Podcast Center
Video Center
Webcasts
Resource Center
Events
October 10, 2017 at 11:37 AM
It is widely agreed upon that the market for traditional long-term care insurance (LTCI) is all but dead—the number of clients who purchase LTCI has continued to decline rapidly in recent years and several major LTCI carriers have simply pulled out of the dying market.
Unfortunately, as most clients realize, the need for long-term care is as robust as ever, meaning that advisors will continue to be called upon to suggest methods for funding the rising cost of long-term care. This enduring need for funding care, however, has sparked a relatively new line of hybrid products designed to fill the gap left by traditional LTCI—and combining LTCI with life insurance or an annuity is a solution that may appeal to many clients who still need long-term care coverage.
LTCI Today
In today’s LTCI market, many clients are simply unable to obtain the insurance coverage that was available in the past. Because the costs of long-term care have consistently continued to rise, and the likelihood that the need for care will arise is high, many carriers have raised premium levels on traditional LTCI to the point where most middle-income clients cannot afford the policies.
Further, carriers often impose much stricter underwriting requirements today—meaning that the client’s medical history is now examined more closely, making it more difficult for many clients to even qualify for LTCI.
(Related: 15 Most Expensive States for Long-Term Care: 2017)
Carriers have also begun focusing LTCI on shorter-term policies that provide less generous benefits. While these standalone policies may be less risky for the insurance company and more affordable for the client, they are unlikely to provide the level of coverage that clients may need.
The Rise of Hybrid LTCI Alternatives
With the decline of traditional policies, many carriers have developed LTCI coverage that is bundled with a life insurance or annuity product. One appealing aspect of combining life insurance (or an annuity) with long-term care coverage is that these so-called “hybrid” policies eliminate the risk that the client will never require long-term care coverage. The life insurance policy or annuity continues to provide a standard death benefit—either in the form of life insurance death proceeds or annuity payouts—to the contract beneficiaries even if the long-term care feature is never accessed.
Typically, the value of the long-term care benefits that will be available to a client under an annuity with long-term care coverage is based on a percentage of his or her initial premium. Because the cost of long-term care continues to rise, many clients may also wish to purchase inflation protection, which is designed to ensure that the contract value grows at a rate that keeps pace with the actual costs of long-term care.
