Are you familiar with the saying “What's mine is yours, and what is yours is mine”? This saying is actually a line from Shakespeare’s play “Measure for Measure,” and is often related to the mutual sharing of assets between a married couple – sharing a home, experiences and more. This phrase can also be applied to your long-term care insurance policy.

Adding a shared-benefits rider to your LTC insurance policy allows you and your spouse to pool your benefits together and split them between the two of you. In other words, if you and your spouse each had separate LTC policies with matching benefits from the same provider and added the other as a “rider” on each individual plan, then you would each be able to access the available benefits from the other’s policy.

While every insurance carrier is different, here’s one scenario of how it could work:

A married couple purchases two “three-year” plans, one for each spouse, and adds the other person to their policy on a shared benefits rider. The rider then gives each partner the possibility of accessing six years worth of coverage that either person can use instead of only three years. Say for example that down the road you will need long-term care over the span of two years. That would leave four more years worth of coverage still available for your spouse (or you) to use at a later time.

If you are considering adding a shared benefits rider to your current plan or just beginning your journey into long-term care insurance, we’re here to provide you with guidance and support in tailoring a policy to your unique needs.