Even as many baby boomers put their financial plans into place, most are ignoring the potentially devastating expenses associated with long-term care, according to a new Lincoln Retirement(SM) Institute (LRI) survey. Take-charge baby boomers are knowingly ignoring the signs of a significant retirement detour. The so-called “overconfidence effect” keeps the baby boomer generation from acknowledging the emotional and financial tolls long-term care challenges can bring.
- Fifty-nine percent of boomers think others should prepare by purchasing insurance for the possibility of needing long-term care, yet only 35 percent say they are using insurance as one of their own preparations.
- When asked what they are doing to prepare themselves for potential long-term care needs, boomers are more likely to say they are focused on such unreliable measures as maintaining a healthy lifestyle (54 percent), investing to get the highest possible return (40 percent) and saving additional money to cover long-term care (39 percent) instead of heeding their own advice to other boomers and purchasing insurance.
