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Strong Links to a Healthy Life All Around Us
Tweet Share on Facebook February 27, 2013 CommentWhen you come to an intersection, you probably walk when the light is green or the signal icon tells you it's OK to cross. You do not need a multi-year research study to tell you how to proceed. Not so with science-based behaviors. Here, we would need to study years of people walking across the street, controlling for ambient light, traffic density and patterns, weather conditions, color patterns in pedestrian clothing, eyesight, and a number of other factors. If we had been waiting to cross that street we would, in all likelihood, have expired long ago.
So it is with the research findings called "startling" about the health benefits of Mediterranean diets, just published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Fresh fruits and vegetables, lots of fish, olive oil, and nuts, and healthy wine consumption were linked to big reductions in heart attacks, strokes, and deaths. These are not marginal benefits at the edge of healthy behaviors. They are the big ones.
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How to Develop Effective End-of-Life Plans
Tweet Share on Facebook February 26, 2013 CommentRetaining control over life decisions and maintaining dignity as the end of life approaches are top priorities for nearly everyone. These objectives can be achieved by good planning and the preparation of the proper directives under your state's laws. These safeguards have been greatly improved in many states in recent years. Still, experts say, few seniors have the right tools to make sure their end-of-life wishes are followed by family members and caregivers.
People often think of such matters only when they or a family member are seriously ill. But if a stroke, dementia, or another incapacitating event occurs, it may be too late. If people cannot make decisions for themselves and do not have directives or a power of attorney in place, decisions may be made for them that they would never have agreed with if they had been able to decide.
Michael A. Kirtland, an elder care attorney in Colorado Springs, Colo., says there are two ways to make sure your final wishes are followed: one is through legal documents, and the second is by communicating your wishes to anyone who might be involved in carrying out those wishes should you become incapacitated.
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How to Use Expanded Free Senior Health Services
Tweet Share on Facebook February 22, 2013 CommentSeniors are slowly taking advantage of the greatly expanded menu of free preventive health screenings and tests provided under Obamacare. Many of the procedures do not require a co-pay and are not subject to any insurance deductibles. Ideally, they should be part of an ongoing wellness plan that you and your physician develop.
Under the rules, for example, a free yearly wellness exam is available from doctors who participate in Medicare. This visit, in turn, can be used to build a year-long wellness plan with your primary physician. Most Medicare beneficiaries have some form of supplemental coverage beyond basic Medicare. They should check with their insurers for other wellness provisions provided under their policies.
The wellness exam supplements a one-time "welcome to Medicare" exam that is free to people who get it within their first 12 months of Medicare coverage. This welcome exam has no co-pay and is totally free.
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What You Need to Know About Long-Term Care Insurance
Tweet Share on Facebook February 20, 2013 CommentLong-term care insurance may or may not be the right choice for you. But it remains the only protection against potentially devastating later-life health expenses should you or a loved one be unable to perform common activities such as eating, dressing yourself, using the bathroom, and other so-called "activities of daily living" (ADLs).
Without insurance, you have two choices for financial planning: fund your own expenses out of your personal assets, which amounts to self-insuring, or spend down most, if not all, of your assets and then qualify for Medicaid. With no intended slight to Medicaid, an invaluable program that helps millions of Americans, its level of benefits does not exactly support a Club Med user experience. (And, no, Medicare does not pay long-term care expenses.)
There was voluntary long-term care insurance included in Obamacare, known as the CLASS program. Although enacted into law, CLASS never got off the drawing board. Its structure—voluntary participation and modest benefits—would not have attracted many users, and those it did attract would have overwhelmingly been sicker and very likely to have long-term care (LTC) expenses. The recent tax bill compromise included the creation of yet another long-term care commission but there is no insurance alternative to private policies on the horizon.
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What You Need to Know About Long-Term Care
Tweet Share on Facebook February 19, 2013 CommentHealthcare expenses are the largest financial wildcard of later-life retirement spending. We simply don't know how much we may need to spend. On average, a 65-year-old couple will face out-of-pocket healthcare spending needs of more than $250,000 during the rest of their lives. But this is only an average. The couple's bill could easily be $500,000 or even $1 million.
If healthcare is the big spending unknown in retirement, then the expense for long-term care is often the largest slice of this scary pie chart. Here, too, we simply don't know if we'll need long-term care or how extensive and costly it may be.
The "big" sobering statistic about long-term care is that 70 percent of us will require an extended period of long-term care at some point in our lives. That figure is so large you'd think all of us would include a big hunk of care expenses in our retirement spending plans. But, of course, we don't. Setting aside money for even the things we're sure we'll need is hard enough. Building a big rainy-day healthcare fund is simply out of the question for most of us.
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Can Technology Reinvent How We Care for Seniors?
Tweet Share on Facebook February 15, 2013 CommentAs America ages, figuring out effective ways to take care of more and more seniors in their homes is a growing challenge. By a 9-to-1 ratio, people prefer to stay in their homes as they get older rather than moving into an institution. So-called "aging in place" can also be cheaper than being in a nursing home or assisted-living facility. With these compelling reasons to find better home care solutions, it is only a matter of time before technology-driven solutions emerge.
Tom Knox thinks he's already come up with one. His new company, CareFamily, is a national Internet-based matchmaker based in Virginia that puts families in touch with caregivers throughout the country who have registered with CareFamily. Since opening the site last year, more than 46,000 caregivers have registered.
They complete information forms, providing biographical and caregiving experience, any healthcare certifications, contact information, their preferred compensation, and a description of the kind of caregiving jobs they want.
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What's Your Social Security Break-Even Age?
Tweet Share on Facebook February 13, 2013 CommentDeciding at what age to claim Social Security benefits may be the single most important retirement money decision of your life. Claim too early, and you lock in a lifetime of monthly payments that may be far lower than if you wait. Claim too late, and you may spend years living on an austere budget that saps you and your quality of life. Waiting to claim can also leave a lot of money on the table—your money—should you die in your 60s or even 70s.
Doug Lemons, a retired Social Security Administration executive, produced a comparative analysis for the Journal of Financial Planning of three different ages at which many people consider taking Social Security. These are:
1. Age 62, the earliest age people can claim benefits
2. Age 66, known as "full retirement age" for people born between 1943 and 1954
3. Age 70, the claiming age at which people become entitled to their maximum monthly Social Security payments. Waiting longer does not increase payments.
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Rising 401(k) Balances Helping Retirements Recover
Tweet Share on Facebook February 12, 2013 CommentBalances in 401(k) accounts are much, much larger among those who have been regular retirement-plan participants in recent years, continuing the recovery from the stock market plunge of 2007.
Jack VanDerhei, research director for the Employee Benefits Research Institute (EBRI), conducted a review for U.S. News of the savings behaviors of the 20 million account holders it tracks for research purposes. EBRI looked for account holders with active 401(k)s at the end of 2009 who have continued to contribute to their plans. It then measured the percentage changes in this group's average account balances during the two years ending in December 2012. The average gain during this period for all continuously active plan participants was 56 percent.
[Read: An Innovative Way to Face Retirement.]
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6 Realities of the 'New Normal' for Seniors
Tweet Share on Facebook February 11, 2013 CommentWhen President Obama gives the State of the Union address Tuesday, it will doubtless be filled with aspirational calls to improve lives in the United States and throughout the world. It will call for action on many fronts. It will positively frame great opportunities for the country and its citizens.
What it won't do is change the increasingly clear picture of where the country and its people are headed. After a tough recession and an unsatisfying, long recovery that is still far from over, the nation seems set on a course whose direction has been set. In many ways, the future we will face will not be surprising. Here are six realities for seniors:
1. Working. Nearly a third of men and women between ages 65 and 69 are still in the U.S. workforce. The percentage will rise, as will the shares of even older people who are still drawing down or seeking regular paychecks. There is no way this can happen without changing the nature of some types of work. It will trigger new and not always welcome changes in how older employees are regarded. But along with the steadily rising share of seniors in the general population, the aging workplace will force society to adapt. Seniors will at once be more accepted and not so special.
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401(k) Plan Trustee Conflicts Alleged
Tweet Share on Facebook February 8, 2013 CommentIf you have money in a 401(k) plan, it's unlikely you know the plan has trustees, let alone who they are and who they work for. You should, because their presence might well be costing you money. According to a new study, 401(k) plans favor mutual funds in some cases where plan trustees are affiliated with those mutual funds. Sometimes, the study says, the inclusion of these funds in the plan costs investors money. Other 401(k) plans with trustees who were not affiliated with mutual fund companies did not exhibit similar favoritism.
The study, by academics at Indiana University and the University of Texas, claims to be the first to look at the conflicting roles of 401(k) plan trustees who are affiliated with mutual fund companies. Trustees are appointed by the employers who sponsor the plan. Many of them are affiliated with the mutual fund companies whose funds are offered in the 401(k) plan they help oversee. Federal law says they are supposed to put the interests of employee investors first.
