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December 23, 2001 at 07:00 PM
Brokerage Agents Ought To Offer LTC, Says Former NAILBA Chairman
By
Dallas
Who is selling long term care insurance?
Before, in the brokerage distribution system, “it was always the other guy selling it,” said Arthur Jetter, in a seminar here at the annual meeting of the National Association of Independent Life Brokerage Agencies.
“They sold it as Medicare supplement insurance, or as an add-on senior product,” said the former NAILBA chairman and owner of Jetter & Company, Omaha, Neb.
And today? “Its us–or it ought to be us,” said Jetter. He devoted much of his podium time to offering suggestions on ways to help spur that along.
“We in the brokerage business have got to get inside the nine dots on this product,” he declared.
Many life brokerage professionals do want to sell LTC insurance, and some are already expanding into the market, he conceded.
However, other brokerages are asking, “How to do it? Where to do it?” Still others continue to view the coverage as a type of “health insurance,” or as “a product thats too expensive and somewhat complicated,” he said.
The environment is changing, however. LTC products have advanced and also become more competitive, Jetter pointed out.
In addition, people are seeing the need for the coverage as part of their financial planning. Its drawing the attention of baby boomers, he said.
Also, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 has called public attention to the fact that people “need to do something” about funding their long term care, Jetter said.
But for LTC insurance to move in the brokerage market, he said brokerage general agents need to develop more confidence in working with the product and in positioning it.
