Women's Money Wisdom

Episode 307: Long-Term Care Planning: Why Waiting Too Long Can Cost You

• Melissa Joy, CFP® • Season 1 • Episode 307

Share episode

Long-term care is one of the most personal topics in financial planning, and also one of the most frequently avoided.

Melissa Joy, CFP®, is joined by Pearl Planning colleague Alexa Kane, CFP®, to unpack how families can think about care earlier and more realistically.

This conversation goes beyond nursing homes to explore in-home care, assisted living, and memory care, along with the emotional and financial realities families face when care is needed. Melissa and Alexa explain why long-term care planning often affects women more heavily, why waiting until later in life can limit options, and how today’s long-term care solutions differ from the policies many people remember from past generations.

Rather than assuming insurance is the answer for everyone, they walk through how Pearl Planning approaches long-term care thoughtfully, weighing costs, health considerations, family dynamics, and alternatives. The discussion also highlights what modern hybrid policies are designed to do, how underwriting works, and what options exist for those who cannot or choose not to pursue insurance.

Key takeaways include:

  • Why long-term care planning is often a bigger issue for women
  • How rising care costs can impact retirement plans and family decisions
  • The importance of starting the conversation earlier than most people expect
  • The difference between traditional long-term care insurance and newer hybrid options
  • Practical alternatives to insurance, including self-funding and housing-based strategies

This episode offers a calm, realistic framework for approaching a difficult topic and encourages listeners to plan ahead before long-term care becomes an urgent decision.

The previous presentation by PEARL PLANNING was intended for general information purposes only. No portion of the presentation serves as the receipt of, or as a substitute for, personalized investment advice from PEARL PLANNING or any other investment professional of your choosing. Different types of investments involve varying degrees of risk, and it should not be assumed that future performance of any specific investment or investment strategy, or any non-investment related or planning services, discussion or content, will be profitable, be suitable for your portfolio or individual situation, or prove successful. Neither PEARL PLANNING’s investment adviser registration status, nor any amount of prior experience or success, should be construed that a certain level of results or satisfaction will be achieved if PEARL PLANNING is engaged, or continues to be engaged, to provide investment advisory services. PEARL PLANNING is neither a law firm nor accounting firm, and no portion of its services should be construed as legal or accounting advice. No portion of the video content should be construed by a client or prospective client as a guarantee that he/she will experience a certain level of results if PEARL PLANNING is engaged, or continues to be engaged, to provide investment advisory services. A copy of PEARL PLANNING’s current written disclosure Brochure discussing our advisory services and fees is available upon request or at https:...

SPEAKER_01:

Welcome to the Women's Money Wisdom Podcast. I'm Melissa Joy, a certified financial planner and the founder of Girl Planning. My goal is to help you streamline and organize your finances, navigate big money decisions with confidence, and be strategic in order to grow your wealth. As a woman, you work hard for your money, and I'm here to help you make the most of it. Now let's get into the show. Today I am thrilled to be joined by my colleague Alexa Kane, who is a team member here at Pearl Planning, and we do so much financial planning work together that it's just like we're sitting across from each other talking about a client case today, Alexa. Welcome to the podcast.

SPEAKER_02:

Thank you for having me again. And one of my favorite topics, I know we've hinted at an episode in the past.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. So it's been quite a while since we had a long-term care episode. For those of you who don't know, long-term care is kind of the term that gets used when you think about care for aging people, um, nursing home care, assisted living in home care that helps you with the activities of daily living. Um and we titled this episode Um saying that long-term care is important to plan for and not just kind of hope for the best. Um, but one of the things that I've noticed is the right time for you to get long-term care coverage, if that's the right fit for you. And we're gonna talk about that today, because it's not perfect for everyone, is mismatched from the time when you really care about it. Um, I know that thinking about how you're gonna take care of yourself in old age is not something that people in their 40s and 50s want to think about necessarily. Um, it's there's a lot of interest when you're in your 70s and 80s, but that's typically a little bit too late to get insurance coverage. And so I were gonna kind of like set the table for why you might want to have the conversation earlier today. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

And I think it is, you know, more in the 50s, or as people are starting to care for their parents to see, you know, oh, maybe this is something that we should look at for ourselves as well. And I know we have a note to talk about the differences and how that long-term care has changed from policies in the past to what's available now. So both, both of those.

SPEAKER_01:

I agree. Long-term care considerations are so personal because some people are just like, I refuse to ever be in a condition where I might need nursing home care or extra care in the home. Um, I know we're touching on kind of a third rail when it comes to perspective and emotions, and also it can often lead to just a lot of feelings of fear and anxiety. Um, so I just want to acknowledge those up front that this is kind of a touchy subject, touchy area. Um, even family members um amongst family members, you know, in in terms of partners or spouses, may have completely different perspectives, um, one versus another. Um, but let me just touch on a few statistics that I um pulled out as I was researching this episode. Um, you know, with this is the Women's Money Wisdom podcast, even though we know we have a ton of male listeners as well. And thank you guys for sticking in. Um but when it comes to long-term care, um, the considerations statistically are much more um impacted when it comes to women. Um, women outlive men by about five years on average, which often means that they survive their spouses. Um, and certainly there's a ton of considerations for those who are not in a relationship as well. 70% of nursing home residents are women. Um, and 58% of women will need high-intensity long-term care versus 46% of men. Um, so this is really a topic that um is deeply impactful for women. And of course, many women have also experienced the um the challenges of long-term care from the other perspective as caregivers. Um primary caregivers uh are women in 60% of family situations that a caregiver is identified. So um that both um impacts our perspective and emotions when approaching long-term care, but it also tends to be a major contributing factor when it comes to women who choose to leave the workforce um early or have interruptions in their workforce participation because so often when you need to give care to a loved one, it's a full-time job.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, it's they're crazy statistics, but it has, you know, it does ring true in real life and what we see of that the women are in there for longer and need to account for it and plan.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely. And you know, in terms of what these numbers are, when you national averages right now for needing a home health aid is about the median number is$77,000 a year. I would say that's not 24 hours care. Um, it's very difficult to find um workers in the home health aid space. Um, when it comes to assisted living, the national averages are about 71,000. And for private nursing care, um close to 130,000 a year. These numbers are getting bigger faster than inflation. Um, in fact, um, national inflation averages are running at about 10%, um, you know, just stunningly big numbers. I will mention though, that um oftentimes people who have long-term care needs are not going on a trip. They're not um, you know, a lot of the their food, for example, is part of the long-term care cost. Um, and oftentimes because you relocate to a um facility that um private home, the primary residence is not um no longer needed, unfortunately. So there often are assets that are in the equity of a home. Um, and many expenses kind of fall off as your needs are primarily that of housing and healthcare. Well, that is a very like eye-opening way to start the episode, I would say. Um, but let's talk about solutions. So, first of all, um, Alexa, I think for you and I, our approach is not a decision going into conversation that you will buy long-term care insurance. Um, there's a large cohort of the population that frankly can't afford long-term care insurance if your um cash flow is relatively um modest, um, long-term care insurance can be just too expensive, frankly. Um, there's also a portion of the population we work with who can adequately self-insure. And so, my perspective, and you can tell me what you think, Alexa, is that we need to have a conversation about the risks and considerations. And um, as we mentioned earlier, your emotions and psychology when it comes to how you look at this are certainly something that we're factoring in. Um, and it's not a foregone conclusion that everyone needs long-term care insurance or can either afford it, or there are some pretty rigorous underwriting standards. So not everybody can qualify for long-term care insurance.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, absolutely. There's all different boats, but it is worth a conversation and worth looking into it and sitting in that uncomfortable space for for a little bit to you know make sure you and your family are on the same page as to what what is the best route for your situation.

SPEAKER_01:

And when we look at long-term care insurance or some of the other options to fund um your needs and your care, um, one of the things I would mention is it is often too late to wait um into your 70s and 80s when you're like, oh, it's pretty clear I'm pretty healthy. I don't know how long I'm gonna live, but sure would be nice to have an extra bucket. Um one of the challenges is in in with few exceptions, you're always gonna be a little bit healthier with fewer kind of chronic or pre-existing conditions when you're younger. And so long-term care insurance really does um, you know, kind of look at your wrap sheet when it comes to your overall health. And um, that's why, you know, for those listeners who are Gen X and older millennial, when you're between the ages of 40 and uh mid-60s, I think that's kind of the ideal time. And in actually, you know, when we have the possibilities, tipping a little younger can make the insurance more affordable than when you kind of walk up to purchase it late 60s and early 70s. Um we'll get into the underwriting considerations in a minute. Um, but there's different um versions of long-term care insurance. So I I'm gonna put you on the spot, Alexa, but um, just use the example first of you know, kind of the old school long-term care insurance that was sold mainly, I think, to um our grandparents' generation and our parents if they were buying it, you know, 30 or 40 years ago. So this is a the older baby boomer silent generation version of insurance.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, and one that you know people may have seen when helping relatives out, but it was you know, the long-term care was set up of you are paying premiums ongoing forever. So, you know, grandma's writing a check every single month, and you know, 10 years down the road they say, oh, you were paying a hundred a month, now it's four hundred. And in order to keep getting the the eventual or offered benefits, you're you have to pay those premiums. So it is, you know, I know I experienced it years ago when we were seeing those policies of you know, people had to make those choices of, hey, do I continue paying these premiums when it's not certain that I will need it? Um, and it they were, you know, helpful if you needed care, but they could just kind of snowball and become an issue where you know the landscape has changed now. But now they, you know, have switched to a hybrid model where it's life insurance with this long-term care, it's called a rider, but you're getting the benefits there. Um, and so when we're looking at these policies, there's options to do a one-time lump sum, or you can do um pay over five or ten years, but you're knowing what you will be putting in at the beginning versus paying as you go ongoing. So it's a lot um, I think a nicer setup, and it does you know give people, hey, we know what the outlay is on these products, and you can really look at, you know, oh, if I had a large cash infusion, should I just do a one-time payment? Or um I'll use an example where we had clients kind of set up for you know the long-term retirement picture, and you know, this isn't a situation that we want to make sure care is covered. So we said, hey, you know, we've been doing Roth contributions all these years. What if we take, instead of doing the Roth contributions, that amount and redeploy it to long-term care for the last seven years that you're gonna be working? And the retirement picture looks great, but the unknown and the question mark is on-term care. So able to find a solution that they're not gonna be paying monthly, you know, forever, but they're getting care that will help in the situation of needing long-term care.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely. So there used to be a type of insurance, as you were describing, Alexa, that you purchased it and there actually was a way to kind of pay it up, but that was not what most people focused on because it seemed very expensive. And so you had a contract where you would pay that insurance premium in order to remain eligible until you pass away or until you need to have a claim. Um, and if you quit paying it accidentally, which let's think about it, like the people that may need long-term care insurance may have difficulty remembering to make payments. But if you accidentally lapsed um and it wasn't caught, it was kind of use it or lose it. So um you lost that insurance coverage. And um, that insurance both became cost prohibitive for the people who subscribed to it because of um statewide increases to the insurance premiums. Um, the only way to increase the premium by the insurance company was to give everybody an increase. But they've the one, those policies have primarily seen many increases over the years, frequent increases. Um, and insurance companies actually had a ton of claims on these policies. So um both the people that were paying the premiums got bigger and bigger bills, but also insurance companies were um impaired in in some cases going out of business because of the claims with these types of policies. So there are still some traditional long-term care policies available, um, but they have a massive cost that is um not considered tenable in many cases. So that's not what we primarily discuss nowadays. Now, if you know somebody who has one of these policies, first of all, if they have, if they would qualify um for long-term care needs because they can't meet their activities of daily living, like they can't dress themselves, feed themselves, move around on their own, um uh toileting issues, um, then, or memory care needs. Um, and if they have dementia or Alzheimer's, then um you should use those policies. Don't wait and see if they run out of money. Like turn in that claim right away, get on the waiting period. You don't have to pay your premiums then anymore. And um, this is an important way to kind of preserve your estate and make it work longer. Um, so those are the policies we primarily see that were sold in the past. And then nowadays it's actually um either a hybrid annuity, hybrid life insurance, or in some cases, um catastrophic life insurance that also has um uh or life insurance that has a rider that allows for long-term care that is not a hybrid policy that people are tending to go toward. We do a lot of um life insurance-based, not a lot, but primarily our clients that purchase long-term care are doing hybrid um long-term care that is life insurance first. Um, and in these policies, there's several components. So could you kind of go through a few of the components, Alexa, um, and consideration? So you were describing kind of the premium payments. These are kind of custom and bespoke design. You you're not just like buying one, you know, kind of premium off the shelf. Um your age matters, correct? Correct.

SPEAKER_02:

Your age, um, and it is kind of you can either purchase the long-term care insurance based on you know how much you're willing to pay, or by saying what benefit you're looking for in the future. So with these policies, they have the the life insurance piece, and then the long-term care component is as a rider to the policy. So the policies we typically look at are um you are paying the premiums and you are doing it in exchange for the the rider is what gives it the value, and it's providing a a leverage on on the policy.

SPEAKER_01:

So they And I would never recommend these types of policies as being the best way to get access to life insurance, for example. These are um a relatively low face value, which is what the money your beneficiaries receive when you pass away. This is this is really built to give you long-term care buckets of money.

SPEAKER_02:

Correct. And it is um, so you pay your premiums and it's giving you access to a pool of money if, like you said, the two activities of daily living or the cognitive impairment come into play. And the the bucket of money is much larger than the the premium outlay. So they you know put a um a limit on how much you can take from there each month of that pool.

SPEAKER_01:

But it is if you have a long-term care need, so you would need to qualify with those activities of daily living I was describing, or the cognitive impairment in order to start using this monthly stipend for long-term care.

SPEAKER_02:

Yep. And it's I mean, it depends on when when you purchase it, but the amount is growing and it is providing a leverage on hey, if we put in$100,000 at age 55, that bucket is$800,000 when we're 85. These are just made-up numbers, but it's pretty easy to do.

SPEAKER_01:

There's an inflation component. So the reason that the value gets higher is either in some cases or many cases, there's a compound inflation based on an agreed-upon percentage. And the cost of the policy would go up or down as the percentage goes higher or lower for your inflation factor. Um, other policies might have um be tied to the returns of an index like the SP. Um, and some might not have a cost of living adjustment, although oftentimes for these types of policies, it's more attractive to keep track with some inflation, even though we've said that those costs are advancing in higher than inflation.

SPEAKER_02:

Um yeah, they are the costs. Are going up, but you know, one when we do have these conversations, the long-term care policy is not meant to cover every single expense because we don't know. You know, are you gonna need care for a year? Are you gonna need it for 15? Is it gonna be in a memory care facility or have someone at the house? All of those are you know big question marks, but it does provide a large asset pool for that. And like Melissa said, you're not typically taking the vacations, the you're not going out to eat. There's costs that go down, and then on this side, the costs do go up, but it you know provides the funds, but also, you know, in my experience, probably with you as well, it gives if there are two spouses, it gives the other spouse the breathing room or the children to say, hey, you know, if there's not the a policy that's job is for long-term care, oftentimes the the spouse or the kids are trying to provide the care themselves to preserve the portfolio for for others, where if you have a bucket that says this is for long-term care, the second you're hitting those two activities of daily living, it's hey, we're gonna start tapping into this and we're gonna have someone, you know, provide some relief for for the spouse, of it's very hard to to care for people and you know it can cause harm to the the spouse or the children to try and take on that role when they're not trained to do it. So this gives that space to say, wait, we we have this preserver to help us, you know, not over-exert ourselves when we're you know, you still have all the mental load of the care and all of that, but to not be physically tied to it is a big blessing if it does come into play.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely. I think um, again, we're not saying every family, it's important to know that this isn't a blanket piece of advice. Um, but for more cautious families or individuals where you might not feel um comfortable spending your retirement income, this could be an impediment to your level of comfort with retirement withdrawals. This can provide um some additional um confidence because that one of the big, you know, kind of things that could go wrong um later and hopefully later in retirement um would be um insured for to reduce or mitigate the um portfolio. Other instances are um people who don't have family that would naturally be inclined to help them out. Um so child-free individuals, um, single individuals would maybe more likely to desire to have that insurance coverage. Um also um families with an age gap between partners where or a known um physical um or health um condition for one family member who might not be able to be insured, but um also the family understands that there may be higher um anticipated costs for that person. This could be a protection for the other family member, uming that um more assets may need to go to their their spouse because of their age and um making sure that there is protection kind of left over. Um, so some components of that hybrid life insurance long-term care are um a relatively low. Um if you don't use the insurance and pass away, then there's a death benefit, a life insurance benefit for um your heirs that is relatively low, often similar or just a little bit more than what the premiums you've put in. Um there's also if you just change your mind and didn't want it anymore, maybe you went, I don't know, you won the lottery and you just have more money than you could ever imagine. Um, you can turn in the policy um for a little bit less than what your premiums were, and it takes a while to get back up to that amount. That's what there's like a surrender period. Um but then there's this big bucket that has a multiplier and is growing often based on inflation um compounding that can be available for long-term care. Now, why does the insurance company want to provide this bucket? Well, a lot of people who end up using long-term care don't use it forever. So um they may have a very serious health condition and they use long-term care for a matter of months or a year, and then the insurance company gets back the difference between what they outlaid and the death benefit amount. Um, and so um that's why the insurance company just doesn't let you write a check for the full hundreds of thousands all at once, is that they know that um there will be many individuals who aren't in a nursing home for five or six years or needing that care. Um, so there's a lot of different variables. We always encourage families to like spend some time with these conversations and we would have, you know, one-on-one conversations depending on um the considerations um for more of an you know a 20-minute period to talk about whether it makes sense. Can you talk a little bit about how these policies get underwritten? So, all long-term care, like all insurance companies are like, we want to make sure these people are very healthy and um independent physically in order to issue the policies.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, and uh long-term care is an interesting one, you know, I guess for us familiar with the life insurance um world as well, but with typical um term life insurance, you know, if you apply for that, um nearly everyone is approved, but just at different rates. So depending on your health class, they just tell you how much it is going to cost. Where yeah, with the on the long-term care side, um, after going through the underwriting process, it is uh a yes or a no on if you can move forward with it based on their actuarial tables. So it is at that point in time, are you approved or not? And then typically, if you're not, there's a 12-month window, and then you can choose to reapply depending on the situation. But when we go through that process, um, it's a little different depending on which carrier you choose. But there is um typically uh the application process is done, which is getting all of your demographic information. Um, and then once submitted, they will do a more in-depth interview either on the phone or online, depending on your age at the time you apply. Um, because if you do things younger, there's often an option to do that, the interview online of answering a lot of medical questions. They're really just diving into your history and what the the risk is for them. And with life insurance, the risk is that you will pass away. And with long-term care, the risk is that you will not, but you will be in in the care facility. So they are you know looking for a couple different different things than with um life insurance on there. So we do have a pre-screening questionnaire that we can get a pretty good idea of, hey, are we likely to run into any issues when we go forward with this?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and there's so many different things that could kind of be a wrinkle. Um you family history. If you like had genetic testing and knew you had a gene that caused um higher, you know, maybe dementia, that could be a consideration that would make it more difficult. Um if you had past cancer history, depending on the type of cancer, um there are underwriting requirements for how long you've been in remission. Um, even needing an orthopedic surgery could be an impediment. Um, and or having physical therapy. Um, so this is definitely perhaps a type of policy that rewards people that use a doctor less.

SPEAKER_02:

Um I would say don't say that you're like that you're not eligible without looking, because I know in my time, and I'm sure you've seen a few where you're like, oh, like this one is probably not gonna go through. And and they do because there's yeah, it it is there's different time limits on things, there's different things that are you know on their list of you know some medications are like if you're if you're interested, don't don't say no without looking into it because it's not a cut and dry or it could never happen. It's uh hey, you know, it can be a conversation, we can look into it and different carriers have different things on their on their list of oh, this is a no for company X, but company Y allows it. So if we're able to you know have our eyes open and be able to look at what it what is available, we can make a plan, and then you know, I think we uh do have other uh avenues to discuss of you know if this doesn't work out, that's okay. There's you know, Melissa talked about the house, there's you know, all all other avenues to explore if it's not the piece.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely. I think um don't I just go in realistically, knowing that some people are approved and some aren't. And it is if it feels like a fit for other reasons worth looking into. Um, and um we can using specialists um kind of get a good sense based on your background and history as to whether it's a strong possibility of you know, kind of passing. Um I think that there's another consideration, which is long-term care insurance typically compensates those that sell it with a commission. Um, so for example, I think if you're listening, it seems like, oh, maybe they do long-term care insurance. And that's true. This is not our primary focus when it comes to business. In fact, it represents less than 1% of our revenue in 2025 when we're recording this episode, even though it's releasing in 26. Um, but we would have straightforward conversations with the people that we do long-term care insurance for about how we're being compensated on it. Um, because I have a little bit of a fear because it is a relatively high commission and a significant amount of money. I often am concerned about, you know, kind of sending people to the wolves to people that are selling long-term care insurance all day that they might get oversold and kind of sold based on fear. Um, so having a conversation with the people talking to you about long-term care, about how are you getting compensated and how much would you be paid, um, I think would be recommended as far as I'm concerned. Um, and you know, help you to understand the conflicts of interest um with those that you're speaking to. And then um another just thing to keep in mind is that you if you do already have cash value life insurance, maybe policies that you're using less and um you were sold but don't really fit into your life today or your game plan, um, those sometimes can be used to fund um the the premium portion of your long-term care. So something to keep in the back of your mind. Alexa, I know we don't have a ton of time, but I just wanted to spend a few minutes talking about for those that aren't a fit or are not able to be insured, we've talked a little bit about alternatives. So there's self-funding, which just means like planning to spend your own money if you um have long-term care. Um, what are some other considerations that you might, you know, have when it comes to paying for the costs of end-of-life care?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I think um self-funding is a big one. And then as you talked about, if the care gets to, you know, an assisted living type of facility, there is looking at selling the house and using those proceeds to pay for care, um, accessing the equity in the house if it is a situation where one person's in care and the other um is at home um with the home equity line or a reverse mortgage. They're they get trickier, but they can serve a purpose in the the right situation there. Um, so those are typically the alternatives of, you know, depending on the asset levels that can fund it, or do we have property that is a backstop?

SPEAKER_01:

And Medicaid can't, when you don't have assets and have spent down mass assets, Medicaid can often cover um care. There's more limited choices on where somebody may receive care, and it does not typically provide for home health care. Um, but that is an option for people who are on the lower end of the asset spectrum when they've spent down assets. Um and then also there are some state-run long-term care programs, not as much in the state of Michigan, but in some other states. And um, while that doesn't often cover all of the costs of the care, that sometimes can provide protection so that you don't have to spend down your assets in order to as much in order to qualify for Medicaid. So I'd love to leave people with a couple, a few action items. Um, one of them is if you are the primary caregiver or like slotted up to be the primary caregiver for uh an older generation or other members of your family, have an honest discussion about how they have um planned to pay for any care if they thought about that. Um, so that um you're not in a moment caught by surprise where they're not able to give you as much information and and you're kind of in charge. Um and so, you know, if they, for example, do have long-term care insurance, make sure your name or someone's name is listed in case they lapse on a premium payment to make sure that it continues to be paid and you have information on those policies. Number two, um, normalize talking about these um aging considerations um in your financial planning conversations. So some financial planners bring it up, others don't. Um, this is kind of a blind spot if you're DIYing in some cases, not for everybody, but it could be. Um, so you know, for example, when we do a financial plan just baseline, we assume that each family member would have two years of long-term care and we put that cost into our retirement projections and calculators so that we're realistically planning for end-of-life needs. Um, and so just normalize the conversation and start to have um some um, you know, kind of realistic conversations amongst your family members and amongst the professionals you work with so that you don't find yourself waiting too long. Um, and then third, um, if it does make sense that you think, oh, something I'd like to consider long-term care insurance, don't hesitate to start the conversation at a younger age than you might think would be natural. Um, so waiting until the kids are out of the house and everything's kind of wrapped up and you're retired may not be the most cost-effective or the most insurable route. Um, and so hopefully this is like a constructive way for you to start thinking about those discussions. If you feel like it will be on your to-do list someday to act, it it might be worth a conversation today. Any last-minute recommendations that you have, Alexa?

SPEAKER_02:

No, I think that those are are great ones. And it is like we have to get comfortable with the uncomfortable topics, and that makes it better for for everyone that you care about to be thoughtful when you're you're able to.

SPEAKER_01:

And well, where can people find you, Alexa? And if they find you, they'll find me as well.

SPEAKER_02:

But um well, we our website is great, so proplanning.com. And then I think we're getting more active on Instagram, but LinkedIn's great. All all the the social medias, Facebook were were out there, and the podcast is also great. I think we did one like four months ago together, which was a little bit book related, a little yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, we love having you back on the podcast, Alexa. And um, for those of you that don't hear from her every week, she's doing great work here at Pearl Planning, week in and week out. So um way to kick off the top the 2026 with a weighty but so important topic. Thanks for joining us. Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you for listening to the Women's Money Wisdom Podcast. If you found value in this episode, the best way that you can support the podcast is to forward an episode to a friend or leave a review. Go to ProPlan.com and the podcast link to get all the resources and links mentioned. This presentation by Pro Planning is intended for general information purposes only. No portion of this presentation serves as the receipt of or substitute for personal investment advice from ProPlanning or any other investment professional of your choosing. Copies of Pro Planning's current rent and disclosure brochure and form CRS discussing our advisory services and fees are available upon request or on our website platform at ProPlan.com. The information that we share is meant to educate and inspire, not serve as personalized financial advice. Everyone's situation is unique, so be sure to consult with your own financial professional for guidance that fits your life. And just so you know, the opinions shared in this podcast are Melissa's own and those of our guests. They don't necessarily represent any organizations with which Melissa is affiliated. For more important disclosures, please go to our webpage at proplan.com.

Head Shot

Melissa Joy, CFP

Host