Should you self-insure, or buy the policy?
A three-year care event in Metro Atlanta can run near $350,000. A five-year cognitive decline can approach $600,000. This 24-page guide gives you the numbers, the care paths, and a four-step framework for deciding which side of that risk you want to carry.
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The numbers
Long-term care planning starts with three numbers
Before you can decide whether your own assets can absorb a care event, you need a realistic sense of two things: how likely care is, and what it would actually cost. The guide builds all three figures from Metro Atlanta market data rather than a national average.
70%
Estimated chance you will need care
Federal estimates suggest someone turning 65 today has roughly a 70% chance of needing some type of long-term care service or support. Most of it is not in a nursing home.
$350,000
Cost of a three-year care event
A physical or medical decline, in today's dollars, before physician services, medications, and therapies. This is the baseline planning scenario in the guide.
$600,000
Cost of a five-year care event
A longer cognitive decline, the harder stress test. Roughly one in nine Americans age 65 and older are living with Alzheimer's disease or another dementia.
Care cost estimates reflect Metro Atlanta market ranges as of July 2026 and are subject to change. Planning ranges are illustrative, not quotes or guarantees.
The framework
Four steps, in order, to an informed answer
The guide is not built to sell you a policy or to talk you out of one. It walks the same sequence an advisor might walk with you.
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1
Estimate a realistic care event
Build the stress test from local cost ranges and real care trajectories rather than a national headline average.
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2
Adjust for time and inflation
At 3% compound inflation, a $350,000 event in today's dollars becomes roughly $732,000 in 25 years. Care costs do not wait for your timeline.
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3
Express the event as a share of net worth
Illustratively, if a care event could consume 15% to 20% of assets, self-insuring may be considered. At 30% to 50%, insurance may warrant careful consideration.
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4
Compare the risk to the premium and your values
Sample policy designs, premiums, and benefit pools are laid out side by side so the tradeoff is visible instead of theoretical.
Protect the people you love, help preserve the assets that matter most.
A stroke, a policy, and the week everything changed
Alice is in her early 70s, has no debt, roughly $1 million in IRAs, and travels whenever she likes. On paper she is exactly the person who could "just self-insure." Then a neighbor noticed she had not walked the dog.
The guide follows what happened next in detail: the elimination period, the Medicare gap, the claim paperwork, and what her family had to fund out of pocket before a single dollar was reimbursed.
"Thank God the neighbor called 911. And thank God she kept that policy."
Paula, Alice's nieceIndividual experience. Outcomes vary.
The contents
What is inside the 24 pages
- What long-term care actually costs PAGE 6
- How care typically unfolds PAGE 8
- Aunt Alice's stroke PAGE 10
- How long-term care insurance works PAGE 13
- From planning targets to policy design PAGE 15
- Simple vs. compound inflation PAGE 17
- Self-insure or buy coverage? PAGE 18
- Key questions before you decide PAGE 21
Policy illustrations in the guide are representative educational examples. They are not recommendations of any carrier or product, and they do not reflect an offer of insurance.
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Next step
Read it first. Then talk it through with someone.
Download the guide and work the four steps against your own numbers. If you would like a second set of eyes on what you find, an advisor can walk through it with you.