Stressors abound in our increasingly hectic days. Two worrisome issues that seem to be front and center in our lives today are long-term care and paying for college. So here at Surgent, we decided to put together an informative webinar on these two emerging practice areas. They’re topics that represent increased billables among practitioners, yet also affect many of you personally.
Did you know that 7 out of 10 seniors over 65 will need some form of long-term care in their lifetimes? Such care is typically provided with home care, adult daycare centers, assisted-living facilities, or nursing homes. The average private nursing home room will set you back over $300,000 for a three-year stay. Strategies will be provided to attempt to knock out these gargantuan expenses. Very limited government reliance through Medicaid but not Medicare, liquidating personal assets, and the use of a long-term care insurance policy are all discussed with emphasis on funding alternatives. And ultimately, wouldn’t you want your heirs to get the funds if care is not needed?
The other predicament facing society which we’ll discuss in detail is college cost. It has increased by 6.4% on average each year since 1983. It’s estimated it will cost $500,000 to send a child born today to four years of private college. 0.3% of college students receive full ride financial aid from grants and scholarships. These figures are daunting and inevitably lead to the use of student loans. We will look at different options. Foremost, §529 plans provide tax advantaged investing along with estate and gift tax benefits, but control and flexibility of the plans are crucial.
You will come away from this two-hour webinar with many practice pointers you can share with clients facing these escalating costs. Too many of us are caught in the situation of attempting to fund college for our children while dealing with long-term care for parents. Throw in the necessity of paying for insurance premiums to offset our own future care, and you can readily see why planning is needed now for a better future.
Please join us on January 8, 2020 at 10:00 a.m. Eastern, with subsequent dates, for this insightful and fact-filled webinar, Long-term Care and College Saving: Critical Topics for Today’s Practitioner (LCCS). You and your clients will be glad you did.
Nick Spoltore is VP of Tax & Advisory Content for Surgent CPE. Mr. Spoltore is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and of Delaware Law School. Before joining Surgent, he practiced tax and business law at the firm of Heaney, Kilcoyne in Pennsylvania and also in Delaware.