Wouldn’t it be funny if the unwanted long-term care insurance (LTCI) business that sits in insurers’ “closed-block” businesses like an unwanted ex-spouse squatting in the cellar came back someday?
Most insurers with closed LTC blocks are keeping the numbers out of their earnings releases and supplements this quarter.
One exception has been Unum Group Corp., Chattanooga, Tenn. (NYSE:UNM).
Unum says premium revenue at its closed block of long-term care insurance (LTCI) business actually went up during the second quarter, to $157 million in the second quarter, up from $151 million in the second quarter of 2011.
The interest-rate-adjusted loss ratio, or ratio of claims to revenue, increased to 87.8%, from 84.3%, but ratio spiked up to 91.2% during the first quarter, and Unum was happy to see the decrease from the first quarter, company executives said during a conference call with analysts.
Total net LTCI reserves increased to $5.7 billion at the end of the quarter, from $5.4 billion at the end of 2011.
Premium persistency for the first half increased slightly, to 95.8%, from 95.6%.
Unum Chairman Thomas Watjen said during the Unum earnings call that the “extremely low rate environment” has been hurting the LTCI block as well as other Unum operations.