Many of you may already know that November is Long-Term Care Awareness Month. If you didn’t know that before, now you do. I pulled together a few interesting statistics before we went live today. Roughly 70 to 80 percent of the U.S. population age 65 and older will need some type of long-term care during their lifetime. Interestingly, only about 20 percent of the U.S. population has a long-term care policy.

There are a couple of reasons for this. One is a lack of knowledge. Many brokers are afraid to sell long-term care insurance. I’ll admit that I’m one of them. It can feel overwhelming, and sometimes it feels like Greek to me. I know there is a need, and I know that need has to be addressed. That is exactly why we host trainings like this.

With that said, I would like to introduce our guest today, Brian Shepherd, Regional Account Director for OneAmerica. Brian, thank you very much for taking time out of your day to share with us how OneAmerica approaches proactive planning and enhanced income certainty. The floor is yours.

Thank you, Matt, and thank you to everyone for being here today and taking time to work on your business. I know we have a lot of information to cover, but I want you to keep one thing in mind as we go through this. When you think about long-term care conversations and planning, especially if it feels unfamiliar or intimidating, know that you are not alone. You have incredible resources available to you through Jason, the entire team at URL, and industry experts like myself.

I am a wholesaler with OneAmerica and have been in the long-term care insurance industry for 25 years. Over that time, I have personally produced hundreds of long-term care policies. I am based in the greater Harrisburg, Pennsylvania area, and I have seen firsthand the impact long-term care can have on families and finances.

Today, I want to focus on why proactive planning matters, even if you never sell an insurance product. Helping your clients understand long-term care and how they might handle it is critical. This conversation naturally ties into income planning and retirement lifestyle, because a long-term care event can significantly disrupt even the best-laid plans.

I want you to think about this for a moment. How many of you have experienced a long-term care event in your family, or know a neighbor, friend, or colleague who has? Recently, my own mother passed away at the age of 72 after needing extensive long-term care. That experience had a profound impact on my family and on my ability to work.

If you manage assets, consider this from a business perspective. Long-term care expenses can directly impact assets under management. In the Harrisburg area, long-term care can easily exceed $125,000 per year. Home care is not necessarily cheaper, depending on the number of hours required.

Have your clients had experiences like this? Have you asked them about their story? In my experience, about 80 percent of advisors are not asking these questions. Only about 20 percent lean into conversations about what happens if a long-term care plan is not in place. This is the difference between being proactive and reactive, and unfortunately, our industry is still largely reactive.

You have probably heard clients say things like, “I’ll never need a nursing home,” or “It won’t happen to me.” Others believe insurance is too expensive, that they will self-insure, or that their spouse or children will take care of them. Most of these assumptions don’t hold up when examined closely. Often, these objections are simply ways to avoid an uncomfortable topic.

As clients age, their values change. Early in life, the focus is on saving and growth. As retirement approaches, the focus shifts to income and lifestyle. What matters most later in life is certainty. Market volatility, income stability, and health risks all come into play.

Market risk is a sensitive topic, but it is unavoidable. Historically, bear markets occur roughly every five years. If a client’s portfolio drops by 20 percent, how long will it take to recover? Add longevity to the equation. For a married couple, there is a 72 percent chance that one spouse will live to age 85 or longer. That could mean 20 or more years in retirement, potentially spanning multiple market downturns.

Now add long-term care to the picture. Around the year 2000, Americans were spending about $30 billion annually on long-term care. By 2015, when the first baby boomers turned 65, those costs had increased by 750 percent. By 2019, annual long-term care expenses exceeded $440 billion. Today, more than 32 million baby boomers are aging, and we have not yet seen the first wave reach age 80. The costs will continue to rise and could easily reach a trillion dollars annually.

Statistically, the probability of needing care is high. More importantly, people are living longer. We are no longer part of a “die-out” generation but a “wear-out” generation. The question is not whether clients have assets today, but what those assets will look like at the time care is needed. What will the markets look like? How tax-efficient will income withdrawals be?

Long-term care is fundamentally an income issue, not an asset issue. Once principal is invaded, that is a one-way street. Clients typically hold assets across multiple buckets: qualified accounts, non-qualified accounts, cash, annuities, and insurance. If care is needed, which bucket would they prefer to draw from first? Pre-tax accounts require taxes. Cash is paid at retail cost. Insurance, while not free, can be far more efficient.

Insurance is not designed to make someone rich. It is designed to prevent financial devastation. It provides value, not performance. For example, reallocating a portion of a portfolio can provide a significant pool of tax-free income specifically for long-term care needs, protecting the rest of the assets.

Consider a hypothetical couple, Robert and Susan, in their early 60s. Without a long-term care need, their retirement plan may have an 87 percent probability of success. Introduce a long-term care event, and that probability can drop dramatically, potentially below 50 percent over time.

OneAmerica offers solutions that allow clients to reposition assets to protect the entire portfolio. Funding can come from qualified accounts, non-qualified accounts, cash, annuities, or even existing life insurance that no longer serves its original purpose. The concept is simple: take a small portion of the portfolio to protect the whole.

Using insurance, clients can receive a defined amount of income for care before tapping their own assets. If care is never needed, there is still a death benefit. If care is needed, the benefits are paid tax-free, and some products offer lifetime or unlimited long-term care coverage. There is also cash value and flexibility if circumstances change.

Funding options include single premiums or recurring payments, and premiums are waived during a claim. Joint policies allow couples to share benefits, which adds efficiency and flexibility.

As we look to the future, longevity is increasing, care costs are rising, and market uncertainty remains. Alzheimer’s and dementia account for roughly half of all long-term care claims, with an average life expectancy of eight years after diagnosis. These realities make planning essential.

The key questions for clients are simple. If long-term care is needed, how will it affect their family? How will it be paid for? As advisors, our role is to help clients understand the risks and the options available to them.

OneAmerica stands out through decades of experience, joint coverage options, lifetime benefits, and strong solutions for clients with significant qualified assets. These products offer flexibility, reasonable underwriting, and high value.

With that, I will wrap up the presentation portion. I am happy to answer any questions, whether high-level or product-specific, and I am always available for one-on-one meetings through Jason and the URL team.

Matt, do you have any questions?

Yes, I do. When it comes to being proactive, what is a good way to start this conversation with a client?

I like to think about it in two areas: family and finances. Start with open-ended questions about how a long-term care event might affect their family and whether they have personal experience. Then transition to the financial impact and walk through how care would be paid for. It can be uncomfortable, but it is necessary. Having your own personal story also makes the conversation more authentic and relatable.

That makes a lot of sense. Brian, you’ve opened my eyes to several scenarios today, and I really appreciate your time and insights.

Thank you, Matt, and thank you to everyone for attending. Please feel free to reach out through Jason or the URL team with any questions. I appreciate the opportunity to be here today.