Business Innovators Radio - Interview with Don Hanifin, Founder of DH Retirement Solutions Discussing Long-Term Care Risk

Episode Date: July 2, 2025

With 29 years of experience in the financial services industry, Don is the founder and owner of DH Retirement Solutions, Inc. Based in Massachusetts and Connecticut, Don specializes in helping individuals and families navigate retirement income planning with a focus on optimizing income and reducing taxes.Don works with clients to create comprehensive strategies that integrate life insurance, annuities, Medicare, and longevity care allocation planning. By taking a proactive approach, Don helps clients secure their financial future, ensuring they enjoy a comfortable and worry-free retirement.A trusted advisor, Don provides personalized solutions that align with each client’s unique goals and financial situation, all while helping them maximize their retirement savings and minimize tax liabilities.Insurance Licensed in MA & CT | Retirement Income Planning ExpertLearn More: http://dhretirementsolutions.com/Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saundershttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/influential-entrepreneurs-with-mike-saunders/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/interview-with-don-hanifin-founder-of-dh-retirement-solutions-discussing-long-term-care-risk

Welcome to influential entrepreneurs, bringing you interviews with elite business leaders and experts, sharing tips and strategies for elevating your business to the next level. Here's your host, Mike Saunders. Hello and welcome to this episode of influential entrepreneurs. This is Mike Saunders, the authority positioning coach. Today we have back with us, Don Hanofin, who's the founder of D.H. Retirement Solutions, and we'll be talking about long-term care risk. Don, welcome back to the program.

Thank you, Mike. Appreciate your having you. You're welcome. So I know that when you think about retirement, one of the risks of retirement is anything that can punch a hole in that bucket and make money leak out, so to speak. And long-term care is one of those. So get us started with how you begin educating your clients on how they should approach long-term care considerations. I will, Mike, thank you. You know, long-term care insurance is probably, and you can almost partially a little bit saying this tongue-in-cheek, blame the government.

It's been mis-messaged. We talk about Medicare, and there's so much confusion about, you know, is Medicare going to cover this? And, of course, it doesn't. Does anybody, have you ever seen a book Medicare and you? I have not. Well, you will. Well, once you get Medicare, everybody gets mailed the book, Medicare and you. I suggest to people that attend seminars, and we're talking about Medicare or Social Security,

keep that book by your bedside. It is nature's most powerful natural sleeping pill. I will say one thing, though, about that. In 2025, and the reason I'm talking about that is Medicare changed the definition of long-term care. and I was recently on a call, I'm certified in long-term care with a national call with those of us that are CLTCs, and I brought that to the attention of the group, and nobody caught it. In the past, in fact, every year up to 2024, long-term care was called chronic. So Medicare was not going to cover for something when you became chronic.

They've changed that name now to non-medical. long-term care, which is beginning to broaden your exposure to this. So just with that little preface, I wanted to just get into talking about long-term care. Now we're talking about non-medical long-term care. And where can you receive it? Well, you're going to receive it at home, typically to begin with. You may graduate to an independent living community to assist a living when you need more help. And finally, lastly, hopefully never, is a nursing home. People in general have very little knowledge what all this means.

They haven't been really conditioned to think about this carefully. You know, it's funny, if I were to ask people, what's your strategy if a tree falls on your garage and destroys both the garage and your car? Most people would answer, well, I'd get on the phone with my insurance agent and transfer the majority of that cost to him, to the insurance. right? But if I ask a person, what's their strategy for an extended health condition, like Alzheimer's? They almost always have no strategy at all, but insist, well, no matter what, I'm not going to a nursing home. This may not be something that you can navigate,

depending upon your condition or your support group. So sometimes I ask people to solve a riddle. what does a flat tire on your car and long-term care have in common? Well, the answer is you won't find either one on your calendar. That is your day, and it's going to be an ambush, and you have to deal with it with whatever resources you have. So let's talk about the actual financial exposure in long-term care. Well, in the case of long-term care, there can be things, that force a lifestyle that can devastate household finances.

Some examples. And I just chose Connecticut, just Hartford County, Central Connecticut. Connecticut is an expensive state to get your care in. Some examples. Home care, $5,500 a month, adult daycare. You know, you might have a child that's helping you, but they can't not go to work, so they'll drop. you off at adult daycare, that could run into $900 to $2,000 a month.

Assisted living, when you really can't stay home anymore. Assisted living is sought after because help, is it in your face? It's down the hall if you need it. But we're in the $5,000 to $6,000 a month there. And of course, nursing home is when it all falls apart. Nursing home, you're talking between, actually between $13,000 and up to $20,000 a month of work here. It makes pretty quick work out of a lifetime of savings. Wow. I would venture to say that many people would think, oh, that won't happen to me.

Or, well, I could cover the cost, but this is probably not that much. But those numbers you were throwing out just as examples are pretty staggering. And like the example you gave about the tree falling on the house in the car, you call your insurance company and say, come. you know, handle this claim. Do people have insurance policies to cover these costs? Because you said Medicare doesn't cover it. Typically, no. Actually, this less than, well, actually just over 3% of Americans have long-term care insurance.

And I think we're going to see some major changes in that. But I just want to talk about how this whole thing starts in the event that you, something happens and you have to participate. unwillingly in long-term care. It's going to start with informal care from family members usually. And this is very expensive, Mike. According to the RAND Corporation, family caregivers lose over $500 billion in wages annually, which is especially true for women, caring for a parent.

And according to AARP, I'm just not going to fill this full of too many things here, but these I think are eye-opening statistics. according to AARP in 2021, informal caregivers actually spend just under $7,500 of their own money, helping to care for a loved one. So let me tell you something that happens to me, because I have helped hundreds and hundreds of people with Medicare. As the years go by, I'm talking to them about this fork in the road, about where Medicare, is going to stop. Okay?

And should we be discussing a strategy to help you stay home, to, you know, to help relieve the stress on your family members? And it's always, you know, we kind of want to kick the can down the road and let's do that next year. And then something happens. It's the ambush. And Mike, I've got the adult children calling me and literally saying, you know, Don, you've been helping my parents with their Medicare for years.

What were you thinking? What happened? And how do we miss this? And it's all because of that boring book, Medicare and you. One page is about long-term care and the rest of it is about Medicare. And the same thing goes for just health insurance through work, too. It's not going to pay for long-term care. Yeah.

Now, talk about something that's kind of coming right up to the top of this, though, right now that I just wanted to give kind of an observation. there was a study recently done by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. It's a February 2025 study. And they said based upon the people interviewed and participating in the study, 61% of people said they would spend their money down and qualify for Medicaid. We'll talk about Medicaid in a second. And the only two bullet points I wanted to talk about that was, one and the other said that 31% said that they would use their home equity to manage health care

and long-term care costs. And of course, that leads to less of an inheritance for their children, too. Yeah. Right. So, you know, it's important to talk about Medicaid. I don't think any of us can look at what's going on right now in the country. Let's not go political. We're just keeping it math.

It's just conversational right now. Medicaid is in trouble. National debt is on course to bankrupt our country if we don't stop printing money and kind of kicking the can down the road. Mike, have you ever heard of the term of filial law? No. You know, filial laws are actually in place that require adult children to be financially supportive of their indigent parents. These laws, they vary by state, but generally obligate children to provide their parents' basic needs such as food, housing, and medical care if the parents are unable to do so themselves. Like, the filial laws are already in 29 states in Puerto Rico.

Nobody knows about it, but I would ask you a question. Something's happening right now. It's kind of like the perfect storm. we're about to witness the largest transfer of wealth in the country's history. From the baby boomers to the next generation, between $85 and $125 trillion is going to be moved over to the next generation. Let me ask you a question. What do you think is going to happen? What's the government got on its mind knowing that Medicaid is stretched to the limits? we simply can't keep augmenting it.

And people are thinking they're going to take their money, basically try to shelter it legally, and go on Medicaid. Can you see an argument forming there with the government? Yeah, I can see some changes coming if that were to take place, huh? Yeah, so I just, I don't threaten people with this. It's just kind of like holding on a roadmap and saying from here to there requires a gallon of gas. How much is in your tank?

Right. And if you don't know, no crime's been committed, but don't start out on the trip until you figure out. So our clients prepared to cover these costs. I don't think that they are, Mike. I think it's kind of sad, unfortunately, that we're not able to kind of round that corner. And maybe even long-term care might,

even be a little bit villainized. People don't want to talk about it. And it's unfortunate, too, because I think one of the biggest confusing things is people say to me, well, I'm not going to pay into that long-term care insurance policy if I never use it. Okay. Well, look, I usually will come back to them and say, well,

remember, your car insurance, your homeowner's insurance, I've lived in my home, Mike, for 40 years, and I've never burned it down. What do you think to cash out what my policy is now? Right, right. You can't call the homeowners agent and go, give me my premium of the back. I've never used it.

It's just what we do. Right. It's the same thing. You're not paying into it. You're paying for it. Yeah. Right. That's a good distinction.

So what are some of the other resources people can use to tap into? You mentioned home equity that may or may not be a solution, but what are some of the other resources people? could consider for long-term care. Well, some of the things that, of course, personal investments, one of the things that I did want to talk about, and of course we talk about life insurance cash value. If you have cash value in your life insurance policies, that certainly would be a target for you to pull money out of that.

One thing a lot of people are not aware of is the Pension Protection Act, which took place a little while back in the 90s to afford people that have non-qualified annuities. So that means that it's an annuity that didn't come from a 401K. It's not an IRA, a non-qualified annuity. And in many cases, people have had these things for a number of years, Mike, and they maybe have a basis of $100,000. They could have, you know, $200,000 or more in that annuity. right now. And we asked them, what's the point of that annuity? Well, really, I was just going to leave it

to the kids. How about this? We can take that annuity and we can transfer it without underwriting. So again, nobody cares about your health. We can transfer it without underwriting through a 1035 exchange over to a PPA, that's a Pension Protection Act, annuity. And then we can use all, if you get sick, all of the money in that annuity, all of that basis increase, I'm sorry, the basis and the increase is available for your care tax-free. So that can be very helpful for people. Yeah. You know, I think it's so many things that we just don't know that we don't know.

You know, like you've mentioned, this actor, that pension protection, or you could pull it from this. probably if you stopped 100 people on the street, 99.9 would say, I never knew that, heard of that. So it's just being educated on what some of these things can do. You mentioned, you know, tapping into that life insurance policy. If it's set up the right way, that's a great resource. Maybe home equity would be. There's never anything that says you must do it this way.

You must never do it that way. But those are some of the options. And I think that's a great one you just brought up there. Can I mention just a couple more quick here? This is very, very important. Something that's come up of late, you know, traditional coverages for long-term care have had the use it or lose it things. Yeah. Pay into those things for years.

And in some cases, if you never use it, even though you were paying for it, as we just discussed, not into it. Okay, you never got to use it, just like your homeowners. Okay. So they kind of got a bad rap. also and deservedly they got a bad wrap because some of those premiums have gone up too high. So the insurance company has responded now with what's called hybrid policies. And I would like everybody to just hear about this very quickly. A hybrid policy is where you can take monies.

Usually it's a one lump sum that doesn't have to be that goes in and creates a life insurance policy. Now, the life insurance policy can be used for the purposes of death benefit, obviously, okay? But if you need it for long-term care insurance, typically it's there with about twice the value to use for long-term care insurance. So the beauty of these hybrid policies is that if you get sick, then you've got something. And it's formidable. And it will help you receive the care where you want to receive it. And if you never get sick, then as an insurance product, the entire death benefit will pass outside of probate directly to your beneficiaries. So you haven't wasted anything.

That's huge. I love that hybrid concept. And I love the distinction you made between paying for and paying into something. One's a bill. One is almost like an investment kind of a concept where it's like, you know, it's there if you need it. But if you don't, that death benefit will pass on to your heirs through that legacy planning. That's pretty powerful. And, Mike, if I could just finally, just one little short note.

Sure. You know, the insurance companies have also responded with something else. They're called short-term care policies. And I always include these when I'm speaking to older people. I mean, let's face it. Some people didn't do anything about this. And now they're, you know, they're well into their 70s. and long-term care insurance really just can't be entertained.

The budget just couldn't handle it. So I encourage people, you know, a short-term care insurance policy, it doesn't really count as formal long-term care, but honestly, for less than the cost of a car loan, you could have a policy that could help you stay home for four to six months and relieve some of the pressure on your family members. So there are solutions out there. It's just like anything else in life.

If you really want to get the most out of it, it's best to engage with people that are in those circles. Yeah. And statistically, a big percentage of us will need some type of long-term type care. So know it might be possible. Know there's some options. Know that there's some resources. And know that someone like yourself can sit down and just show some options

and guide the process to help. you make that decision. So, Don, this has been really helpful if someone is interested in getting some of those options clarified. What's the best way that they can reach out and connect with you? Well, Mike, they can send me a personal email and you'd send that to Don at dHretirement Solutions.com. And you're also, please feel free to call me personally in my office. My number in the 413 area code is 5, 6,000. 17-15. Excellent.

We will also make sure to put your website link in the show notes so that people can visit your website too. And that's just been really helpful to chat with you again. Today's been a real pleasure to have you on. Thank you so much. Thank you, Mike. You've been listening to Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saunders. To learn more about the resources mentioned on today's show or listen to past episodes, visit www.

www. influential entrepreneurs radio. com.