Stand-alone long-term care insurance may still be going throughtough times, but long-term care (LTC) planning is starting tobecome a standard part of any thorough financial planning conversation.

Bill Nash, vice president for insurance solutions distributionfor Lincoln Financial's MoneyGuard product, and Mike Hamilton, aLincoln Financial vice president and head of MoneyGuard productmanagement, talked about the shift recently during an interview inNew York.

Lincoln offers MoneyGuard, a life-LTC hybrid product, and italso offers other types of life insurance and annuity riders thatcan help purchasers pay for long-term care costs.

Nash said he thinks financial advisors are much more interestedin LTC planning now than they were even 10 years ago.

In 2007, he said, the idea of providing, or needing, care was anabstract concept for many advisors.

"Now," he said, "everybody knows somebody who's 90."

Whatever happens to the U.S. Department of Labor's fiduciaryrule, the conversation about the rule has also helped, by promotingthe kind of comprehensive approach to planning that draws clients'attention to LTC risk.

In spite of the slump in stand-alone long-term care insurance,"there's actually a lot more solutions," Hamilton said. "I thinkthe market's starting to increase.

Lincoln — a company based in Radnor, Pennsylvania — sent Nashand Hamilton to New York to promote a new Lincoln long-term careplanning market survey report, and to promote this year's Long-TermCare Awareness Month outreach campaign.

Nash said he has concerns about the idea of devoting one monthout of the year to LTC awareness.

"It's a discussion we need to embrace throughout the year," Nashsaid.

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But Nash said many advisors who come at the topic from afinancial perspective, rather than because of a first-handexperience with someone who needed long-term care, may need helpwith talking to clients about the emotional aspects involved withproviding care for a loved one, and with making realistic plans topay for the clients' own long-term care.

Lincoln has tried to fill some of the emotional awareness gapthis year by sponsoring an online survey of 1,015 U.S. residentsages 18 and older. A survey firm conducted the survey in August.When Lincoln staffers were developing the questions, they tried toget information about the survey participants' emotions, not justthe participants' personal financial calculations.

Here's a look at three of the survey team's findings.

1. Many people have a hard time admitting that they would havenegative feelings if they suddenly had to provide care for a lovedone.

Lincoln listed 10 possible emotional reactions to suddenlybecoming a family caregiver and asked the survey participants torate which emotions the participants' thought they were most likelyto feel if they were suddenly thrust into the caregiver role.

The participants rate "compassion" at the top, with 52 percentof the participants saying they could most identify with thatresponse.

"Annoyance" ranked at the bottom with just 4 percent of theparticipants saying they could most identify with that emotion.

The participants' may have gotten a little more candid with themiddle-ranking responses. The second highest-ranking response, forexample, was "Overwhelmed." About 44 percent of the surveyparticipants were willing to admit to a survey team that they werelikely to feel overwhelmed if they were suddenly faced withcaregiving responsibilities.

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2. Members of Generation X expressed the strongest emotionsabout caregiving.

Many baby boomers, or people born in 1946 or earlier, mayalready be retired, and may already be providing care.

Many millennials, or adults born between 1980 and 1999, may haveno young children to take care of, and only a hazy idea of what oldage might be like.

Typical members of the generation in the middle, or GenerationX, meanwhile, have jobs, young children, and parents who arestarting to age into the "oldest old' category.

Lincoln found that the GenX survey participants were more likelythan boomers or millennials to say they could identify with almostevery possible emotional reaction to caregiving that the surveyform listed.

The only exception was "needed": boomers were much more likelyto say they would react to becoming caregivers by saying they wouldfeel needed.

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The gap in responses to the reactions "overwhelmed" and"anxiety" were the biggest.

About 30 percent of the GenXers said they thought they would feelanxious, compared with 26 percent of the millennials, and just 24percent of the millennials.

But there was also a gap in the responses to the reaction"compassion": 54 percent of the GenXers said they thought theywould feel compassion, compared with 52 percent of the boomers and48 percent of the millennials.

3. Feelings have limits.

Even when Lincoln asked about responses to possible emotionalreactions to caregiving, only 27 percent of the participants saidthey would feel "obligated."

When Lincoln asked participants what kinds of care they werewilling and able to provide, 79 percent said they could help withcaregiving and feeding, and 75 percent said they could help withpersonal needs, such as cleaning and transportation.

But only 35 percent said they would and could quit their jobs toprovide care, and just 35 percent said they could and would pay toput loved ones in a long-term care facility.