Hancock Tries To Custom Tailor LTC Policies

April 04, 2002 at 07:00 PM

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NU Online News Service, April 4, 12:13 p.m. – John Hancock Financial Services Inc., Boston, is trying to get away from selling one-size-fits-all long-term care insurance policies.

Earlier this week, the company's John Hancock Life Insurance Company unit introduced an Essential Care LTC policy that offers solid, no-frills coverage at a relatively low cost, and a more expensive Custom Care LTC policy that offers a long menu of optional features.

"The strategy behind the Essential Care policy and the Custom Care policy is to offer different products to fit different consumer needs," says Loida Abraham, a second vice president in Hancock's retail long-term care unit.

Hancock developed the two new policies based on comments from producers, Abraham says. The producers reported that clients were asking for LTC insurance policies that better reflected their own personal priorities.

Hancock believes the new policies will do just that, Abraham says.

One example of the new approach is the FamilyCare Benefit option, which is available with the Custom Care policy. Customers who buy the option can use a single LTC policy to cover as many as four members of an extended family.

"Long-term care is a family event," says Loida Abraham. "It doesn't only affect that person, it affects the whole family."

Producers who sell policies with the FamilyCare Benefit option may be able to bring the whole family into discussions about long-term care, Hancock says.

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