Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saunders, MBA - Interview with Sean Vazquez, Founder of PMV Financial Discussing Long-Term Care

Episode Date: May 21, 2026

Sean has been in the Financial Advisory field for over 13 years. He has specialized in working with school district staff on educating them on how exactly their CalSTRs and CalPERS actually work, and their options to close the pay gap in their pension. He has enjoyed educating clients on how to maximize their pension as well as introducing them to tax-free alternatives. I have also worked with small businesses, Buy-Sell agreement options, and other opportunities for businesses to protect their interest as well as ways to retain their key employees.Sean continues to educate myself to make sure that he’s up to date with new products and services that will benefit his clients.Adding Long Term Care plans recently to their scope of service has been beneficial to many of the clients, and he sees it as an underserved market that will have a huge impact on their clients’ estates, taxes, and even dignity. Sean loves what he does and has a passion to serve.Learn more: https://pmvfinancial.com/Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saundershttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/influential-entrepreneurs-with-mike-saunders/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/interview-with-sean-vazquez-founder-of-pmv-financial-discussing-long-term-care

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 Ashaun Vasquez, who's the founder of PMV Financial and we'll be talking about long-term care and unforeseen circumstances. Sean, welcome back to the program. Thank you, Mike. Hey, so I know that long-term care in unforeseen circumstances might be a couple of, you know, a red flag kind of terms because we don't like unforeseen anything.

We like to be able to plan things out, but sometimes life isn't that, you know, polished up and dialed in. So let's talk a little bit about long-term care. Why is it important to have a plan for long-term care, even if you don't think you'll need it. it because I have a feeling that there's some people out there that'll be like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm good. Well, you're good until you're not. Yeah, so having a long-term care plan, right, it actually protects your assets by covering the potential high cost of care that we don't see coming or, you know, long-term care.

A lot of times we hear people, they wish it was short-term care because the longer it goes, the more it depletes their assets if they don't have something in place. and so, yeah, having something in place, it's leveraging what you're going to be paying for that type of care. And what we know right now, I think the two biggest things that will cost retirees to go into bankruptcy are taxes and health care costs due to long-term care. So it's really important to make sure that something is in place to leverage what you might know. need should you not be fortunate enough to, you know, pass suddenly in your sleep, you know. Yeah. And it's kind of like, like what you're saying there, it can be quite expensive.

And if it's unforeseen, you might not have factored in that large expense into your retirement plan. So now here comes a big chunk out of that. And now you're sitting there going, wow, long term care might actually be long, right? Longer. It's not short term care. It's long-term care for a reason. So talk a little bit about statistically, what's the chance that that actually might be a need for people?

Well, I think statistically, last time I checked, the number was like about 70% of people are going to need long-term care. Wow. Two percent are actually prepared for long-term care. Wow. And so it's really become, I think, a hot topic for us. I think I'm not sure if it has to do with the baby boomers or. or turning 65, a lot of these people that were talking to, they're either right now dealing with long-term care and the cost of that

and not having a plan in place, or they've just finished, you know, bearing their parent or their loved one that had to have long-term care. And the devastation it left as far as depleting their assets, you know, having to sell a home, going into their savings, just so that they can afford adequate care and still give their loved ones dignity, you know,

not just throw them in a closet and get a robicussing, right? So it's very, very, very important. It's become a hot topic. And I think it is due to that. I think we're talking to a lot of people in the 60s and their parents are probably in their 80s. And that's about the time that that care is going to be needed. You know, and I love that. contrast that you mentioned about 70% of people will need it about 2% are ready for it.

That's a big contrast there. And I feel like people don't really even understand the full magnitude of what that could be. So let's dive in a little bit deeper on what actually long-term care looks like because there's levels of long-term care. You might be at the lowest level and you might be at the highest level where you need dementia mental care as well and full-time. So there's some different levels. but talk a little bit about the potential financial cost because if you're a part of that 2% that

haven't planned for that and you need some type of long-term care for yourself or a parent, it could really be staggering cost. Yeah, so we, matter of fact, we just had a consultation with a couple. And so when we're looking at the cost of long-term care for your lowest cost like in-home care, maybe something coming in for a couple hours can be anywhere between like two to five thousand dollars depending on how long you're there but if you need memory care you need to be placed into a nursing facility here in california that can run up to almost twenty thousand dollars a month good night yeah that is crazy i'm telling you mike sometimes that will not only

you know give you a heart attack but probably Tourette's on the way down you know I mean, I've actually heard some people say, you know, in the 10,000 range, which is staggering, 10 to 20,000 a month. And let's tie that back to the topic of what we're talking about, long term care. Correct. Like this is not like, oh, I think I can handle 20,000 for two months. We're talking. It could go on and on and on. Yep.

So we talked to, they were two and a half years. in care. Good night. And no matter what the amount, 10,000 a month, 8,000, 7, 20, whatever that is, it's just staggering to think multiple months. Yes, it started out at about $3,000 of care per month. The last year was over eight because as they declined, they needed more services. They eventually needed to go into a home. They couldn't afford. That was another thing. They were left to, in a home that they were not happy with because that was the amount that they can afford. Yeah. So let's talk a little bit about, okay, this is, we've set the stage.

This could be a big thing that people have been planned for and be expensive and impact your retirement because even if you could weather those numbers for that period of time, now all of a sudden it's like, well, what's left for you in your retirement? And now that might be paltry. So back in the day, you used to be able to buy, you know, like a standalone long-term care policy. and it was expensive. And it was kind of like your car insurance. Like you pay it, pay it, pay it.

If you didn't have a wreck, you're not going to call up Allstate and say, oh, I didn't wreck my car last year. Give me all my premiums back. It's there because it's insurance. So those kind of policies back in the day were expensive. And if you didn't use it, those premiums were gone. Talk a little bit about some of the solutions today that can help people out,

which in the process protect assets, provide security and all of that. But if you need it, it's there. If you don't, you know, it didn't cost you, you know, money because it's within, you know, some of these special financial packages. Yeah. This is actually pretty exciting news, right? For people who are looking at having that conversation about long-term care and if they know anything about the old policies.

Old policies, like you said, if you don't use it, you lose it. The older you get, the longer you have it, the more expensive it becomes. And so you're, you're, if something has it. happens all of a sudden it's gone. Now we deal a lot with these companies that have what's called asset-based long-term care plan. So whether it's on a, let's say, an annuity chassis or a life insurance chassis, you're able to have this policy that you're paying into that actually accumulates cash value. Right. So as that cash value accumulates, so does your basis for care. And so the good thing about that is if you have this a long time,

and let's say you're in a certain policy depending on the company and your underwriting, and it'll give you three times more what you've put in. Some of these will do up to like 314% of your cash value. And let's say you pass all of a sudden. The beauty of it is all that accumulation and everything that you put into there is left to a beneficiary that bypasses probate. Okay. Wow. Okay. So there really are, these companies are really starting to understand the need that's out there.

I mean, we even have, you have some life insurance policies that will have certain riders in there that will cover ADLs, right? So it just depends on, again, how young you are, if you can pass underwriting, that's going to be a big thing. We do have some that are guaranteed approved. But, you know, again, it's a way to leverage your long-term care. And I don't care what spectrum. If you're a high earner, a medium-income earner, what have you, there's plans that will fit your budget and will make sense for you so that you want to have that long-term care capability,

but if you don't use it, you're not losing any of the money that's in there. It's going to go to a benefit. That's so powerful. If it's needed, it's there. If it's not, it passes on as cash value to your heirs. So it's serving a dual purpose. That just is another aspect of peace of mind. And there's a couple things that pop into my mind.

Like, talk a little bit about the flexibility if you have this type of plan that you're talking about. Like you mentioned, like the quality of care. And I think we've all heard the horror stories on news where you go into some of these facilities and people are being not treated the best way. Are some, are, if you have one of these, these, uh, writers for long-term care, is there the availability to choose where you go or to get care in your home or to choose your own caregiver? What are some of those options?

Yeah. So those options will depend again on the carrier and what kind of plan you have. We like the, the ones that are indemnified, which actually pay you if they don't, they don't go to the, uh, nursing facility. and let's say you only need in-home care and you can't perform two of the six living functions or something of that nature. And it's flexible because, you know,

that money comes to you. And also those, the benefit is tax-free. Keep in mind, okay? So the benefit that goes to that whatever you're taking out for that care is tax-free. So it really just depends on how you have things set up. Again, it's not too much cookie cutter. where one size fits all.

It's all dependent on the plan you have when you get those plans and how you can qualify because some of them still have some underwriting to them. They want to make sure that you don't put it in place. And the next week, you're like, oh, man, I need $8,000 a month, right, for whatever. So this is still a very strategic way to segment a portion of your hard-earned assets that you save. and give it purpose, right? It's still part of those, those that I guess the, the stool approach, a three-legged stool approach, right? We want income, we want security, and we want to have something else that's long-term care plan. We want to make sure that we have these things

in place so that when the time comes, if we need any of those, they're there. You know, you mentioned that there's the aspect of you have to qualify, which makes total sense. let's flip it around and talk about how would, you know, like you mentioned, some of your clients you're working with are in their 60s, helping their parents that are in their 80s that might need the long-term care. How do you and your client assess the credibility of some of these carriers to make sure that the carrier or the policy or the aspects there are going to be the best benefit? Because, yeah, you need to qualify for it. But, you know, if you get a quick yes, you might need to assess their credibility as well. Yeah, so, you know, each carrier is rated. We only deal with A-rated companies.

There's a reason for that. And so by the time, because they're going to have the backing and the money to make sure that when you file a claim, they're not trying to fight to you for that claim. It's a smooth process. It's done. They have the assets that are there. And they have put things in place to make sure that they are. They're going to be there when you need them. That's huge.

And then when you start looking at some of these companies and you look at their ratings and online and all the different things like that, at that point, you're like, okay, I can, you know, move forward and all of these things are in place and it gives me the freedom and the flexibility. And if I, you know, and part of that 70% that might need some form of long term care, now I'm not part of the 2% that didn't plan. I'm part of the 98% you know, that or the 2% that didn't. and planning. I'm part of the better percentage.

So it just makes you feel good. It just gives you that peace of mind there to know that it's there if you need it. If you don't, you're not wasting your money. And just like I know that crosses people's minds, oh yeah, this is a big thing. Let me just go Google and pick the best. It's really not something that you can go click, click by. It's not like, would you like the blue pin or the red pen? It's something that takes a lot of decisions and it's all also based on your own circumstances. So talk a little bit about as we wrap up here, working with someone like yourself, the benefit of having someone that knows the process that can guide you through properly. Yeah. So I think one of the things is that we have access to quite a few very reputable

carriers that do this. So they all have their specialties on how much they, what their benefit is, their ratio, you know, whether it's just 100% guaranteed issue. Let's say we, We have someone who they have a lot of health problems, right? And they're not going to pass underwriting. While there's carriers that will give them guaranteed issue, but it's going to be 100% of what they put in. So you're really kind of segmenting a certain amount of money that you have that's going to go and be designated to long-term care.

And it'll grow, right? The assets are going to grow on things of the hand-trane. So we have that victory deal. There's other ones that are a little bit stronger. benefit, a higher benefit, they're going to be a little bit more inclined to have a underwriting that's a little bit more strict. And again, so it just depends, again, on their health, their finances, what they have available, making sure that we have a bird's eye view of everything else that is, that they've

earned and what they have access to and how we can structure these things to make sure that it's it's adequate for their needs. Right. So it just, it has to be, I'm sorry if I'm not articulating this correctly, but again, it's, it's not a cookie cutter. It's just one of those, it's just one of those areas where you really need to have someone who knows the product, who can explain the product to you, explain the benefits, how they work.

Yeah. Because you have some that are indentified and you have some that are going to be paid directly to the facility, right? So it just depends, again, on how you want these things structure, how much control you want over where that person's going and what you're going to be paying to them. I love it. Well, if someone is interested in having you enlighten them, clarify some of their questions, what's the best way that they can connect with you? Yeah, you can visit me at my website at pmvfinancial.com or send me an email at shan at pmv.com. financial.

Sean, thank you so much for coming back on. It's been a real pleasure chatting with you. Thank you, Mike. Appreciate it. 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.

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