The money spent on LTC insurance premiums is gone forever.

Well, the same can be said for a term life insurance policy if you outlive it.

We have term life for both DH and me. It's a 15-year level term policy, and we are planning on letting it lapse when we've reached that 15-year point, which is just after the kids graduate from college. At that point which is only 2 years away and assuming we are both still living and haven't collected on either policy, we fully intend to let them lapse as we will no longer need life insurance.

We opted years ago to buy term insurance and invest the difference that would have been used to buy a whole life policy. Do all you folks who think LTC is a bad investment feel the same about term life insurance? That's a similar product that you may pay on and never use, but I'd still rather have it to ensure that I have provided for my family. I do have an aunt and a cousin who were both widowed at a young age, each with 2 children under the age of 4, so I've had some family experience with why life insurance is good when you have a family counting on you.