Term-care insurance .

Long-term-care insurance is the financial equivalent of gum surgery: something that is often seemingly necessary, but just as often avoided at all costs.

term-care insurance Long-term-care policies help pay for nursing-home, assisted-living and home care costs. In just the past year, premiums have risen by as much as 17%, according to the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance, a trade organization for insurance agents.

"A long-term care event is one of the few things that can completely derail your retirement plan," says Jeremy Kisner, president of SureVest Capital Management, a financial-advisory firm in term-care insurance .

term-care insurance Chris Blunt, president of New York Life's insurance group, credits the lack of a use-it-or-lose-it element—a much-disliked facet of older policies—for the fact that sales have tripled since 2007. "People hate paying for something they think they will never use," he term-care insurance.