First-Time LTCI Claimants May Be Getting Older: AALTCI
Some of the oldest first-time claimants are over 100.
New survey results from the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance (AALTCI) suggest that holders of stand-alone long-term care insurance (LTCI) may now tend to file their first claims at a later age than they did in the past.
AALTCI, which is part of an insurance distribution organization, based the new age-at-first-claim data on responses from seven U.S. LTCI issuers.
(Related: Long-Term Care Insurance Claims Rise 12%: AALTCI)
For those issuers, for LTCI claims that first began in 2018, the average age of the insured was 70 or younger for 4.5% of the first-time claims.
The average age of the insured was 81 or older for 69.7% of the first-time claims submitted in 2018
AALTCI released results from a different but somewhat similar issuer survey in 2010 and 2012.
- In 2010: The age of the insureds who filed first-time LTCI claims was 69 or younger for 9.3% of the first-time claims, and 80 and older for 59.2% of the first-time claims.
- In 2012: The age of the insureds who filed first-time LTCI claims was 69 or younger for 10.9% of the first-time claims, and 80 and older for 63.7% of the first-time claims.
Jesse Slome, AALTCI’s director, said in a statement that each of the LTCI issuers that participated in the new survey received new claims in 2018 for insureds who were over age 100.
“The oldest new claim was started by someone who was 106,” Slome said. “Two were age 105 , two were 104 and two were 101.”
The age categories were slightly different for the new issuer survey and for the 2010 and 2012 issuer surveys.
Other issues that could affect comparisons are the decrease in new LTCI policy sales in recent years, and the possibility that the mix of issuers still in the market may have shifted.
Typical first-time LTCI claimants may be older now partly because, due to the decline in new policy sales, the average age of all policyholders may be increasing.
It’s also possible that the issuers still in the LTCI market had more rigorous underwriting than the issuers that have dropped out.
If so, the age distribution for new LTCI claimants could be shifting partly because the issuers still in the market now have, and have always had, insureds who tend to file claims in relatively late in life.
Resources
A peek at AALTCI’s new claim survey data is available here.
— Read The 24-Year-Old LTCI Claimant, on ThinkAdvisor.
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