NEXT

What is long-term care insurance?

A long-term care insurance policy doles out money to help cover the costs of nursing-home care, an assisted-living facility or at-home assistance if you are no longer able to take care of yourself.

The allure of long-term care is obvious: It's the rare bird (or baby boomer) who doesn't worry about how he or she will afford care later on. And if you're counting on Medicare, you're out of luck. Medicare doesn't offer extended long-term care coverage. (Medicaid does, but only very low-income retirees are eligible.)

Long-term care insurance is very expensive - the annual premium can easily be $2,500 or more a year - and many insurers have jacked up initial premiums by 20% or more over the past decade. (For more, see How much will a policy cost me?)

Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.