Many older U.S. consumers would rather not finance a long term care (LTC) plan at all, but others would prefer to have LTC arrangements squared away before they reach age 65.
The Wellesley, Mass.-based arm of Sun Life Financial Inc. (TSX:SLF) came up with data supporting that idea recently when it commissioned a survey of 1,015 U.S. residents ages 50 and older, including 401 with at least $500,000 in investable assets.
Sun Life found that only about half of the survey participants said they worry about LTC costs, but they also found that only 16% of the participants feel they are financially prepared to pay for long term care.
Recommended For You
Participants also were asked about when they think consumers should have LTC financing arranged.
About 33% of the participants with more than $500,000 in investable assets said they already have made LTC financing arrangements.
When Sun Life looked at the 269 high-asset participants with no LTC arrangements, it found that 46% of those participants said they do not think they should ever long term care financed.
The pollsters found 145 high-asset participants who have not yet made LTC financing arrangements but eventually want to do so.
About 58% of those participants said they think they should have their LTC plans financed by age 65 or later – but 42% said they would like to have LTC plans financed by age 64, and 7.6% said they really think they should have had their LTC plans financed before they turned age 50.
© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
Allison Bell
Allison Bell, a senior reporter at ThinkAdvisor and BenefitsPRO, previously was an associate editor at National Underwriter Life & Health. She has a bachelor's degree in economics from Washington University in St. Louis and a master's degree in journalism from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. She can be reached through X at @Think_Allison.
