How can I opt out of the Washington Cares Fund?
There are 5 steps you have to take in order to opt out (and stay out) of the Washington Cares Fund payroll deduction.
Step 1: You must purchase LTCi before November 1st, 2021
If you don’t yet own long-term care insurance, I have good news. There are still 3 excellent companies selling long-term care insurance in the state of Washington. And most importantly, all three are selling policies that use “simplified underwriting”. That means you just have to answer a few health questions and your policy can be approved in less than 5 business days (if you’re relatively healthy.)
Which of these 3 policies should you buy? It depends upon your age, your health, your financial situation. If you don’t yet own long-term care insurance, complete the form and we’ll email you some recommendations within 24 hours.
If you already own long-term care insurance please tell your friends, neighbors, coworkers, relatives who live in Washington to go to:
Complete the form and we’ll send them recommendations within 24 hours.
November 1st is the deadline.
START HERE TO OPT-OUT OF THE WA LTC TRUST ACT
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Step 2: YOU must request an opt-out at the ESD website
No one can do it for you.
Your employer canNOT do it for you.
Your insurance agent canNOT do it for you.
YOU must request an opt-out at the ESD website
When you request the opt-out, there are 2 things you have to certify:
#1 Age
#2 Attest that you own long-term care insurance and that you purchased your policy before November 1st, 2021.
Will you need to give ESD a copy of your policy?
Will you need to tell them what benefits your policy has?
What kind of proof will you need to give them to show that you own long-term care insurance?
NOTHING. NADA. ZILCH. NOTHING.
At least not yet.
Doesn’t the law allow the ESD to verify that you own long-term care insurance?
Yes, the law allows the ESD to verify that you own long-term care insurance.
But they just don’t have time or resources to do any verification now.
The creators of the WA Cares Fund assumed that about 95,000 Washingtonians would buy long-term care insurance and opt-out of the WA Cares Fund. In reality, over 500,000 Washingtonians have purchased some type of long-term care insurance and are opting out of the program.
They don’t have the time or the resources to verify 500,000 insurance policies.
When will they do the verification?
We don’t know.
But the program will need to be funded.
A half-million of the highest wage earners in the state are opting out of the program. They will likely do a lot of verification as time allows to make sure they find anyone who is trying to cheat the system.
Step 3: Receive your letter from ESD approving your opt-out
That’s it. Get your letter. It’s your golden ticket.
Step 4: Give that letter to your human resources (HR) department
Your employer must begin to take the tax out of your pay beginning January 2022 UNLESS you give them that letter.
If you give your employer the letter in January, they’ll have to deduct the tax for the entire first quarter (Jan 1 – Mar 31).
Do NOT wait until January to give your employer that letter from the ESD.
Step 5: Verification by ESD that you own long-term care insurance
When will they verify? We don’t know.
How will they verify? We don’t know.
Once we know more about the verification, I’ll send everyone who is subscribed to my website an update.
