By: Tricia Hancock, CLTC, LTC/DI/Medicare Supervisor
I always say Long Term Care planning is always about the story. Until your client has a personal caregiving story, they are not likely to move forward putting a long term care plan in place. Today I want to talk about the other side of the story. What happens on your end when there is a need for care and your phone rings? What are you saying to the family member of your client who is now facing either paying out of pocket for care or having to become the caregiver themselves?
Almost 11 years ago I wrote an article talking about documenting your files to be able to show that you did discuss Long Term Care Planning with your clients because agents were getting sued by their client’s family when protection was not put into place. Today, in 2020, the issue is still happening. There is rarely a meeting that we hold, that when I talk about this potential liability to the agent, I don’t have at least one agent raising their hand, or nodding along with a story of their own. They received calls from a client’s child about what plan was in place, or in some cases an attorney asking what they did to protect the portfolio from a LTC risk. Many times the agent did have the foresight to be documenting files with a liability release form, copy of an illustration they showed the client or even a note that the client said they would talk about it later, and later never came.
What are you doing to not only protect your clients, but yourself? Give me a call to discuss what may work for your practice: 800-524-1774.