The high cost of long-term care can quickly drain your savings, absorb most of your income, and affect the quality of life for you and your family. Long-term care insurance (LTCI) allows you to share that cost with an insurance company. If you’re concerned about protecting your assets and maintaining your financial independence, LTCI may be right for you.
But LTCI premiums can be expensive, and cash or income needed to cover those premiums may not be readily available. The good news is that there are several tax-free options that can help you pay for LTCI.
Using a Health Savings Account
A health savings account, or HSA, is a tax advantaged savings account tied to a high deductible health insurance plan. An HSA is funded with pretax contributions up to certain annual limits set by the IRS. Any growth inside an HSA is tax deferred, and what you don’t spend in one year can carry over to subsequent years. Just as importantly, withdrawals made from your HSA for qualified medical expenses are tax free.
Tax-qualified LTCI premiums are a qualified medical expense eligible to be paid from HSA funds. The maximum annual premium you can pay tax free is subject to long-term care premium deduction limits.
Convert Taxable Annuity to Tax-Free Long-Term Care Insurance
Generally, withdrawals from a nonqualified deferred annuity (premiums paid with after-tax dollars) are considered to come first from earnings, then from your investment (premiums paid) in the contract. The earnings portion of the withdrawal is treated as income to the annuity owner, subject to ordinary income taxes. IRC Section 1035 allows you to exchange one annuity for another without any immediate tax consequences, as long as certain requirements are met. But, what you may not know is that the Pension Protection Act (PPA) extends the tax-free exchange of annuities for qualified stand-alone LTCI or combination annuity/LTCI policies. This effectively allows you to purchase LTCI with annuity cash values that would otherwise have been taxable to you if withdrawn.
However, there are some potential drawbacks:
- You may incur annuity surrender charges when transferring your annuity.
- Transferring your annuity means you won’t have the potential income the annuity could provide.
- While premiums for qualified LTCI are tax deductible as qualified medical expenses, annuity payments used to pay for long-term care are not tax deductible.
- Not all long-term care policies allow you to pay premiums in a lump sum, so you may have to make partial 1035 exchanges from the annuity to the LTCI company, but not all annuities allow partial 1035 exchanges.
HELPS May Help
Another opportunity to pay for LTCI on a tax-free basis may be available to qualifying retired public safety officers. Part of the Pension Protection Act of 2006, the Healthcare Enhancement for Local Public Safety (HELPS) Retirees Act, allows certain retired public safety officers to make tax-free withdrawals from their retirement plans to help pay for LTCI for themselves and their respective spouses and dependents.
Eligible retired public safety officers include law enforcement officers, firefighters, chaplains, and members of a rescue squad or ambulance crew. Public safety officers must have attained normal retirement age or they must be separated from service due to a disability. HELPS does not extend to 911 operators, dispatchers, and administrative personnel. In addition, if an eligible participant dies, the exclusion from tax for withdrawals does not extend to surviving spouses or other beneficiaries of the participant’s retirement plan.
Eligible government retirement plans include qualified trusts, Section 403(a) plans, Section 403(b) annuities, and Section 457(b) plans. Up to $3,000 per year may be withdrawn on a pretax basis, and the money must be paid directly from the retirement plan to the LTCI company. However, not all retirement plans may allow for these withdrawals, and some state laws may not allow the tax-free treatment of distributions.
HSAs, the PPA, and the HELPS Act have opened the door to long-term care coverage for people who might otherwise have a hard time affording it. Your financial professional may be able to provide more information on these and other ways to help you plan for the potentially high cost of long-term care.
If you have questions or need assistance, contact the Experts at Henssler Financial: experts@henssler.com or 770-429-9166.
Disclosures
The following information is reprinted with permission from Forefield, a division of Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. This article is meant to provide valuable background information on particular investments, NOT a recommendation to buy. The investments referenced within this article may currently be traded by Henssler Financial. All material presented is compiled from sources believed to be reliable and current, but accuracy cannot be guaranteed. The contents are intended for general information purposes only. Information provided should not be the sole basis in making any decisions and is not intended to replace the advice of a qualified professional, such as a tax consultant, insurance adviser or attorney. Although this material is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information with respect to the subject matter, it may not apply in all situations. Readers are urged to consult with their adviser concerning specific situations and questions. This is not to be construed as an offer to buy or sell any financial instruments. It is not our intention to state, indicate or imply in any manner that current or past results are indicative of future profitability or expectations. As with all investments, there are associated inherent risks. Please obtain and review all financial material carefully before investing. Henssler is not licensed to offer or sell insurance products, and this overview is not to be construed as an offer to purchase any insurance products.
