3 Peeks Behind the LTCI Blinds

Stand-alone long-term care insurance (LTCI) may still be in investors’ doghouse, but investors seem to be more interested in trying to make money on the doghouse.

Wilton Re recently agreed to reinsure a large block of LTCI policies from CNO Financial Group Inc.

An arm of HC2 Holdings Inc. has completed efforts to acquire an LTCI unit from Humana Inc.

Fitch Ratings hinted that life insurers might be able to make more LTCI deals if they would tell the public how their LTCI units are really doing.

Analysts from Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, an investment bank, recently gleaned a few more details at an insurance conference they held in New York.

The details matter, because many life and health agents have spent years learning how to sell LTCI, and why to sell LTCI. They may be counting on commission streams from their books of LTCI business, and they know that access to LTCI benefits may make the difference between clients barely getting by later in life and those same clients continuing to live with dignity, and in comfort.

Life and annuity products that offer long-term care (LTC) benefits and related benefits now generate far more total premium revenue than stand-alone LTCI, but advocates for stand-alone LTCI contend that high-quality stand-alone LTCI can generally do the most to maximize an insured’s protection against catastrophic long-term care costs.

For a sampling of the Keefe, Bruyette analysts’ LTCI insights, see the idea cards in the slideshow above.

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