What We’re Thinking

We had no idea what the 2023 year-end market update would look like a year ago.

As it turns out, the year ended with US stocks up 26 percent, as measured by the US Total Stock Market index fund. The total bond market was up 6.8 percent. Inflation cooled in late 2023 to a 3.4 percent annual inflation rate – the Fed’s goal being a “slow and steady” two percent.

We didn’t see that coming – but fortunately, we didn’t try to.

Many others did though. “All across Wall Street … the mood was glum. It was the end of 2022 and everyone, it seemed, was game-planning for the recession they were convinced was coming.”

If you remember, the US Total Stock Market index fund was down 19.5% at the end of 2022. By and large, investors were indeed feeling pessimistic. Those who created new “game plans” based on feelings or guesses, however, may be regretting it.

According to “Everything Wall Street Got Wrong in 2023,” a recent article from Bloomberg News, the consensus view on Wall Street a year ago was to “sell US stocks, buy Treasuries, [and] buy Chinese stocks.” The consensus, however, was “dead wrong.”

At the end of 2023, stocks were up, the 10-year treasury yield was the same as it was a year ago, and Chinese stocks were down.

“’I’ve never seen the consensus as wrong as it was in 2023,’ said the chief investment strategist at Russell Investments,” the Bloomberg article reports.

One strategist from TD Securities admitted that “he and his colleagues ‘did some soul searching’ as the year wound down … ‘It’s important to learn from what you got wrong.’”

The reporter somewhat dryly notes: “What did he learn? That the economy is far stronger and far better positioned to cope with higher interest rates than he had thought. And yet, he remains convinced that a recession looms. It will hit in 2024, he says, and when it does, bonds will rally.”

The point here is not to gloat that investment strategists got it all wrong. After all: we didn’t see 2023 coming either.

The point is that nobody could have predicted how the markets would shake out in 2023 – and if they did, it was simply a lucky guess. And who’s to say that their next guess will be equally lucky in 2024?

With an appropriate asset allocation, there’s no need to make lucky guesses or new game plans based on market performance – regardless of whether you think a recession looms. Instead, a diversified, personalized portfolio is designed around your particular risk tolerance, time horizons, and goals.

But importantly: if any of those have changed, please don’t hesitate to reach out to your advisor for guidance. We’re here and always happy to fine-tune your portfolio.

Recently, I asked other Park Piedmont team members whether they had resolutions for 2024. Since our last new year’s article on intentions for life and money, I’ve been curious about the various ways people ring in each new year, and why – despite our differences – so many of us decide that January 1 is the perfect day to plan how we hope to live out the year.

In 2013, behavioral scientists Katy Milkman, Hengchen Dai, and Jason Riis analyzed the frequency with which Americans searched the term “diet” on Google over the span of eight and a half years. They found that “diet” searches soared on January 1 – by about 80% more than the typical day. “Diet” searches also spiked at the start of calendar cycles (i.e., the start of a new month or week) and after national holidays.

Essentially, New Year’s Day is known as a “temporal landmark.” Just as landmarks help orient us on a map, temporal landmarks indicate where we are along the timeline of life (especially when it feels monotonous). Most people recognize the social landmarks we share: holidays, the start of the year, the first day of Spring. We also have personal ones that are unique: anniversaries, new jobs, birthdays.

Whether social or personal, temporal landmarks can serve as transition points as we move from one chapter or season of life to the next. Turning to a crisp, blank calendar page can make us feel refreshed and excited about future possibilities. Behavioral scientists refer to this as the “fresh start effect,” where the perception of a clean slate can increase a person’s likelihood to pursue ambitious goals with increased motivation and vigor.

A fresh start might prompt us to start and maintain new routines. The researchers mentioned above also examined attendance at a university gym over the course of a year. They found that gym visits increased at the start of each new week, month, and year, but also at the start of a new semester or right after a student’s birthday (with the glaring exception of turning 21, which decreased attendance).

Why does the perception of a fresh start work? For one, they offer an opportunity to disassociate the “old you” from the “new you.” The old me spent a fortune on takeout, but starting Monday the new me is focused on saving for a new car. By avoiding dwelling on past failures and optimistically focusing on future successes, a fresh start gives us the confidence to “behave better than we have in the past and strive with enhanced fervor to achieve our aspirations.”

A temporal landmark can also help us to see the forest through the trees. By distinguishing a specific moment in time, such as the job anniversary or the start of a season, we’re able to separate it from the day-to-day minutiae and reflect on long-term goals. Daniel Pink writes in his book When, “Temporal landmarks slow our thinking, allowing us to deliberate at a higher level and make better decisions.”

In our work, it’s also a reason life transitions and milestones can nudge people to review their financial lives and goals. As a matter of fact, studies have found that framing savings against an upcoming birthday can prompt individuals to reflect on getting older and encourage higher retirement savings rates.

It’s worth noting that, while fresh starts can nudge us to start on a goal, we also require tools and strategies to stay committed as our enthusiasm wanes (case in point: New Year’s resolutions). One way to do this is by using dates with personal significance as opportunities throughout the year to check-in and recommit to previously set goals. Even the anticipation of a big life milestone (like turning 30, 40, or 50) can help sustain motivation. As Pink explains, this is one reason why the most common age of first-time marathoners is twenty-nine.

As it turns out, the Park Piedmont team leans lukewarm on the idea of New Year’s resolutions, but we’re looking forward to plenty of landmarks in 2024: growing families, weddings, “firsts” in a new city, other new year celebrations, bucket-list vacations. Money, of course, will factor into all these milestones.

Whatever meaningful moments and fresh starts lie ahead for you (and whenever they may be), we’re excited to hear more and are grateful to be a part of some of them.

Happy new year!

November was a great month for stocks.

The S&P 500 – a stock market index that tracks the performance of 500 of the biggest companies in the US – performed better in November than it has all year. By December 1, it had risen over 10 percent from its late-October low, gaining all the ground it had lost earlier this year.

Much of that growth was fueled by the “Magnificent 7”:  Amazon, Alphabet, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, NVIDIA and Tesla are up around 70% since the beginning of the year.

Other assets had a good month too.

As the Wall Street Journal points out, November brought a “simultaneous surge” across stocks, bonds, cryptocurrencies, and gold. Bond prices (as measured by Vanguard’s Total Bond Market fund) rose more than four percent for the month, which is a very large move for the typically less volatile bond market.

Even “beleaguered” sector indexes – such as home builder and regional banking stocks – saw significant gains last month.

So why the sudden “simultaneous surge”?

The Wall Street Journal suggests “growing confidence that the Fed will be able to achieve a ‘soft landing.’” In other words, investors finally feel confident that the Fed’s interest rate hikes will successfully rein in inflation – without also causing a significant economic slowdown or recession.

The question now is whether the recent market rallies will last – or whether they’re just a short-lived celebration of an anticipated soft landing.

“Skeptical investors and strategists … point to concerns that inflation could tick higher once again, or the long-feared recession could finally materialize” (WSJ).

Wouldn’t it be nice if we knew?

It sure would be. “Selling all of your stock just before the market falls, and buying shares just before the market rises, is a brilliant strategy,” says Jeff Sommer of The New York Times.

“And if you could repeat the feat over and over again, you would be fabulously rich – a true stock market wizard. But the ability to trade like that is rare, if it exists at all. Without question, it’s so hard that the vast majority of professional traders can’t do it, as countless studies have shown.”

Fair enough: nobody can predict the future.

But surely there are winning buy-and-sell strategies … aren’t there?

Hint: Nope. There are none.

Interestingly, a recent study examined 720 (yes, 720!) market timing strategies, using a “broad range of rigorously applied timing signals.” The results: there was a flaw in every approach.

A better recipe for success is what Sommers calls a “simple, unspectacular strategy.”

As Sommer notes, the study’s results support “simply accepting that you can’t beat the overall market and focusing instead on minimizing your costs [our Italics] so you can get as much market return as possible.”

He continues:

“Broad, diversified, low-fee index funds … will do this for you. But you need to be willing and able to withstand substantial losses, sometimes for extended periods, because while the stock market has risen over the long haul, it often declines.”

And indeed, we saw market declines most recently in August through October, and in 2022. Anyone who wasn’t willing or able to withstand losses would have missed out on last month’s – and the overall year-to-date – recovery.

Sommer’s unspectacular strategy sounds an awful lot like Park Piedmont’s longstanding investment principles.

Keep costs low. Invest in broadly diversified index funds. Take only the risk you can manage. Focus on the long-term.

And then? Ignore the financial media noise.

Because while today we’re discussing recent large gains, there will be declines again – whether next week or next month or next year. And then, just as now, the key will be to trust your personalized asset allocation. It’s a remarkably unflashy yet proven investment approach.

One of Park Piedmont’s primary goals as a firm is to focus on thoughtful long-term planning for our clients’ financial lives. One important but often overlooked example of this planning involves tax-loss harvesting (TLH). As described in more detail below, tax-loss harvesting opportunities aren’t necessarily available every year. But when they are, as in 2022 and possibly this year as well, we want to make you aware of the potential benefits.

In years when market prices decline, selling certain investments for a loss can provide a silver lining by reducing taxes owed (hence the term “tax-loss harvesting”). Park Piedmont completed TLH for many clients in 2022, a year in which both stock and bond indexes had significant price declines. So far in 2023, stock and bond indexes have appreciated in value, but there still may have been declines this year for certain funds, as well as remaining declines from last year’s poor performance. Park Piedmont will be in contact later this month if your portfolio presents any TLH opportunities that could lower your tax bills going forward.

To understand how the TLH process works, it is important to know how different types of income are taxed. “Ordinary” income comes from wages, salaries, and self-employment income, and is taxed at Federal rates ranging from 10% to 37% depending on one’s tax bracket. “Capital gain” income comes from the sale of capital assets (e.g., stocks, bonds, and personal residences). Federal rates on capital gain income from assets held for a year or more (also known as “long-term” capital gains) range from 0% to 23.8%, which are significantly lower than those that apply to ordinary income. (Income from capital assets held for less than a year are referred to as “short-term” capital gains, and taxed at the higher ordinary income tax rates.) Most states also have ordinary income and capital gains tax systems.

Within a taxable, or non-retirement, investment account, the sale of an asset for more than what you paid for it results in a “realized” capital gain, while the sale of an asset for less than what you paid results in a realized capital loss. (Assets held in retirement accounts do not qualify for capital gains tax treatment.) Investments that have changed in value since they were purchased but haven’t yet been sold are said to have “unrealized” capital gains or declines. TLH is the process of realizing the capital losses that exist within a portfolio, which generate tax benefits described below.

Realized capital losses can be used to offset an unlimited amount of realized capital gains. In other words, if the amount of capital gains equals the amount of capital losses in a given year, no capital gains tax will be owed on the sales. Furthermore, if the amount of capital losses exceeds capital gains, then the capital gains will be fully offset and up to $3k of those losses can be deducted from ordinary income for that tax year. Additionally, any realized losses that exceed the amount of capital gains plus the extra $3k can be “carried forward” indefinitely and used to offset future capital gains and/or ordinary income based on these same rules.

Because of this carry-forward rule, TLH doesn’t just provide tax benefits in the current year; it can be a long-term planning strategy to minimize taxes. For example, if you plan to sell a home or concentrated stock position for a large gain, realizing capital losses in the present can provide offsets for these future gains. Gathering this kind of information is an important part of Park Piedmont’s planning work with clients.

There are additional details involved in TLH, and you should feel free to discuss these with your Park Piedmont advisor at any time. For now, we hope this general information gives you a sense of the planning opportunities that might be available.

We’ve reached another Thanksgiving. A national moment for giving thanks and feeling grateful.

In this installment of Life with Money, we’d like to home in on gratitude. Before we discuss it, we would like first to express it.

First, we want to say: we’re grateful for you, our clients. We’re grateful for the depth and length of our relationships with you. Likewise, we’re grateful for the many ways our work enables us to learn from you, and about you, and to provide you and your loved ones with guidance, support, and care. This is meaningful work for all of us at Park Piedmont, and we thank you for giving us the opportunity.

Second: we’re grateful for our Park Piedmont team. We are fortunate to have outstanding individuals as colleagues. As you may well have observed from your interactions with them, the members of our team are thoughtful, collaborative and hard-working – and, even though we all work remotely, the group remains close-knit.

The Anglican priest and New York Times columnist Tish Harrison-Warren recounts a game her then 11-year-old daughter concocted. It was called “the beautiful game,” and the rules were simple: they’d walk around their neighborhood, pointing out all the beautiful things they saw. For Harrison-Warren, the game helped her “see how much goodness [she] regularly overlooks.”

One interesting thing about gratitude: it actually feels good to be grateful. There’s a great deal of research science that explains why.

Gratitude does indeed make us feel good. Expressing gratitude generates positive emotions – among them, happiness, pleasure and contentment. “When we express gratitude and receive the same, our brain releases dopamine and serotonin, the two crucial neurotransmitters responsible for our emotions, and they make us feel ‘good’. They enhance our mood immediately, making us feel happy from the inside.”

Gratitude improves our relationships. It’s a pro-social set of behaviors that bolsters feelings of connection and closeness. On our weekly team Zoom calls, we always open our discussion by having each person express something they feel grateful for from the previous week. Maybe it’s a call with one of our clients. Maybe it’s the help they received from a colleague. Maybe it’s both. Regardless, the practice is an important way we stay connected and appreciative.

Gratitude makes us healthier. It is “positively correlated to more vitality, energy, and enthusiasm” … “Feeling grateful and appreciating others when they do something good for us triggers the ‘good’ hormones and regulates effective functioning of the immune system. Scientists have suggested that by activating the reward center of the brain, gratitude exchange alters the way we see the world and ourselves.”

Gratitude re-focuses us on what we have, not what we lack. “Psychologists Shai Davidai and Thomas Gilovich, in one of their papers called the ‘Headwinds/Tailwinds Asymmetry: An Availability Bias in Assessments of Barriers and Blessings,’ mentioned that we tend to focus more on the obstacles and difficulties of life because they demand some action. We have to fight and overcome them to get back the normal flow of life. On the flip-side, we forget to attend to the better things in life because they are ‘already there’ and we don’t have to do anything to make them stay with us. Practicing gratitude, according to Gilovich, is the best way to remind ourselves of the things that give us the courage to move on in life.”

Interested in incorporating more expressions of gratitude in your own day-to-day? Here are some well-researched ways to do so:

• Gratitude exercises: Try a thoughtful thank-you note. “Dr. Amit Kumar revealed an interesting fact in his recent research on gratitude exercises (Kumar & Epley, 2018). In the study, participants were asked to leave notes to people who meant a lot in their lives – for example, teachers, spouse, or friends. And these notes were not small papers saying ‘thank you’. They had to be detailed and more in-depth. Surprisingly, participants could finish writing lengthy gratitude notes in less than five minutes and reported feelings of contentment after doing so.”
• Gratitude journal: “Keeping a gratitude journal causes less stress, improves the quality of sleep, and builds emotional awareness” (Seligman, Steen, Park & Peterson, 2005).
• Invent your own “beautiful game”: Take a walk around your own neighborhood, or visit another – and take a look around. What are you seeing now that you haven’t seen before?
• Reframe your expectations: Here’s another thought around gratitude, emphasized by financial writer Morgan Housel. There is counterintuitively great value in what Housel calls setting “purposely low expectations.” This might sound like a Larry David bit – and actually, there’s something to that. Here’s Housel’s suggestions:

“Don’t expect a lot of economic growth …
Don’t expect a ton of innovation.
Don’t expect politics to improve.
Expect occasional catastrophes.”

He continues: “Then any little improvements that happen to come along feel incredible. You appreciate them more. Low expectations don’t make you depressed – they do the opposite, making little gains feel amazing while bad news feels normal.”

What are your preferred practices for expressing gratitude?

Is expressing gratitude something you do at set times in a day or week or year? Or is it more spontaneous? Do you tend to say it to yourself, or are you more apt to share the feeling with family, friends, and coworkers?

However you feel it, however you express it, we hope a helping of gratitude is on your menu this holiday season. We wish you a happy and healthy Thanksgiving.

When the world – or the market – feels unstable, unpredictable, and perhaps even unnerving, people often draw comfort from simple narratives.

Our lack of control drives us to search for some sort of explanation that we can understand – a storyline we can wrap our minds around that provides answers and creates meaning.

Maybe this desire for a tidy narrative explains why a former editor of the Economist described the job of a journalist as being to “simplify, then exaggerate.” Stick to a simple explanation, then amplify its impact.

As an article in the Wall Street Journal recently contended, however – and we would agree – this strategy isn’t adequate for last week’s stock market “correction,” typically defined as a price decline of at least 10% from a recent high.

As the author points out, a variety of causes could be offered as explanations for the drop in the stock market: the Fed keeping rates high, fears of an impending recession, war in the Middle East, or a natural correction for stocks that were previously valued too high.

Yet offering any one of these explanations as the sole cause for the correction – and then exaggerating its impact – would be inaccurate and, in our opinion, a disservice.

Park Piedmont has been telling a different story for over two decades.

Rather than emulating much of the financial media’s inclination to simplify and exaggerate, we prefer to lean into a couple of our firm’s values: humility and balance.

First, humility.

One of the core principles of our investment philosophy is that the future is unpredictable and uncertain.

Nobody – including us – can predict future events, and even if we could, we would then also need to predict how the market would respond to those events. As we’ve pointed out before, it simply cannot be done. The market reacts to events in baffling ways at times.

So we can’t predict the future, but what about the past? Can’t we assign a simple and exaggerated narrative to something like a past market correction?

This brings us to another firm value: balance.

Perhaps it’s easier to look back on history and point to a definitive cause-and-effect. But as with much of life, a simple and exaggerated explanation doesn’t offer a balanced, full picture of the innumerable and sometimes conflicting variables involved:

Wars. Investor unease. Low unemployment. Inflation. Higher interest rates. Union strikes…

So rather than attempting to predict the future or assuredly explain the past, Park Piedmont takes another approach:

Remain humble about what we can’t explain or control, and instead take a balanced and measured approach to what we can.

What does this look like in practice? Keeping fees low and having a solid understanding of our clients’ unique goals, time horizons, and risk tolerance.

This understanding translates into personalized, appropriately-balanced asset allocations that we hope eliminate your need for a tidy narrative, even when the world – and the market – feels unstable, unpredictable, and perhaps even unnerving.

For many, considering the need for life insurance happens around the time they have their first child. This makes sense, as having children is often the first time that people have another person depend on them financially.

A lot of new parents purchase term life insurance, which is designed to last for a specific period (20 years, 30 years, etc.), because it can be a solution to this financial dependence and is the least expensive form of life insurance. When that term is coming to an end, those parents are typically now in their 50s or 60s and often begin to think about their own needs for later in life, one of which is long-term care (LTC).

What Is Long-Term Care?

The term encompasses a range of services that individuals may need when they are unable to care for themselves. This need may result from a chronic or disabling medical condition such as an illness, disability, or cognitive impairment. Therefore, LTC needs can arise at any age due to an illness or injury, or simply due to the effects of aging.

Many Park Piedmont clients seek our guidance in making sure that they can cover their own costs of care and that the burden of these costs doesn’t fall on their children or other relatives. We’ve been working with a number of clients recently who are thinking about their LTC planning, and we thought it would be helpful to share information on this topic more broadly.

To clarify, LTC is not the same as medical care. The goal of LTC is to help people function independently in their everyday lives and manage their activities of daily living (ADLs), which include eating, using the bathroom, bathing, getting dressed, etc. Medical care, on the other hand, seeks to improve the recipient’s medical condition through treatment received in a hospital, emergency room, or other medical facility.

LTC also differs from medical care in how it is funded. The costs of medical care are typically covered by health insurance, including private insurance and government programs like Medicare. LTC, however, is generally not covered by private health insurance or Medicare.

Risk Factors for Long-Term Care

The biggest risk factors for LTC are age, gender, and medical history. As you might expect, as people age, the probability that they will require some form of LTC increases. The chances of a person in the US over 65 years old needing LTC at some point is now 70%.

Regarding gender, women have longer life expectancies on average and are therefore at greater risk for needing LTC. In the US, women account for about two thirds of all LTC insurance claims.

Lastly, having a more serious personal or family medical history typically means a higher chance of needing LTC. Examples of medical issues that most commonly require LTC include strokes, injuries as a result of a fall, dementia, Alzheimer’s, obesity, and Parkinson’s.

Types of Long-Term Care

There are many kinds of long-term care that an individual can receive, including:

• Home care, in which a nurse or other home health aide provides care in an individual’s home during the day or around the clock. In a home care setting, many people also end up relying on a spouse or other family member to serve as a caregiver, which may be a perfectly good solution but can also cause emotional and financial strain on the caregiver.
• Skilled nursing care refers to services that can only be performed by a licensed nurse, doctor, or therapist. Skilled care is usually provided in hospitals, assisted living facilities, and nursing homes.
• Custodial care is provided by non-medical professionals and usually involves help with ADLs only. Custodial care can take place in the home, assisted living facility, or nursing home.
• Adult day care provides support in a non-residential facility during the day while an individual’s primary caretaker, typically a family member, is at work.
• Hospice care addresses the needs of terminally ill patients and is a separate type of LTC.

To clarify, assisted living facilities provide a more social lifestyle for seniors who are generally active but require assistance with everyday tasks. Nursing homes, on the other hand, provide LTC and medical care for adults with serious health issues. Nursing homes usually cost more than assisted living due to the higher level of care.

Long-Term Care Costs

As life expectancies have increased, so have the costs of LTC services. (For more information on the average costs of LTC in your area, please refer to the Genworth Cost of Care Survey, which tracks the cost of long-term care services nationwide, broken down by region and care type. This website provides valuable insights into how much LTC costs today and might cost in the future, which can help you and your family understand and plan for LTC needs.)

As of 2021, the annual median cost in the US is $62k for home care, $54k for an assisted living facility, and $108k for a private room in a nursing home. The costs are, on average, much higher in large cities than in rural areas.

Because of these high costs, long-term care has become one of the most significant health care issues for older people and their families, and one of the most common catastrophic health care expenses. So, if LTC isn’t covered by health insurance, how do people typically pay for these services?

Paying for Long-Term Care

There are many methods of paying for LTC if needs arise. The primary approaches include Medicaid, self-insurance, and private LTC insurance plans.

As mentioned previously, Medicare, the federal program that provides healthcare coverage for people who are either 65 years old or have certain chronic medical conditions, provides very limited LTC coverage and should not be relied on for this type of care. Medicare is primarily designed to provide medical care but will cover up to 100 days of LTC if very specific conditions are met. Most individuals who require LTC need it for much longer than 100 days and will not meet the Medicare criteria.

Medicaid is a state and federal program that provides medical assistance to low-income individuals and their families. Medicaid covers a wide range of services, including LTC, but a person typically must have very few assets and little income to qualify. Eligibility requirements regarding income and assets vary by state.

Another funding strategy for LTC is self-insurance, which is the concept of relying on one’s personal savings, investments, home equity, reverse mortgages, etc. to pay for LTC expenses. The problem here is that LTC can be extremely expensive, and no one knows exactly what kind of care will be needed and for how long. This strategy is only appropriate for people with significant liquid assets that extend well beyond anticipated needs during their working years and in retirement.

Medicaid and self-insurance are therefore for people on opposite ends of the wealth spectrum, and Medicare doesn’t sufficiently cover LTC. For people who have too many assets and income to qualify for Medicaid and too few to self-insure, the solution is generally private LTC insurance. This type of insurance involves paying premiums to an insurance company, which will then pay out a benefit in the case of a covered LTC claim.

Types of LTC Insurance

Stand alone, or “traditional,” insurance covers LTC services only. These policies have a specified maximum monthly and lifetime benefit amount, a maximum period over which benefits can be paid out, and can include inflation protection so that the benefit limits increase every year by a fixed percentage.

Another advantage is that the premiums paid may be tax deductible. However, the premiums are not fixed and can increase in the future. Additionally, because these policies only cover LTC, if the insured individual doesn’t end up needing LTC, no benefits will be received.

“Hybrid” products combine LTC with permanent life insurance. Essentially, these policies offer a pool of money that can either be accessed during life for LTC, at death in the form of a death benefit paid to the insured person’s beneficiary, or a combination of the two.

The initial premiums for these policies are typically higher than those of an equivalent standalone policy, but the premiums are fixed and cannot increase. Therefore, if standalone LTC premiums increase enough over time, as they have in the past, a hybrid policy may actually cost less in the long run.

Another benefit of this type of coverage is that if the insured person doesn’t need LTC, there will be a death benefit from the life insurance component paid to the beneficiary at death. So, regardless of whether there is an LTC need or not, the insurance company will pay some kind of benefit.

When to Consider LTC Coverage

While many people first start to think about LTC in their 50s or 60s, we’ve seen a number of clients cover this risk earlier as well.

Many young professionals in their 30s and 40s identify a need for permanent life insurance, as opposed to term insurance. In these cases, it’s often prudent to purchase a hybrid life and LTC policy that accomplishes their life insurance goals while also covering the risk of LTC.

With life and LTC insurance, the younger and healthier a person is when purchasing a policy, the less expensive the premiums will be. So, it can be beneficial to seek coverage earlier, especially for people who know that they are at a higher risk for eventually needing LTC.

How Park Piedmont Can Help

Park Piedmont frequently helps clients in this area of planning, including working with vetted outside insurance firms that coordinate the process of acquiring LTC insurance. As fiduciary advisors, we often prepare quotes, evaluate different policy options, provide second opinions on coverage, and analyze how LTC fits into the broader financial plan.

For clients who decide to pursue LTC and/or life insurance through Park Piedmont, our team acts as a primary point of contact throughout the entire application process. Please reach out to your advisor if you have any questions about Long-Term Care planning.

Important Additional Disclosures

As your investment advisor, Park Piedmont is a fiduciary. Whenever making recommendations – on investments, insurance, or any other financial life planning topic – Park Piedmont’s focus, first and foremost, is on what’s in your and your family’s best interest.

Disclosing potential conflicts of interest is an important part of being a fiduciary. Nick Levinson and Nate Levinson, as licensed insurance agents, earn commission-based compensation for selling insurance products to our PPA clients. Park Piedmont receives 50% of the commission payable on the sale of any life, disability, or Long-Term Care insurance product to Park Piedmont clients if purchased through Quantum Insurance Services or RIA Insurance Solutions. Insurance commissions earned by Nick Levinson and Nate Levinson are separate and in addition to our advisory fees.

Park Piedmont clients are under no obligation to take PPA’s recommendations or implement any insurance policies, even if they have already applied for policies and/or been approved for coverage.