Millennials Beat Baby Boomers in Long-Term Care Planning

Though it’s no surprise many older adults fear the cost of aging and long-term care, it may come as a surprise that some millennials are already preparing for it.

Just one in five adults have taken any action toward financing their long term care expenses, according to a new survey from insurer Genworth Financial (NYSE: GNW). Half of the survey’s respondents said they plan to take personal financial responsibility for their own care as they age.

Slightly over half (52%) of surveyed baby boomers thought they will require long-term care services down the road. Millennials, on the other hand, were more realistic: 64% of this cohort, born between the 1980s and late ‘90s or early 2000s, said they’ll need long-term care at some point as they age. In reality, 70% of people need long-term care services at some point in their lives, according to the survey.

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Generation X was the most fearful about paying for long-term care, but also the most likely not to have taken any action towards paying for it in the future.

Millennials were also the most likely not to expect the government to cover the cost of their long-term care. That may be why the demographic group was “most likely to have taken action toward paying for future long term care expenses,” a release for the survey noted.

On the whole, two out of three adults said they expected U.S. government programs to cover the costs of their long-term care services, even if this isn’t the case in reality. Nearly half (45%) of respondents confused Medicare for Medicaid, or admitted they didn’t know the difference between the two, according to the survey.

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Written by Tim Regan

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