CNO sees slowing LTCI rate increase efforts

State efforts to limit long-term care insurance (LTCI) premium increases may be hurting some issuers more than others.

Frederick Crawford, the chief financial officer at CNO Financial Group Inc., gave that assessment Monday during a conference call with securities analysts.

Crawford said “various states” may not let a company raise LTCI rates enough to compensate for the performance of the policies.

“I would say the industry is no doubt experiencing rate increases that are far below what we hoped for and probably modestly below our expectations,” Crawford said.

CNO may be in a better position than some other carriers since it started asking for small, relatively frequent increases early on, rather than waiting to ask for “massive and sizable” increases later, Crawford said.

“So, it’s a little less of an impact item for us,” Crawford said.