. Chris is also, in addition to being the
President of Retirement Genius, is a nationally recognized speaker and
very well liked I might add in retirement finance, long
term care, and a pioneer in LTC life settlements. Don't

(02:07):
know what that is? Hold on, because today we're going
to talk about it. You'll leave knowing what a life settlement.

Speaker 2 (02:13):
Is all about.

Speaker 1 (02:14):
He's a popular author, a media expert, and a podcast personality.
He's a former political operative, a DC lobbyist, and senior
issues advocate with over twenty five years of industry experience.
And I'm especially interested to talk to him about his
work on Capitol Hill. Can he even make a difference?

(02:36):
And I'm anxious to hear about that. So, whether you're
planning for yourself or you're helping your parents navigate this
next chapter, this is an episode that you'll want to share,
re listen to, and talk about. And after you've listened
to this, you're going to go home and say, hey,
you guys, should hear this guy. This is who you
want to listen to. So pour your coffee, lean in

(03:00):
and let's turn confusion into confidence, because retirement should not
be something that you look forward to. You should look
forward to it and not lose sleepover, that's for sure.

Speaker 2 (03:11):
So let's dive in.

Speaker 1 (03:12):
Welcome Chris to always age this with Valerie van is Over.
I have to tell you I'm especially honored to have
you with me today. When I first met you at
the CSA, the Certified Senior Advisor Conference, I was so impressed.
And I can tell with your bow tie you mostly
wear a bow tie, which sets you aside in the room.
Oh gosh, I wonder if some day he would be
on my radio show. And now we're in our second

(03:34):
year and I'm so honored that you have agreed to
be with us today.

Speaker 2 (03:38):
Thank you very much.

Speaker 3 (03:39):
Well, the honor is all my Valerie. Thank you so much.

Speaker 4 (03:42):
And the introduction was wonderful for you to share, and
I appreciate everything you said and to be here to
talk to you, talk to your audience about these really
important issues, what seniors and families are facing when it
comes to retirement and the unique financial challenges that are

(04:02):
driven by aging and declining health. The eventuality of declining health,
which so many people ignore until one day, it's a
crisis situation in the middle of their lives and they
have to scramble to figure out what to do next.

Speaker 3 (04:16):
The more we can talk about it, the more we can.

Speaker 4 (04:18):
Plan, the more we can understand how to be ready
to take on every stage of retirement, the better it's
going to be for everybody.

Speaker 1 (04:26):
Absolutely, and Chris, I think one of the saddest things
is when someone finds themselves in a situation they weren't
prepared for. Be it that a spouse has passed away
and leaves a wife and she never paid the bills,
doesn't even know what the passwords are to the bank accounts,
needs to make a house payment, doesn't know how to
do it, knows they must have the money, doesn't know
what to do, or they think they have to sell

(04:48):
their house and they really don't, but they didn't even
know that staying there was an option. Those are the
situations and I'm sure must break your heart just like
they do mine.

Speaker 3 (04:57):
They do, they do.

Speaker 4 (04:58):
It's the lack of planning, the lack of communication, the
oftentimes lying to yourself that it's not going to happen
to you, when the reality is the vast majority of
people will need some form of long term care. Some
they're going to confront healthcare crisises or just ongoing, ongoing

(05:20):
treatments and conditions. Anybody who's sixty five today, a couple
that are sixty five today in their remaining lifetime or
looking at maybe spending as much as three hundred thousand
dollars out of pocket on health and long term care
costs from this point going forward.

Speaker 2 (05:37):
And that is a lot of money that most people
don't have.

Speaker 1 (05:40):
So the one thing I want to be sure today
that we talk about, Chris, is how does all of.

Speaker 2 (05:44):
This relate to the everyday person.

Speaker 1 (05:47):
We don't want our listeners and our viewers to think
that this is a show only for people have money, right, Well,
this is everybody, because whether you have a lot of
money or you have a little money, number one doesn't
mean you could plan, and number two that there aren't
options for you.

Speaker 2 (06:03):
Is that correct?

Speaker 3 (06:04):
That's absolutely correct.

Speaker 4 (06:05):
Retirement isn't just for the rich, Okay, Retirement should be
for everyone.

Speaker 3 (06:10):
And what retirement means.

Speaker 4 (06:12):
Today is very different than what it meant decades ago,
twenty thirty forty years ago. I like to say, this
isn't my grandfather's retirement that I'm looking at you know,
I think today as people retire there they're more active
and more aware of the importance of being active to
have purpose in their lives. And you know, sometimes you'll

(06:33):
see pundits out there that'll say, if you don't have
two million, three million, five million dollars in the bank,
you can't retire. Well, that's that's not true. That's quite frankly,
I find that to be offensive and tantamount to fear
mongering to scare people possibly into you know, jumping onto
signing up for some kind of scheme or some kind
of of program that's going to cost them money. No, no, no,

(06:56):
there is an opportunity for everybody to retire.

Speaker 1 (06:59):
Now.

Speaker 4 (07:00):
The sooner you start, the better, But it's also never
too late to start. If you're in your twenties and
you start your first job. I always encourage kids, make
sure you're taking advantage of that four oh one k.

Speaker 3 (07:14):
If there's a four oh one k there, max that out.

Speaker 4 (07:18):
I have four sons, and as each of them get
out of college and have started jobs, that was the
first thing we went through. I sat down with them
to help them check off their benefit forms, make sure
they were going to max.

Speaker 3 (07:30):
Out that four to oh one K get the company match.

Speaker 4 (07:34):
And I've told them, if you start this in your twenties,
you're going to be a millionaire in your forties or fifties. Now,
if you start in your thirties or forties, you still
have a chance to accumulate a good amount of money
into your retirement savings. And so it's never too late
to start financially. Another smart financial investment that people should

(07:56):
be making as they at every stage of life, no
matter how old you are, is in their health, in
their physical health, because the longer you can hold back
things like the need for care, the expensive cost of
eventually long term care, the more you're going to get
out of your retirement, the more you're going to stretch
your retirement dollars. So it's never too late to start,

(08:18):
but certainly the earlier somebody starts, the better. And if
you're listening today and you feel like there's more you
can do, I say get started today.

Speaker 2 (08:26):
Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (08:27):
I think one of the things that and I relate
to this because of my age, that when we were younger,
you know, our parents were sixty or seventy.

Speaker 2 (08:36):
We thought they were old.

Speaker 1 (08:37):
Really, No, I know now we did, and not only that,
but in most many cases they were dying at that age.
But now for us who are that age, we don't
think we're old noe and and so I think that
the mindset shift is huge, and that that, of course
is part of the problem. But let's talk about you.

(08:58):
Let's talk and take a few minutes and talk about
tell us about why the name retirement genius. How did
you get the name and who? How did this stick?
Who gave it to you? Did you come up with
it on your own?

Speaker 3 (09:10):
Well, you know, it's interesting. I have been.

Speaker 4 (09:14):
Out there in the financial and long term care world
going back a good twenty five years. Started even earlier
than that. When I first got out of college, I
worked in Washington, DC. And we'll talk a little bit
about the politics. But when I first got out of school,
I was young. I worked in the White House, I
worked on Capitol Hill for the Senate majority leader, and

(09:34):
then I was a lobbyist for the insurance industry for
a number of years, and it brought me into working
on issues around senior care, long term care, insurance, long
term care services. How are we going to fund the
aging baby boomers, which back then we were looking at
as years down the road. Well they're aging, they're here today,

(09:56):
we're here now now, Jens is aging now, jed x
is crossing over into their sixties. So about twenty five
years so I left Washington, DC in the early two
thousands and we started a company dedicated to trying to
help people access private pay solutions to pay for long
term care services. And we ended up teaming up with

(10:19):
some of the big home care and assistant living companies
across the United States, bringing financial solutions to help people
navigate that complex problem that they kept running into. How
do we pay for the care that we want, that
we need, because it's not as for so many people
they think, well, someday, if I ever do need the care,

(10:40):
it's covered, I have insurance, Social Security, Medicare, something's going
to pay for it. Or if nobody pays for it,
my kids will never let me go into a nursing home. Well,
it tends to not work that way, and you need
those solutions. So we were working with big companies like
Brookdale Senior Living in a play Place for Mom home instead,

(11:02):
which quite frankly, to this day, we still work with.

Speaker 3 (11:04):
Many of those companies.

Speaker 4 (11:06):
Twenty two decades later of trying to help families access
private pay solutions, which the biggest hurdle for them was
just the lack of knowledge, the lack of knowing that
they had options that they could potentially access by just
the simple matter of did you have a few things

(11:28):
that you hadn't thought of?

Speaker 3 (11:29):
Like do you have a life insurance policy?

Speaker 4 (11:31):
And that's where we came up with the long term
care life settlement by cashing out people's life insurance policies.
Do you have a home, Maybe you should be looking
at a reverse mortgage or a home equity credit loan.
Maybe you're a veteran, have you thought about tapping into
the VAAD and attendance benefit things like that, annuities that

(11:53):
have features to help people pay for long term care.
And as that kept going and growing, the company just
kept coming along the years until about five years ago
we underwent a rebranding and people were seeing me talk
and in the media. I mean, we looked at kind

(12:16):
of a media how many times had I'd been mentioned
in the media going back since we started the company
twenty years ago, it was over a thousand times I've
been quoted in the press talking about these issues.

Speaker 3 (12:27):
I've been on TV, I've been on radio.

Speaker 4 (12:28):
I've spoken it more conferences and meetings that I could
even remember to count, and eventually people were referring to
me as the genius, Oh, the genius is going to
be here, the genius on long term care. And it
turned into retirement Genius. And then it was suggested by
a good friend who was kind of helping us get

(12:50):
this got He said, you know, I've seen pictures of
you when you wear a bow tie. A bow tie
and the word genius. Who put those together and it
really works? And so the next thing you knew, I
was wearing my bow ties all the time, and we
created the brand and everything around it, and it really
stuck when people today, when people hear the name Retirement Genius,

(13:10):
or they see the logo, or they I get stopped
at airports with people saying, hey, where's your bow tie
retirement genius. You know, it's amazing how that can happen.

Speaker 1 (13:19):
Absolutely well, certainly that's what I think of. Of course I
know you now, but certainly I remember walking in the
room at CSA and there he is. There's the guy
sets you aside for everybody else certainly has been your brand.
So what surprised you the most about working with aging
adults and retirees over twenty five years ago at that point.

Speaker 4 (13:39):
In time, Yeah, it was the lack of understanding and
the lack of communication within the families themselves, you know,
the lack of understanding what are the options, how to
know when it's time for them, how to pay for them,
and having some communitytion among the families so that when

(14:02):
that time comes, you're able to do something about it.
It isn't it isn't sudden, it isn't disruptive. It's been
planned and thought out so and the wishes of your
loved one have been well taken into account so that
that transition into whatever form of senior care may be happening,

(14:24):
whether it's home based care, you're moving into an assistant
living community, you're ready for it. Instead of an incident
happening and you're in the hospital looking at discharge paperwork
and you've got twenty four hours to figure out the
entire world of long term care something you've never thought
about and didn't think was going to happen to you.

Speaker 1 (14:46):
Well, that's what happened to us, and certainly that's you know,
catapulted me into this big hospital calls.

Speaker 2 (14:55):
You know, you get the.

Speaker 1 (14:55):
Call, right, and the call is we're discharging your dad.
I said, where am I to put him? Well, we
don't know, but that's not our problem. We're discharging him, right,
and I've got to figure it out. Yeah, there must
be other people like me, and certainly we've discovered that
there were, and that's that's our mission, is to help everybody, know,
in the families, but the children.

Speaker 4 (15:15):
It's amazing too, how many people you encountered that are
professionals in the senior care world, who who came into
this because of their own personal family experience. Something happened
and they said, I got to do something about this.
I've got to get involved, and it brings them into
becoming a caregiver and advisor of some sort.

Speaker 1 (15:36):
Absolutely, we all have our stories, you know, you and
I are in groups where we network with other people
around the country in a variety of fields, all related
to working with seniors and their families. And almost always
everyone starts with a story, right, my mom or my
dad or my grandpa, or I was working with a
company where I was that was my job, and I

(15:56):
thought other people needed my help. And certainly that certainly
has become the passion for so many of us.

Speaker 4 (16:03):
If you're in a room with one hundred people and
you asked, raise your hand if you thought long term
care was never going to impact you, eighty or ninety
hands are going up in the air. And then you
ask how many of it has it impacted you? Eighty
or ninety hands are going up in the air.

Speaker 2 (16:18):
Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (16:19):
We were with a group a couple weeks ago and
we went around the room and it was all people.
We weren't relatives, we all didn't work together, but something
brought us together and we went around the room and
how many people were caregivers. Almost everybody was a caregiver
for somebody right, And it's amazing how that all has changed,

(16:39):
and how none of us were prepared for it. We
didn't know what we didn't know what we should do.
So you talk about Chris about retirement as a triangle,
which most people don't never heard this before, about finances,
health and lifestyle, which I find really fascinating. Why do
most people ignore at least east one of these.

Speaker 4 (17:02):
Yeah, people tend to focus first when you think of retirement,
you're thinking about money. How do I make money, how
do I save money? How do I have enough money?
And for some people, they will get to a point
where they realize, maybe I'm not going to have enough money,
maybe I'm not going to retire like a multimillionaire and

(17:24):
have a yacht and whatnot, and they think financially they
don't have what it's going to take to retire. Or
the flip side is they've worked themselves to death and
they've accumulated a ton of money, but they've sacrificed their health,
They've sacrificed their relationships.

Speaker 3 (17:42):
Along the way.

Speaker 4 (17:42):
When you land at retirement, having the balance of your financial,
your health and long term care planning, and your lifestyle
is so important because what fun is it to be
a millionaire if you don't have anybody to share it with,
You don't have perp in your retirement, in your life,
and what good is a Ferrari sitting in your garage

(18:05):
if you're too sick to drive it. So it's bringing
those three things together that I've always said is what
it takes to retire like a genius.

Speaker 2 (18:17):
Excellent.

Speaker 1 (18:18):
So let's say that someone is only focused on money
and they kind of forget the rest.

Speaker 2 (18:25):
So what's the cost of missing that full picture?

Speaker 4 (18:28):
Well, retirement without relationships, intact, without purpose other than money
for the sake of money. Now they're they're the old saying,
how many you know? How many boats can you can
you water ski behind? How many cars can you drive?
You want to be financially stable and as well off

(18:50):
as possible, But if you've sacrificed your relationships along the
way and you're going to get there by yourself, it's
going to be very unfulfilling. And if you're going to
get there and your health isn't in order well, bad health,
declining health, chronic conditions is going to eat away at
not only your money but your lifestyle tremendously, undermining the

(19:11):
quality of your retirement. So it's really you've got to
bring those elements together. So it's having a solid financial
plan matched with taking care of yourself and being ready
for the future of possible costs of things like long
term care, and having relationships, having purpose, having plans. You

(19:33):
can't get to a destination without a roadmap. Retirement's a destination,
and you really want a roadmap as to where you're
going so you know you've gotten there when you arrive.
And for many people, a real challenge to retirement is
arriving without either recognizing they're there or what to do

(19:53):
once they've gotten there. It's the planning to have all
those pieces in place to truly yer retirement for yourself
and with your loved ones. That makes for a fulfilling,
well balanced retirement.

Speaker 1 (20:08):
And I think also planning, Chris also is not just
plans kind of like getting the call and being Some
people are forced into retirement or they're forced into these
situations where and especially now with all the things we
see with technology, the changes in the world in manufacturing
and in the government and all of these things where

(20:29):
people are going to be forced into making a change
and they need to plan for it for that reason
as well, not just because now I'm going to retire,
but what if you're forced into a retirement situation. So again,
planning is what we should be doing way far ahead
of that time.

Speaker 4 (20:50):
I think with people there's a real feeling of uncertainty
right now around retirement. I think more than ever, people
are concerned about the future of of the social safety
nets like Medicare, social Security, Medicaid. They're concerned about the economy,
is it up, is it down? I think right now
there's a lot of confusion as to which one it is,

(21:13):
and so there's people we've been watching, particularly this year,
the biggest jump of people at the age of sixty
two claiming Social Security in any year that we've ever seen.
Whereas we know if you wait longer up to the
age of seventy, you're going to collect more. Once you
start collecting Social Security, you lock in that benefit amount

(21:34):
for the rest of your life. What you would get
at sixty two versus what you would get at seventy
is almost twice as much at the age of seventy.
Making sure that you're selecting your Medicare benefits correctly and
understanding that on an annual basis, you can re enroll
into something as your life, as your health needs change.

(21:54):
Understanding that Medicaid is a program really to support people
that are impoverished. Once you're on Medicaid, you're now award
of the state, and if that's your plan to pay
for long term care, be careful what you wish for
because now you're on Medicaid and you're probably going into
a nursing home to share a room with one or
two other people. You're not going to stay at home
most likely, and You're not going to get into an

(22:16):
assistant living community and live that pretty fun lifestyle in
assistant living. I've seen some assistant living communities Valory that
are like Ritz Carlton's, but that's not Medicaid, that's private pay,
and that takes planning, that takes the kinds of things
that we've worked on for over two decades.

Speaker 1 (22:33):
Absolutely, So, I've heard you say I think that retirement
is much about identity as it is about incoming.

Speaker 4 (22:39):
Yes, I firmly believe in that it's retirement has really
changed from stopping working to stopping doing what you have
to do to start doing what you want to do.

Speaker 3 (22:51):
The room.

Speaker 4 (22:52):
Yeah, the real transit transition into a great retirement which
gives you purpose, which potentially continues to bring in some income. Hey, listen,
just because you retired doesn't mean you have to stop
bringing an income, doesn't mean you have to stop contributing
to society doing great things and so. But you want
to be in a position where you're calling the shots

(23:14):
and you're able to do what you want to do
instead of what you have to do.

Speaker 1 (23:21):
Chris, you created a retirement personality profile. Quiz Is that correct?
Tell us about that?

Speaker 2 (23:27):
How does it work? And what kind of personalities do
you see?

Speaker 4 (23:31):
You know, we see a wide range of people. It's
a series of ten questions where you're gauging your own
opinion of your readiness based on the factors we've been
talking about your financial readiness, your health, long term care readiness,
your lifestyle readiness, to sort of put you on a
scale of one to ten where you are in terms

(23:52):
of your personality and your readiness to be retired. It's
a helpful little tool to help people take a test
to see where you end up ranking yourself and you.

Speaker 1 (24:06):
See surprises with that. Do you think people are honest
when they're filling that.

Speaker 4 (24:10):
Out, Well, we certainly hope they're being honest because the
only people they're lying to are themselves. But for the
most part, people are honest about it, and I think
they're surprised when they see that one of the elements
of retirement is so off scale compared to the other.
To get to that balanced triangle that those three balanced
legs of the stool, they find one one leg is

(24:33):
way too short or one leg is way too long,
and they're out of balance, and it's an opportunity to
try and recalibrate and get back into balance.

Speaker 1 (24:42):
And I'm assuming that that is available to our viewers
and our listeners. Do you have that online where they can.

Speaker 2 (24:47):
Go find it?

Speaker 4 (24:47):
Yes, yes, yes, it's on It's on a website called
Chris o'restus RG dot com Chris arrestus RG dot com.
Not to be confused with the Retirement Genius website Retirement
Genius dot com. I have a couple of websites and
the readiness quiz is over on CHRISORESTSRG dot com.

Speaker 1 (25:09):
What can they do with that information? Do you have
other like do say if you are this, you should
look at.

Speaker 4 (25:14):
This and yeah, when you see that somebody's out of balance,
here are tools and resources you can reach to to
help get yourself back into balance. Are you financially underprepared? Well,
if you're in your if you've hit your fifties, you
could and you're still working, you could start to take

(25:36):
you could start to increase your ketchup contributions to your
four oh one K, and once you're between the ages
of sixteen sixty three, you can supersize your contributions to
your to your four to oh one K. That's one
way to try and get back into balance with financially.
As an example, you know, if your relationships are out
of whack, if you have no real purpose and plan

(25:57):
for retirement, well, here's an opportunity to look at some
of the resources, read some of the articles and videos that.

Speaker 3 (26:03):
We that we provide.

Speaker 4 (26:04):
We have a whole host of animated retirement Genius videos.
You'll see an animated character of me in the bow
tie in the bud giving you all kinds of different
advice on our YouTube channel. There's a Retirement Genius YouTube
channel that has a lot of great short animated explainer
videos covering a range of topics about retirement that help

(26:27):
people get themselves in bounds.

Speaker 2 (26:29):
Right.

Speaker 1 (26:30):
So this is a guy you want to watch and
listen to and watch as well on his YouTube channel.

Speaker 2 (26:36):
You mentioned Medicare.

Speaker 1 (26:38):
So a lot of people assume that Medicare covers everything
and tell us whether that's true or what it's not true,
which we know it isn't and how can they how
should they plan for that?

Speaker 4 (26:49):
Yeah, Medicare does not cover everything, quote unquote, and one
of the big everythings that it doesn't cover is long
term care. Medicare does not pay for long term care.
It will pay for a defined short term rehabilitation care
upon discharge from a hospital into a skilled nursing facility

(27:12):
up to one hundred days with only partial coverage for
the majority of that. There is premiums to be paid
when you go onto Medicare, out of pocket costs that
you have to factor like copays, deductibles, And there's a
difference between traditional Medicare and Medicare advantage plans, which people

(27:35):
are seeing Medicare advantage plans TV commercials all the time
on television, and those are private insurance plans that you
sign up for a lot like the insurance you were
used to when you were working. Where you're paying premiums,
you're getting a host of other benefits beyond just what
Medicare provides. For example, dental care, vision care, hearing care

(27:59):
is not covered by traditional Medicare, but you can get
that on Medicare advantage plans. What's important to remember about
Medicare is the enrollment windows. When you first turn sixty five,
you have a window to enroll. You have an annual
enrollment period that everybody gets to take advantage of where

(28:20):
they can re enroll, re up, change what they've enrolled in.

Speaker 3 (28:25):
If their needs of change.

Speaker 4 (28:26):
Let's say you started on a Medicare advantage plan, but
then you decide you want to go to traditional Medicare
once a year.

Speaker 3 (28:32):
You have the opportunity to do that.

Speaker 4 (28:33):
A lot of people blow that off and they just
enroll in Medicare once and ride it on autopilot, and
it's costing them money, They're missing benefits, they're not doing
it right.

Speaker 1 (28:45):
And I think Chris that Medicare is one of the
most misunderstood tools there is. And I think that it's
I mean, it's just not well presented. The education I
think is I don't want to say is poor. That
maybe is lacking.

Speaker 4 (29:07):
It's confusing, it's confusing galery, that's what it is. There's
a lot of advertising out there to get people to
enroll in Medicare advantage plans, but there's.

Speaker 3 (29:17):
A whole lot of different plan options.

Speaker 4 (29:19):
There's Medicare Part A, there's Medicare Part B, there's Medicare
Part D for drug coverage. Parts C is the Medicare
advantage plans.

Speaker 3 (29:26):
It is an.

Speaker 4 (29:27):
Alphabet soup of confusion for people that that I always
recommend speaking to an advisor. There are there are a
host of Medicare agents out there, licensed insurance agents that
will help people navigate and understand what would be the
best Medicare options for them available in their states. Not

(29:49):
every plan is available in every state on the Medicare
advantage side. And so as I always say, with any
kind of financial decisions Medicare, insurance, annuities, investments, don't wing it,
don't try and do it on your own, don't take
it for granted, don't be on autopilot. Take advantage of

(30:11):
the professionals and get the advice get You can go
to groups like Retirement Genius to get great information and
access to resources. And you have all kinds of local
agents and groups out there that will help you navigate
and get into the best solution to meet your needs.

Speaker 1 (30:28):
And isn't it important for people to realize, because I
know we didn't for a long time, that Medicare actually
you can change your plan and you really should reevaluate
it every year.

Speaker 2 (30:36):
Do you feel all that way?

Speaker 4 (30:38):
Absolutely, that annual enrollment period valory. You've got to take
advantage of it. Anybody that ignores the annual enrollment period
which goes from October fifteenth to December seventh every year,
October fifteenth, to December seventh. If you're ignoring that, you're
probably costing yourself money. You're probably losing out on benefits

(30:59):
that are correct for you and your situation. And remember,
when you enroll, it's only for one. So if you're
a couple, you're enrolling and your spouse is enrolling, you
don't enroll together in a group plan your individual coverage.
So you each have to look at it and look
at each other your lives and figure what might be
the right plan for one may not be the right

(31:19):
plan for the other.

Speaker 1 (31:21):
So I have a question for you, Chris, because I
know our viewers and our listeners must be saying, yeah,
I know I should do that, but I don't understand.

Speaker 2 (31:28):
What I've got.

Speaker 1 (31:28):
Anyways, it wouldn't make any difference if I evaluated it,
So just tell us briefly, because there's so many other
things I want to.

Speaker 2 (31:34):
Talk to you about, But just tell us briefly.

Speaker 1 (31:36):
So what kind of mistakes could someone make or money
you could leave on the table, or problems you really
could cause yourself by not reevaluating your plan every year.

Speaker 4 (31:48):
Well a big one could be based on your travel
habits and are you in network or out of network?
If you're in a Medicare advantage plan and you're a
snow Let's say you you know, you enroll in a
Medicare advantage plan in New York, but you spend your
you spend half the year in Florida. You're out of network.

(32:10):
If you're in a Medicare advantage plan. Now, traditional Medicare
coverage covers you everywhere you go, right, but there's a
trade off and benefits. So a traditional Medicare plan, if
you're in New York, if you're in Florida, any Medicare provider.

Speaker 3 (32:26):
Accepts the coverage.

Speaker 4 (32:27):
If you're in Medicare advantage plans, you've got to make
sure that who you're going to is in network. Do
you need to get referrals to get to that coverage.
It's managing it like an like your your regular insurance
you may have had through through an employer. So it's
understanding those and not making those mistakes. That is the

(32:47):
difference between costing you money coverage the potential of even
accessing care. If you're in a network in an area
that doesn't have the coverage that you can be approved for,
you want to make sure you under and and then
if you're traveling or living abroad, Medicare is not paying
for coverage in Portugal or Spain, so you're gonna have

(33:08):
to be ready for that.

Speaker 2 (33:10):
Yeah, yeah, it's fascinating.

Speaker 1 (33:12):
You're right, that's something most people might not even think about,
and hopefully their advisor tells them. But if they don't
have an advisor, right then they're just on their own
and they're just guessing. And maybe they had a plan
and then this year they travel and they didn't realize
it was that that they should have reevaluated.

Speaker 2 (33:28):
That is really, really, really good.

Speaker 1 (33:29):
Information for people to know, and I think they just
don't just don't realize.

Speaker 4 (33:33):
This, No, they don't. People take it all for granted.
People are going to take it for granted. They put
people will put more thought into buying a large screen
TV than they will and rolling in their in their
Medicare plan and and and they've got to put the
time and thought and work into it. Same thing with
the rolling in social security. Same thing if you're if

(33:54):
you're making the move to get onto Medicaid and you're
going to do a spend down to cover long term care,
and guess what those are the publicly funded entitlement programs
then there's the whole side of private funding, private pay
for long term care, private funding investments, and that's a
you know, the other area that we spend a lot
of time focused and working on with the people that

(34:16):
we help.

Speaker 1 (34:18):
Now, I know you also have talked about annuities and
you're saying that they can both be a genius move
and a trap.

Speaker 2 (34:26):
What's the difference.

Speaker 4 (34:29):
Well, the the genius move for an annuity is the
fact that money put into it, you're setting yourself up
for growth, but you're not putting yourself in a position
where the market fluctuations could could wipe out your money.
When you put your money into an annuity, you're setting

(34:49):
yourself up for a guaranteed income stream for the rest
of your life. Now, the trap, although that's a harsh word,
it's not really a trap. But the trade off is
is that when you're putting your money into an annuity,
you're basically saying to the insurance company, I'm going to
give you this money and in return, you're going to

(35:09):
pay me an income for the rest of my life,
with the idea from the insurance company that they know
they're keeping that money until you die.

Speaker 3 (35:18):
But the the the up or down on that is,
how long are you going to live.

Speaker 4 (35:23):
Let's say you put one hundred thousand dollars into an
annuity and it's paying you a twenty five hundred dollars
a month benefit for the rest of your life. The
insurance company is taking the risk as to whether you
will live longer than the one hundred thousand dollars or not,
and the tradeoff is you maybe you passed away before
you collected back all thee hundred thousand. But annuities do

(35:43):
have options to set up beneficiaries. Annuities also have options
with long term care writers that can actually increase the
value of the money in the annuity to be paid
towards long term care benefits specifically, so can be one
way to help you pay for long term care, just
like life insurance policies can be another way to help

(36:05):
you pay for long term care. With what we did
when we brought the LTC life Settlement, the long term
care life settlement into the market two decades ago.

Speaker 1 (36:16):
Is it ever too late to start planning for a
smarter retirement? And if so, what about the people who've
already retired And it may may seem like too late.

Speaker 4 (36:26):
No, it's you know, the sooner you start, the better,
But it's never too late. It's never too late to
make moves like a smart budget to put yourself in
a position where with let's say you're retired and now
you're living on a fixed income, Well, let's make sure
you know how you're spending your money. Be smart about
how you're spending your money with a budget. Also look

(36:49):
at trying to avoid getting into debt when you're retired.

Speaker 3 (36:55):
Pay off.

Speaker 4 (36:56):
Go into your retirement with as much of your debt
paid off as possible, and avoid getting new debt or
growing debt while you're in retirement.

Speaker 3 (37:05):
Keep an eye.

Speaker 4 (37:06):
On your assets, things like your home, your life insurance,
if you have money, and annuities. Those are all assets.
Those are all resources that you can access to either
pay out an income on a monthly basis like an
annuity does. Or let's say you have a life insurance
policy that you no longer need or want. You could

(37:28):
cash that out and liquidate it through a life settlement
to get a lump sum of money to help add
more to what you have in retirement. Your home is
a potential resource to tap into your equity through something
like say.

Speaker 3 (37:40):
Or reverse mortgage.

Speaker 4 (37:42):
If you're a veteran, there's veterans benefits you want to
make sure that you're accessing if you're eligible for them,
and those things are all things that are what you
would do really once you're at kind of the age
of sixty five and above. You know, doing something like
a life settlement isn't for somebody in their forties or
five fifties. It's for somebody in their mid sixties. Doing

(38:03):
a reverse mortgage, you've got to be sixty two and
above to qualify for that. Veterans Aid and Attendance benefits
for long term care that's sixty five and above. So
there's a bunch of options that once you're at that
you're in your sixties, you're only now able to access,
and some of them, like let's say a life settlement,
will actually pay out the policy owner more money value

(38:27):
for their policy. The older they're getting and the more
impaired their health becoming, the more they need long term care,
the more they're going to actually get paid out for
their life insurance policy through an LTC life settlement or
a life settlement.

Speaker 1 (38:42):
Something that that occurs to me, Chris, is that we
plan for a wedding. We have our children and pretty
much we go through life.

Speaker 2 (38:51):
Right.

Speaker 1 (38:51):
We plan for our kids to go to college, and
we may have a life insurance policy, but we just
go through life. We haven't many of us have a
really nice life life and we all of a sudden,
we've really never had to.

Speaker 2 (39:03):
Hire an attorney. You know, yeah, we buy insurance, but.

Speaker 1 (39:06):
All of a sudden we get to a stage like
some of us maybe now or should have done it before. Now,
all of a sudden, it seems like we need advisors.
Is that a fair statement?

Speaker 3 (39:17):
Right?

Speaker 1 (39:17):
We need to look at medicare, We need to look
at financial planning, whether we have a lot of money
or not.

Speaker 2 (39:24):
We need to look at you know, at our medicare, at.

Speaker 1 (39:27):
Our life insurance, at all these options, at long term care.
And I think that a lot of us at this
stage of our life just didn't think about it because
we weren't raised that way, because our parents didn't.

Speaker 2 (39:41):
Don't you think maybe that's true?

Speaker 3 (39:43):
Oh? Oh absolutely. Listen.

Speaker 4 (39:45):
People should not go into their retirement or live their
retirement and their planning is a series of throwing darts
at the wall. You know, you need a well organized
plan across those three key component into your financial your healthier,
long term care, your lifestyle, tapping into advisors, reading, and

(40:07):
there's so many resources out there now that people can
access to educate themselves, but still I would make sure
I am going to advisors. Particularly if you're going to
get into a medicaid spend down estate planning, you want
to work with an attorney. If you're looking at insurance annuities,
you want to work with a licensed insurance advisor. If

(40:30):
you're going to start to figure out what are you
going to do about home care assistant living, you may
want to be talking to a geriatric care manager who
can help you navigate, explain and understand what are the
different types of care how to access them.

Speaker 3 (40:46):
Now.

Speaker 4 (40:46):
There's a lot of resources online organizations like Retirement Genius.
People can watch videos on YouTube that are very informative,
but really that to me is a base level of
education and understanding to set you up to better be
able to work with a professional and advisor to do

(41:07):
it right. Don't skimp on spending one thousand or two
dollars to set yourself up right, try and figure it
out on your own, make mistakes and cost yourself so
much more money than that by getting it wrong.

Speaker 2 (41:22):
It's almost just not even an option anymore.

Speaker 4 (41:25):
It really is, and it's very confusing. Again, a lot
of great information and resources out there. You can educate yourself,
but then you've got to work with the right professionals
to get it done right.

Speaker 1 (41:35):
Absolutely, Chris, there's something that obviously you're known well for
and that so many of us, and I guarantee you
that most of our listeners and viewers have no idea.
So talk to us about these long term care settlements,
these life settlements, how it works with insurance, what is it?

Speaker 2 (41:53):
Just start from there.

Speaker 4 (41:55):
We don't know absolutely, So think of it this way.
Life and insurance policies are assets. They're actually legally recognized
as the personal property of the policy owner. So today
the two biggest assets that people own in this country
is their home and their life insurance policies. There's about

(42:19):
two hundred and sixty million life insurance policies that are
out there with more death benefit than there is home
equity in people's homes in this country. And really everybody
who owns a life insurance policy, they own that that's
their property. And just like your home where you make
mortgage payments for years. One day, when you're done living

(42:41):
in the home, what do you do. Do you drop
your keys in the driveway and abandon your home? Well,
of course not, you sell your home to get its
full market value.

Speaker 3 (42:50):
Well, it's the same thing with life insurance policies.

Speaker 4 (42:53):
People make premium payments for years and then one day
when they're done with that policy, need it anymore? Because
the kids have grown up and moved on, they have
their own policies. And you're sitting there, you know, you're
in your sixties, your seventies, your eighties, you still have
a life insurance policy, and you think to yourself, why
are we still paying premiums on this policy. We don't
really have a need for it anymore. Let's just dump it,

(43:15):
let's get rid of it. Well, you don't need to
do that. You might qualify for a life settlement where
you could sell the policy. And there are big institutional investors,
big investment banks and groups that are buying people's unneeded
life insurance policies by billions of dollars a year in
this country, giving people back money that they've paid into

(43:39):
these policies and premium payments, and even more sometimes that
they can then turn around and take that money and
do with it as they please. And for many people
to qualify for a life settlement, you're going to be
older and your health is probably starting to get worse.

(44:00):
And for a lot of people, they're going to take
those funds from the life settlement and turn around and
use it to help them pay for their health.

Speaker 3 (44:06):
And long term care needs.

Speaker 4 (44:08):
And this has become something that care providers across the
country had worked with us on for over two decades
now on helping families do that to access money so
they can pay for home care, they can pay for
assisted living, and over the years we have helped people
access millions of dollars towards care through using this unique

(44:28):
vehicle taking a life insurance policy, which people, by the way,
are seeing TV commercials all the time about if you
don't need, if you don't want a life insurance policy,
you could be sitting on a gold mine. Well, it's true,
there's value there. Don't ever throw away a life insurance
policy because that's something that might be the key to
helping you with your retirement and your health and long

(44:52):
term care needs. As those expenses are getting tougher and
tougher to meet.

Speaker 1 (44:58):
Okay, so let's do some some basics. So I have
a let's just say I have a life insurance policy.
Let's say for two hundred dollars. Is that an average
amount for people in the United States.

Speaker 4 (45:08):
Yeah, the minimum policy that would qualify would be one
hundred thousand, So the average is yeah, up around there.

Speaker 1 (45:13):
Sure, I would say we have a two hundred delt
our policy, but I really don't want to. I want
to keep it because to my husband's policy, if anything
happens to him, that money is going.

Speaker 2 (45:23):
To help me live.

Speaker 1 (45:25):
Right, right, So isn't that a philosophy of many people?

Speaker 2 (45:28):
Correct?

Speaker 3 (45:29):
Well, and it's the right philosophy.

Speaker 4 (45:31):
The best use for a life insurance policy is to
keep it enforced by paying those premiums until the death
benefit is paid out to the beneficiary. It's now the
question becomes yes or the beneficiaries still there? Do the
beneficiaries still need that money? Or if you bought that
policy to protect your family when you had young children,

(45:53):
but now twenty five years later, the kids are moved on,
they have jobs, they own homes, they have their own
life insurance protecting their own kids. Now the question becomes,
do we still need this policy. Can we still afford
to pay the premiums on this policy? And would we
be better off to liquidate the policy and get as
much as we can for it today while we're still

(46:15):
alive and use that money towards what we need today,
or are we better off to keep it until it
would pay out the death benefit to somebody who that
would be the best use for the policy. We always
look at that first. But if that need isn't there,
if you can't afford it, and you're thinking you're going
to get rid of it, well, then let's take a

(46:35):
look at could you qualify for a life settlement, which
is a no cost process to determine would you qualify
and if so, get paid out? Who knows ten percent,
thirty percent, forty fifty percent of the death benef it
could be paid out to somebody who owns a policy.
The older and sicker somebody is, the more they're going

(46:56):
to be paid or a life settlement. It's the only
financial vehicle out there that does that. It actually rewards
the owner of the policy with more, a higher payout,
more value. The older they are and the sicker they are,
They're going to get more for a settlement.

Speaker 1 (47:12):
All right, so let me ask you a question. So
I think, yeah, that might be a good idea, that
might be interesting. I'd like to talk to you about that.
So what would I do? So, now I'm going to
have that money, So do I wait to do that
until let's say, let's say God forbid that my husband
is really sick and now I'm desperate and I need something.

Speaker 2 (47:28):
Would I wait until then?

Speaker 1 (47:30):
Or would I say, well, my husband's healthy now, so
should I sell it now and then invest it in
an annuity or pay off my house?

Speaker 3 (47:39):
Well, the answer is both of those could be possible. Now,
if you're too healthy or you're too young, you're not
going to qualify for a.

Speaker 2 (47:47):
Life settlment, so you don't want so, right, right.

Speaker 4 (47:50):
So there is a measure of you know, if you're
in your early sixties and perfectly healthy, you're not going
to qualify for a life settlement. But let's say you're
now up into your seventies or your eighties and you
have some health impairments, you may qualify for a settlement.

Speaker 3 (48:05):
Now.

Speaker 4 (48:05):
Again, the older and sicker you are, the more you're
going to get. So let's say you were on the younger,
healthier side, but could still qualify for a settlement. You
might do that and then take that money and put
it into an annuity to set up a lifetime income stream,
or your older, you're sicker, your care needs are immediate,

(48:25):
and get you get a substantial chunk of money from
the settlement, you turn around and you're able to start
spending that on your care needs immediately. And you might
not qualify to put that money into an annuity, or
you're certainly not going to qualify to put it into
a long term care insurance policy. But you have money
now that you can use to pay towards health care,

(48:46):
long term care costs, or anything else you need.

Speaker 2 (48:50):
All right, that's great information. So how long does it take?

Speaker 1 (48:54):
If I was in a situation today where I needed
some money?

Speaker 2 (48:58):
Then how long? About?

Speaker 1 (49:00):
Who do I call? And second of all, how long
does it take to get it?

Speaker 4 (49:04):
Well, we've certainly been doing this for over two decades,
so we would recommend to your listeners that they call us,
they go to the Retirement Genius website. Our number is
eight six six six oh two five thousand retirement genius
dot com. We're standing by to help anybody and from

(49:25):
start to finish the entire process will take call it
maybe sixty to ninety days. You'll know pretty quickly if
you qualify. Then that's just a question of how much
would you be paid, and then going through the paperwork
to finish it all up so that you could be
paid out. It's kind of like the sale of a home.
It's a closing process. You're going to sign some documents,

(49:48):
the money you're getting for settlements sitting in an escual account.
When it's done, the money is released from the escual account,
just like when you sell your home, and then that
money is yours, free and clear to do with as
you please. And depending on your health needs, you've got
money to start paying for home care, start paying for
assisted living, start paying for whatever it is you need.

Speaker 2 (50:08):
And if somebody can't wait ninety days.

Speaker 4 (50:12):
Well, we've certainly worked with care providers to let them
know how, and we work with care providers all over
the country to let them know how the process is going.
And we've seen care providers, based on the fact that
the settlement is progressing and getting done, start to provide
care in advance of being being paid from the settlement
and then collecting what's back paid due to them after

(50:34):
the settlement's complete.

Speaker 2 (50:36):
Chris.

Speaker 1 (50:36):
One thing that I hear people talk about all the time,
and we talk about as we don't know how long
that person is going to live.

Speaker 2 (50:43):
I have a mom who's under in five and a half.

Speaker 1 (50:45):
We thought years ago, well, we've got this much money
and it'll be enough because she can't possibly live that
much more and longer.

Speaker 2 (50:55):
Much more, longer, but she does. So what do you
do with families?

Speaker 1 (50:59):
We don't know how to plan, We don't know how long,
how much money we need.

Speaker 4 (51:06):
What we don't, we don't but what you want to do.
And that's why the idea and I find it to
be so absurd when I hear some of the more
well known pundits out there saying, if you don't have
two million, you can't retire in.

Speaker 2 (51:19):
America Saturday morning radio shows, yep.

Speaker 4 (51:22):
Yeah, yeah, I think we all know who we're talking about.
And I say, it's not a number, it's a percentage.
You want to be in a position to replace fifty
to seventy percent of your income that you had while
you were making money, and so now it's you know,
so let's say you were making one hundred thousand dollars
a year and in retirement. It's a combination of Social

(51:45):
Security benefits, Medicare and then your investments. Can that come
together to be the equivalent of say fifty to seventy
thousand dollars a year towards your retirement and can you
sustain that? Because remember, when you're on Social Security, that's
for the rest of your life. When you're on Medicare,
that's for the rest of your life. If you go

(52:06):
on to medicate, that's for the rest of your life.
So you have those safety nets underneath you, and you
want to then make up the difference with what have
you been able to save invest what income you might
tap into your home, you might tap into your life
insurance policy, you might have an annuity in place that's
also providing a monthly income. And when you.

Speaker 3 (52:26):
Bring those things together, you can get through hopefully a long, sustained,
fulfilling and healthy, happy retirement.

Speaker 1 (52:37):
That is great information, Chris. We have one minute. Well,
first of all, thank you for being here. We need
to have you back again and this will be available
online for people to watch it and rewatch it.

Speaker 2 (52:48):
What would you like are listeners and our viewers.

Speaker 1 (52:51):
To know in our last minute together and how can
they reach you and access your books.

Speaker 4 (52:57):
Yeah, yeah, so remember and we've made point, but let
me emphasize it. It's never too late. But the sooner
you start, the sooner you take control of your life financially.
From a health perspective, you understand that long term care
will eventually be in your life and it will be expensive,

(53:18):
and that your lifestyle, your purpose, your plan. The sooner
you're bringing those things together, the better you can plan
for your retirement, the better you can enter your retirement,
and you can live through the stages of retirement. You know,
the early, happy, fun stages with all the travel, the
middle stages where you become a little more home bound
but you're still doing well, and then that final stage

(53:40):
where where it really becomes a matter of managing declining health.
It's all about planning, it's all about communication, it's all
about information, and we have a lot of great information
that will help you on your journey at our website
retirement Genius dot com on our YouTube channel, Retirement Genius

(54:01):
YouTube channel. Just look for Retirement Genius on YouTube and
just give us a call. We're happy to talk to you.
We're happy to answer your questions. Eight six' six six
oh two five thousand retirement genius here to help you
retire like a, genius.

Speaker 2 (54:19):
And we would all love to do. That chris Or
as to thank you so.

Speaker 1 (54:22):
Much to our viewers and our, listeners thank you for
tuning in today and being with us for another episode
Of Always ages With VALERIE. V and until we see
you next week, Again stay, curious stay, kind stay, bold
and always stay always.

Speaker 2 (54:36):
Ageless