(Some) women know that they don't know

By Allison Bell

November 13, 2012 at 08:45 AM

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U.S. women may be a little more nervous than U.S. men about their level of knowledge of long-term care (LTC) planning basics — and rightly so.

Marketing specialists at Northwestern Mutual have compared male and female LTC planning literacy in an analysis of data from a recent survey of 2,516 American adults ages 18 and older

Men were more likely to say they felt as if they were prepared to cover their expenses if they lived to a ripe old age.

Northwestern Mutual found, for example, that 33 percent of the men surveyed said they were prepared financially to live until age 95. Only 24 percent of the women said they felt as if their financial preparations would keep them going until they were 95.

Forty-seven percent of the men said they were saving for future LTC needs, compared with just 37 percent of the women.

But 22 percent of the men said they thought their medical insurance would pay any LTC bills, and 14 percent thought their disability insurance would pay the LTC bills.

Only 17 percent of women said medical insurance covers long-term care, and only 9 percent said disability insurance covers long-term care.

When presented with a list of false statements about LTC planning, 31 percent of the men understood that all of the statements were false. Forty-one percent of the women knew the statements were false.

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