By Gary Barg

Gramp was an extraordinarily brave and hard-working man.  In 1925, in Baltimore Harbor, he jumped ship off the Russian freighter to which he was consigned at seventeen.  Later, Gramp made his way to New Jersey where he started a contracting company and raised a family. At the age of 35, when World War II broke out, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy. 

By the early 1950s, he and his brothers owned four hotels on Miami Beach, but in the summer of 2000, he died penniless in a South Florida nursing home.  In only a few short years, our family had spent all of his savings, taking care of him and maintaining his long-term care needs.

Gramp was a craftsman and he firmly believed in using the right tool for the right job.  His old wooden tool kit was a world of wonder for his grandchildren. He never tired of explaining to us how each of the various tools worked and how each was best utilized.

If only Gramp had known before his illness that there was another kind of tool kit which needed to be assembled, a tool kit as important to his success as the old wooden one—a financial tool kit.

Gramp was like most of us.  He knew he needed to prepare for future needs and plan for adversity.  He had much of his financial tool kit filled with stocks and bonds, investment properties, and an up-to-date will.  However, he realized too late that there was a staggering price to himself and his family for neglecting to prepare an appropriate long-term care program.

I have spent much of the last eleven years working to ensure that other caregiving families are not faced with financial ruin. It is easy to face this ruin with the increasing cost of care. As a result, I have worked to help caregivers create a financial tool kit. One of the key tools in that tool kit is long-term care insurance, something every family should consider.

Caregivers understand what steps are needed to safeguard their loved one’s physical and emotional health.  We must now become adept at ensuring our family’s fiscal health.  The lesson taught by the preceding generation and the lessons we should pass on to future generations is that the tool kits you assemble during your lifetime should include all instruments of preparedness.

Proper long-term care planning allows your loved ones financial flexibility and emotional security. 

It truly is the gift of a lifetime.