Every month, millions of Americans receive an email from the Social Security Administration which reads like this.... 

We’d like to remind you to review your Social Security Statement online. The Statement has important Social Security information and, if applicable, estimates of your future benefits.   If you are working, we encourage you to check your Statement yearly to make sure your earnings record is correct. The Statement also will help in planning your financial future.

To view your most recent Statement, please visit www.socialsecurity.gov/signin and sign into your account.

If you haven't accessed this information recently, maybe now is the time to do it.  You may be surprised by some of the content; particularly the first paragraph, on page four!!  

This is what you will read there....

Social Security pays retirement, disability, family and survivors benefits. Medicare, a separate program run by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, helps pay for inpatient hospital care, nursing care, doctors' fees, drugs, and other medical services and supplies to people age 65 and older, as well as to people who have been receiving Social Security disability benefits for two years or more.  Medicare does not pay for long-term care, so you may want to consider options for private insurance.

According to numerous studies and the government's own findings, there is a 70% chance you and/or your clients will require some type of Long-Term Care in the future.  Since planning for this potential need becomes more difficult and more expensive as people age, putting it off could be an extremely expensive mistake.   Furthermore, the Social Security Administration is making it VERY clear that government programs DO NOT cover Long-Term Care expenses.    

Regardless of your thoughts on future Long-Term Care needs, the Social Security Administration is just repeating what Ben Franklin once said:   "If you fail to prepare, then you are preparing to fail"