Colin Wood

Owner, Capstone Long-Term Care Insurance Services, Glendale, CA

In the beginning, I’d visit 12 to 15 households a week. Many of those I met had cared for parents, spouses, siblings or disabled children and wanted to prepare for what might come. One client hung up the phone on yet another crisis in her mother’s care, pointed at me and said, “I don’t ever want my kids to go through this.” Another whose parents slept apart in a care facility they’d sold a vacation home to pay for told me, “I want my children to be sad at my passing, not relieved that a burden was lifted.” For my clients, LTC insurance was as much for themselves as for others.
My father died of Alzheimer’s Disease at age 97. In roughly 15 years he'd gone from athlete, inventor, businessman to not knowing day from night or me from you. In hindsight his illness may have presented as early as his mid-seventies in uncharacteristic anxiety, restlessness, forgetfulness, all of which I’d ascribed to a chronic lack of sleep — I thought he just needed more shuteye. I learned later that insomnia is a symptom of Alzheimer’s. His disease had a long tail, apparently.
Many of my clients have used their policies for both short and long-term care and I’ve seen firsthand how welcome the relief it brings regardless of wealth or position.
My father didn’t have LTC insurance. When I began my career in 1999 he was 87 and ineligible, which is why it's good to act on this while age, health and mind permit.