Is There One Place Where I Can Plan for My Family's Long-Term Care?

What Is Long-Term Care Planning?

Long-term care planning is the process of preparing for the help a person may need with daily activities, like bathing, dressing, eating and moving around, as they age or live with a chronic illness or dementia. A complete plan covers when care may be needed, what type of care, what it will cost, how to pay for it, what benefits are available and who will provide it.

Most people think it is only about insurance. It is not. Insurance is one piece of a much bigger picture.

Why Long-Term Care Planning Feels Impossible

Most families do not plan for long-term care. They react to it.

A fall. A new diagnosis. A hospital discharge planner saying there are 48 hours to decide where Mom goes next. Then the searching starts.

One website for costs. Another for Medicaid. A call to the VA. A call to an elder law attorney. A spreadsheet at midnight trying to figure out how long the money will last. Nobody connects the pieces, so the family has to.

And this is not a rare problem. According to the U.S. Administration for Community Living, someone turning 65 today has almost a 70% chance of needing some type of long-term care. Twenty percent will need it for longer than five years. For most families, it is not if. It is when.

The family carries most of it. AARP reports that 63 million Americans are family caregivers, and nearly 1 in 4 provide 40 or more hours of care a week.

So the real question is not whether to plan. It is where to start, and whether one place has all of it.

It does. LTCareNav brings every part of long-term care planning together in one free platform for families.

How to Plan for Long-Term Care in 7 Steps

1. Understand when care may be needed and for how long with the Health Trajectory tool.
2. Identify the right level of care today with the Care Assessment.
3. Compare long-term care costs in your state with Care Costs by State.
4. Find out how long your savings will last with the Affordability Calculator.
5. Explore ways to pay for care and protect assets with Financial Tools.
6. Understand Medicare, Medicaid and VA benefits and support the family caregiver with Caregiver Support.
7. Connect with vetted providers and professionals in the LTCareNav Marketplace.

Where Families Usually Look vs. One Place

What a Complete Long-Term Care Plan Covers

A real long-term care plan answers seven questions. When will care be needed? What kind? What will it cost? Can we afford it? How do we pay for it? What benefits do we qualify for? Who helps? LTCareNav has a tool for every one.

1. When will care be needed, and for how long?

Start with the Health Trajectory tool. It looks at physical health and cognitive function today. Then it projects how care needs may change over time, across home care, assisted living, memory care and skilled nursing.

You get a snapshot of current function, a cognitive picture, a projected trajectory and planning guidance with timing windows. It takes about 5 to 7 minutes. Use it whether you are planning ahead, noticing changes, living with a diagnosis or already receiving care.

Most families plan for today. The trajectory shows you tomorrow.

2. What kind of care does my loved one need right now?

The Care Assessment looks at daily living activities, cognition, medical complexity, caregiver capacity, home safety, finances and preferences. Choose Planning Ahead, Current Care Needs or Urgent Situation. It takes 5 to 8 minutes.

You get a recommended level of care, from aging in place to memory care or skilled nursing. You also get Medicaid eligibility indicators and VA Aid and Attendance flags.

3. How much does long-term care cost in my state?

Costs change a lot depending on where you live, sometimes two to three times. LTCareNav's Care Costs by State page compares all 50 states and Washington, D.C.

National median long-term care costs

Source: the 2025 CareScout Cost of Care Survey, as shown on LTCareNav Care Costs by State. Last updated March 2026. See costs in your state.

4. Can we afford it? How long will the money last?

This is the question that keeps families up at night. The Affordability Calculator answers it in about 5 minutes. You do not need exact dollar amounts.

It shows your care runway: how many months your savings can cover care in your state. It finds your monthly gap between care costs and income. It flags VA, Medicaid and other programs that can stretch your savings. Then it gives you specific next steps.

5. How do we pay for care and protect what we have?

There is no single way to pay for long-term care. Most families use a combination. LTCareNav's Financial Tools suite explains the options in plain language:

• Insurance: long-term care insurance, hybrid life/LTC policies, short-term care insurance, accelerated death benefit riders
• Assets and income: annuities, reverse mortgages (HECM), HSAs, bridge loans, life settlements
• Legal and trust structures: Medicaid asset protection trusts, ladybird deeds, pooled income trusts, Miller trusts, funeral trusts
• Spouse protections: Community Spouse Resource Allowance and spousal income protection
• Planning tools: a Medicaid spend-down planner and a Roth conversion analyzer

Timing matters. Medicaid reviews asset transfers made during a look-back period, which is 60 months in most states, according to CMS. Start early and talk with an elder law attorney before moving assets.

The question is not whether you have enough money. The question is whether you know every option before you spend it.

6. What benefits are available, and who supports the caregiver?

Medicare, Medicaid and veterans benefits are where families get the most confused, and where they leave the most help on the table.

Start with the hard truth. Medicare.gov states that "Medicare doesn't pay for long-term care," including care in a nursing home or in the community. Medicaid is the largest payer of long-term care for people who qualify. Veterans and surviving spouses may qualify for VA Aid and Attendance, which adds monthly payments to a VA pension. LTCareNav has education hubs for Medicare, Medicaid, Veterans Benefits and Caregiver Compensation.

Then there is the person doing the caregiving. Usually a daughter. Usually working. Usually exhausted. The Caregiver Support check-in measures burnout and builds a personal action plan. It covers FMLA, the CARE Act, paid family leave, Medicaid self-directed programs that can pay family caregivers, VA Veteran-Directed Care, respite care and support groups.

Someone has to take care of the caregiver too.

7. Who can actually help us?

Planning only matters if you can act on it. The LTCareNav Marketplace connects families with vetted providers and professionals by ZIP code:

• Home care, assisted living, memory care, nursing homes, adult day and respite care
• Elder law and estate planning attorneys
• Financial planning professionals
• Medicaid and veterans benefit help
• Nonprofits, social services and family support resources
• Senior assistive products

Every provider is vetted. LTCareNav is not a lead list. It is a plan, plus the people who can help carry it out.

Frequently Asked Questions

Start Before the Crisis

Long-term care planning should not mean ten websites, a stack of phone calls and a spreadsheet at midnight.

No family needs every answer on day one. They need a starting point. Pick the question that worries you most and start there:

• Worried about timing? Start with the Health Trajectory.
• Worried about money? Start with the Affordability Calculator.
• Need help right now? Start with the Care Assessment.

Every tool feeds the same plan. Every piece lives in one place. And it is free for families.

LTCareNav provides general educational information, not medical, legal or financial advice. Talk with a qualified professional about your situation.