With recent product changes, price increases and companies exiting from the marketplace, it is time we rethink how we present traditional Long Term Care insurance products and perhaps broaden our approach with alternative ways to protect your clients.
In our agency, we quote a lot of LTC insurance but very few policies are actually sold. The standard illustration showing $200 per day benefit, 90 day elimination period, 4 year benefit period and 3% Compound Cost of Living rider has been priced out of the market for most of our clients. The need for Long Term Care insurance has never been higher. We need to find ways to protect your clients without breaking the bank.
I have lately been preaching the strategy that some LTC insurance is better than none at all. In years past we would offer LTCi policies that would attempt to cover the entire anticipated cost of LTC expenses. For most of our clients, this policy has been priced out of reach. We should now offer a solution that perhaps doesn’t cover all of the anticipated expenses, but goes a long way to protecting the client from financial disaster. Let’s quote lower monthly benefits or eliminate the inflation rider. Design a plan that offers substantial protection and at the same time is affordable enough for your client to commit to buying. Some protection is better than none.
We are fortunate now to have alternative ways to protect your clients from Long Term Care expenses. These new products include Single Premium Life with a Long Term Care Rider, regular premium paying Universal Life or Whole Life with a Long Term Care rider and Term Insurance or Universal Life with an Accelerated Death Benefit for Chronic Illness.
With all of these products available to protect your clients from Long Term Care expenses, we should be able to find some combination of products and benefits to fit your client’s needs and budget.
Call us to help design a plan that makes sense for your client.