Firm sees fewer Gen X LTCI seekers

Issuers of stand-alone long-term care insurance (LTCI) may be having a harder time attracting young, healthy consumers.

LTC Consumer, a long-term care (LTC) planning firm, has raised that possibility in a new infographic report based on a review of about 1,200 new LTCI applications the firm submitted in 2015.

A year ago, the firm conducted a similar analysis based on the LTCI applications the firm handled in 2014. In the analysis, the firm found that just 6 percent of the 2015 LTCI applicants were ages 49 or younger, down from 8 percent in 2014.

The share of applicants coming from consumers ages 60 to 69 increased to 52 percent, from 50 percent.

In 2015, all baby boomers, and the members of Generation X born in 1965, were in the 50-and-older age group. The only consumers still under the age of 50 were members of Generation X, the millennial generation and younger generations.

LTC Consumer also found some evidence that the younger consumers who are applying for LTCI may tend to have more health problems than older applicants do: The LTCI application approval rate was highest for applicants ages 55 to 59, rather than for younger applicants.

The LTCI approval rate was lower for older applicants: 80 percent for applicants ages 60 to 64; 73 percent for applicants ages 65 to 69; and 61 percent for applicants ages 70 and older.