Later life care is a topic that many find difficult to talk about but is one that should be addressed as your clients approach retirement age, or even before, writes Alice Watson from Canada Life.
Later life care is a topic that many find difficult to talk about but is one that should be addressed as your clients approach retirement age – or even before.
Speaking about the subject can be emotionally overwhelming, however we should encourage people to think about how their financial assets can benefit them at different stages of their retirement. How do your clients know if they, or a loved one, might need care in their later years? They simply don’t, and although later life care is something they may never need, that doesn’t mean that having a plan in place isn’t important.
Just over a quarter of over 60s say they have thought about planning for later life care
In new research we have conducted, we found that only 28% of over 60s say they have thought about planning for later life care – a figure that drops to 23% among those aged 60 to 69 years old.
Among the 28% of over 60s who’ve thought about later life care, 49% say they have discussed this with family members. More than a quarter (27%) are actively engaging in long-term care planning, which involves setting up savings and/or insurance strategies to ensure that they have long-term care in place should they ever need it.
There are several factors that could be impacting the number of over 60s planning later life care. These include putting it off because it is emotionally overwhelming, because of financial anxiety or the perceived cost, which is generally higher than expected.
Our research found that 11% of over 60s are currently caring for a family member. On average, those who are currently caring for people expected the cost to be just over £1,100 a month. However, they’ve found the average actual cost of care is over £1,600.
Ensuring that your clients have considered the subject and are fully aware of the cost implications of later life care could be the key to helping them prepare for any eventuality when it comes to later life care.
Find out how a Canada Life lifetime or buy-to-let mortgage can help support your clients through their retirement journey here.
Research source: Opinium study conducted on behalf of Canada Life with 2000 UK adults between 20 – 24 May 2022
- The views of contributors are not necessarily those of the Council.
