LTCI Watch: Boxy boomers

Some of my colleagues are working on a series of features about the current American way of death.

It hit me: One of the barriers to selling private long-term care insurance (LTCI) and LTC planning services is that, let’s face it, use of LTC services is often a prelude to death, and our society’s approach to handling death has all of the charm of a box of dollar-store mothballs.

Typical funerals, funeral homes, caskets and urns are in need of a makeover.

Of course, members of the baby boom generation, and later generations, have been dying in small numbers for decades, but the real baby boom boxy boom is still coming up.

Members of my own generation — the skeptical, coffee-swilling, distressed wood buying, “the flaws in the garment are part of this charm” Generation X generation — aren’t expecting to die in large numbers for another 30 or 40 years.