Credit: KatarzynaBialasiewicz/Shutterstock
One of the companies that has been keeping the market for stand-alone long-term care insurance alive is revamping its LTCI products.
The company, National Guardian Life Insurance Co., is replacing a traditional LTCI policy that offers a daily benefit with a new-generation LTCI product that provides a monthly benefit.
Paying a monthly benefit "provides more flexibility for policyholders who wish to receive their care in their own home," the company said Monday.
The product will be available in 34 states Friday.
What it means: Clients who want to insure themselves against long-term care risk have a new option from a company that's enthusiastic about offering LTCI coverage.
The history: The appearance of the baby boom once made writing stand-alone LTCI coverage the AI boom of the U.S. insurance industry.
The issuers then discovered in the late 1990s and the early 2000s that most of their assumptions about how the product would work were overly optimistic.
Most of the issuers fled from the market.
Now, about 10 companies appear to be active in the market.
National Guardian Life: National Guardian Life has been working with an outside company, LifeCare Assurance, to develop its original LTCI products.
LifeCare Assurance is also the "third party administrator," or outside administrator, for the new product, a company representative said.
Product details: Benefit periods for the new-generation policy can range from two to six years.
Typical LTCI policies have offered buyers compounded inflation options that can protect them against annual inflation of 3% or 5%.
The new product will also offer 1%, 2% and 4% inflation protection options.
The product also includes an "alternate plan of care provision" that could help buyers use the coverage to pay for types of care that do not currently exist.
Credit: KatarzynaBialasiewicz/Shutterstock
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