Long-Term Care Awareness Month; Realistic tips for families

Hey everyone, welcome back. You know, November is Long-Term Care Awareness Month and we know a little planning can go a long way when it comes to, you know, how you receive care. We've got Barry Fies over here. He's a private wealth advisor with MHF Wealth Partners. Okay, so you're unpacking this month. It's very meaningful for a lot of people, very important. I kind of want to start by asking you this, brother. Why is it important to plan in advance before you get to where you need this kind of care and don't have it? Yeah, I think one of the biggest things that One of the things that always comes to my mind with this Having time and optionality, so the reality is the earlier you start to plan for something, think about something, the more options you're going to have. So it might start with just thinking about what you want, what your wants or needs might be in that setting. And then it's also going to eventually transform into, well, how do I accomplish that? How do I make sure that what I want actually happens? So the earlier you start thinking about that stuff, just the more options you have, the more time you have. Fair. Is this expensive for folks in Milwaukee who are watching right now? I think it certainly can be. It really just depends on what you want. One of the things that... The recent planning and progress study that Northwestern Mutual did found that on average, most people really know where they want to have care, which is good. They want to have care at home overwhelmingly. Almost three quarters want to stay at home. And staying at home, depending on the time that you need care there and your circumstances, can be pretty costly. They've found that on average in the Milwaukee area, Probably something like $37 an hour for average care. And depending on how often you have somebody come in to assist or to help you, I mean, you could see costs upwards of $100,000, more or less, to do that. So obviously it's something that's very important to kind of account for, to plan for, and to figure out. From talking to different customers and people you serve, is there a specific type of care that most Milwaukeeans want to receive? I would say that I think from the study's perspective, if people could stay at home and receive care at home, they'd prefer that. You know, if they're forced into it, a nursing home type circumstance or something like that, people are going to be accepting of the outcome there, obviously. But I think as far as the type of care, They'd want to stay in the place that they're familiar, They want to be at home. They want to receive that care at home, It's familiar, It's a familiar environment. Yes, absolutely. Especially once you approach that part of life. Yeah. You know? Tell me this too, brother. Is there a specific age that you're seeing or demographic that you're seeing when people start really entertaining this type of care and coming to see you in terms of preparation for it? Yeah, I would say probably somewhere in between like the ages of 40 to 60 is the most popular. I think part of the reason for that is As you're getting into that age, you might have parents that are experiencing some type of care, or they're talking about it, or you're seeing things a little bit firsthand. Obviously, as you move through your 50s and maybe into your early 60s, retirement's getting very real for you, so you're probably thinking a little bit more about those circumstances as well. I would say on the early end, probably in your 40s, on the later end, Closer to retirement, which probably tends for most people to be somewhere in their 60s. Okay, okay. How can planning long-term care for like your family members or maybe a close friend affect your own finances? That's a really good question. You know, at the end of the day, we've seen a lot of different, I'll call it circumstances that people do to basically account for that. We've seen from the planning and progress study, Things like picking up a second job, spending their own dollars, changing around housing or home situations. So as far as accounting for how some of these costs are gonna get paid for, it can have various impacts, not only to the individual and their immediate family, let's say their spouse or something like that, but also to the slight extended family, maybe their kids or otherwise who might be helping or assisting with providing that care. Okay, okay. Is there a certain complaint or concern you hear from people in terms of what do I do? How do I start this? How do I unpack long-term care for my family member, especially with things being so high as they already are at the moment? I think that just the discussion sometimes can be the tough part. It can be really easy to just put off long-term care or the idea of it because you imagine it's going to happen. At some point in time, distantly in the future, Just don't know when. Yeah, and you're like, if it happens, right? Maybe it won't even happen. And so it's very easy to just not have the conversation. But I think it starts with just having a dialogue, as I mentioned earlier, about figuring out what you want. And once you know what you want, then you can back into that a little bit, certainly sitting down with an advisor who might be able to help you quantify based on what your goals are, what your wants are. Here's what that might look like. Here's what that might cost. And here's how you could go about planning for it. So I think if I heard... Maybe a regret or a complaint. It typically centers around something like, I wished I would have started this process earlier. Thought a little bit about it earlier. I wish I had. I knew I should have. It's everyone's complaint. That's why they always start. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, man. Well, somebody watching right now wants to maybe get in touch with your services or maybe needs a little bit of help. Where can they go? So, so... Probably just start at the website, which is mhf.nm.com. Reach out to our team. We'd be happy to sit down and have those discussions. Wonderful. Thank you so much for that. I appreciate it. I'm sure they all do, too. All right, more from Milwaukee right after the break.