Many older adults eventually find themselves needing some type of long-term care. Long-term care can get expensive over time, and not everyone prepares for this situation. If you don't have a lot of savings to cover the costs should you need long-term care, long-term care insurance may be a good solution.

This type of insurance can be a bit complicated, with a lot of different factors involved. A specialist can help you decide which policy is the right option for you. The best type of specialist is one who isn't tied to just one company, as they can give you unbiased information.

Originally, these insurance policies only covered care in a nursing home, but many newer policies are better suited to the wishes of seniors, which tend to involve not moving into a nursing home. This means the policies give multiple options for the type of care, including nursing homes, in-home care, adult day care, and group living facilities.

Different policies have different triggers that need to be met for coverage to start. Sometimes this involves having a certain health condition, such as Parkinson's disease or Alzheimer's disease. Other times, the person has to be unable to complete a certain number of daily living activities from a list.

Once a person has met the conditions that could trigger coverage, there's typically an elimination period to make sure that long-term coverage is needed and not just short-term care. This can be as long as 90 days, during which time the beneficiary is still responsible for the costs of their care before the insurance kicks in.

Each policy will have a certain amount of money that it will pay out during any given time period or over the life of the policy. Often, policies indicate that they only cover a certain number of years of care as well. While you want the best care possible for the longest time, limiting one of these factors may make the insurance more affordable.

A couple may want to buy their long-term care insurance in the form of a joint policy. Not only does this often offer a pretty significant discount, but it's also sometimes possible to specify that if one person uses up all of their benefits, they can use the benefits of the other person.

If the idea of potentially throwing away money if you don't end up needing long-term care bothers you, consider a policy combining life insurance with long-term care insurance. If you don't use the long-term insurance, your heirs get a life insurance payout when you die. However, this type of policy is more expensive than the traditional type.

Look into the health of the company offering the insurance policy. A company with a high rating with Moodys or Standard and Poors is best. Also, make sure the company hasn't increased the rates a lot in recent years, as this is a sign that the company may not be doing so well.

While it may be tempting to purchase the best policy available, if you can't afford the premiums, you may wind up throwing away money. If you stop paying the premiums, the policy is no longer valid and that money is just gone. Instead, choose the best less-expensive policy you can afford, as some coverage is better than none.