Viatical Settlements: A New Way to Nursing Home Private Pay

A viatical settlement is when a person with a terminal illness sells their life insurance policy to a third party in order to obtain immediate funds while they are still living. If you or someone you love is currently facing such a condition, you may want to look into using a viatical settlement to finance a stay in a nursing home facility. This may be especially important if it is a quick-moving, debilitating disease.

Benefits Of A Nursing Home

There are many benefits that staying at a nursing home can provide an individual, both in the early and late stages of their disease.

Before you or your loved one gets too far along in their condition, there will be activities at the home for them to participate in. They will also meet people with the same circumstances and make new friends that they can play cards with, chat with, or take a stroll with who understand their situation.

There will also be many daily tasks that are done for them so that they can sit back, relax, and enjoy their time. For example, they will not have to grocery shop, cook meals, or wash dishes. They will also enjoy amenities such as a garden or walking trail and they can simply enjoy what they have before their condition starts to take hold of their abilities.

As their disease progresses, they will more than likely need to be taken care of full-time. Help with personal activities, such as bathing and dressing, will be necessary. This will require that your loved one be put in a nursing home facility if they have refused up until now or that a private nurse move into their home. Due to the personal nature of the activities that they will need help with, it may be in your loved ones best interest to move into the home before they get too sick. This way they have the opportunity to form a relationship with the staff, instead of relying on strangers for their personal needs, and to make friends so that they will have people around constantly that care about them and are able to visit them daily, which you may be unable to do.

Deciding What Type Of Home You Need And What You Can Afford

When deciding whether to use a viatical settlement for nursing home needs, you may first want to determine if your settlement will be enough to afford the home that you want. For the reasons mentioned above, it may be best to try and get your loved one into a "transition" home, where they can live in an apartment on the facility grounds while they are still healthy enough and then be moved into a room in the main building once they can no longer care for themselves. This may be a more expensive option but, depending on how much you can receive from your loved ones life insurance policy, it may be affordable to you. You may also want to consider what the cost of a private in-home nurse would be if you reside close enough so that you may stop in several times a day. This may be slightly cheaper, or even more costly, than a transition nursing home. Even if your only option in the end is putting your loved one in a home after they can no longer take care of themselves, you can still use your viatical settlement to do so.

The most important part is to contact the doctor to determine, assuming the best, how long your loved one may need to be provided for and then to find out how much you may be able to receive for their policy. You can then use that figure to determine what type of care you can afford.

Making Your Money Stretch

If you need a little help making your viatical settlement stretch, you could consider investing the full amount and withdrawing a little each month as needed to cover expenses. There are many investment options available and it may be best to meet with a financial professional to determine which solution could earn you closest to the amount you need while having the lowest risk of losing any money. Some options include money market accounts, savings accounts, and stocks.

Alternatives To Cashing In A Life Insurance Policy

If you or a loved one have a terminal illness, you may have little other options when it comes to nursing home financing. Paying the costs yourself, especially if you are the one with the illness and will have no way to bring in income, may be completely hopeless. Another alternative is contacting a hospice agency. This is often free or low-cost, however, a nurse may only be able to stop by for a few hours a day when your loved one will need full-time care.

At the end of the day, looking into a viatical settlement may be your only option to receive care and treatment needed without racking up hefty bills. Depending on the amount you can receive for the policy, you may be able to pay for final expenses, pay for nursing home care, and for anything else your loved one needs to make the rest of their time comfortable.