The need for long term care will happen to about one out of every two people. Everyone should plan for this eventual crisis in his or her life. This need for care will usually happen at an older age, so we often call this, elder care. We spend our lives making plans and preparing for future events. From the beginning we plan and work towards education, a career, marriage and a family. We work hard and save, invest and build our assets. We insure to protect our home, automobiles, health and medical needs. Retirement age comes and our plan is finally in place. Finances and time have come together to allow us to enjoy the elder years of life. This is where the planning ends. But life does not end at retirement. There is a portion of life that the majority of us will live through after the retirement years called eldercare. Very few people plan for this part of their life and it is as important if not more important to plan for it. If we don't, we are leaving our last years in someone else's hands. As much as children love us and mean to do right by us, they cannot possibly know what we want if they are not told. The concept of eldercare or long term care planning is fairly new. A fast-growing generation of elderly people needing care is starting to put a great deal of pressure on caregiving family members and government programs for long term care. More and more we are aware of the crisis that long term care can cause in families. And a huge group of 77 million baby boomers, poised for retirement, is causing alarm in the elder care provider community. Understanding the natural progression of long-term care and the resources available to help can be an invaluable asset to a family or spouse who are currently providing care or someday in the future, may eventually have to provide help for a loved one. We call this process long term care planning. It involves: