An irrevocable trust can be a valuable tool for a client who cannot afford to self-insure against long-term-care costs and is unable to purchase long-term-care coverage. Assets inside the trust can be noncountable for Medicaid purposes if the trust is funded at least five years ahead of time. Advisor Perspectives
Long-term-care insurance costs are soaring because of a number of factors, including longer lifespans and low interest rates. Financial advisors can help clients facing premium increases by looking for areas to tweak their policies to keep costs down, such as reducing benefit periods and increasing waiting periods. CNBC
The traditional long-term-care insurance industry is struggling as the majority of consumers opt for hybrid LTC products linked to an annuity or life insurance contract. Of the roughly 350,000 LTC policies sold last year, less than 60,000 were conventional stand-alone LTC contracts, according to the American Association for Long-Term Care…
Steve Schoonveld, head of linked-benefit product solutions at Lincoln Financial Group, seeks to correct several misconceptions about annuity and life insurance contracts that include long-term-care benefits, starting with the idea that they lack inflation protection. He also makes the case that they should be called combination products rather than hybrids,…
Men tend to ignore or feel indifferent about risk, making it difficult to sell them insurance, including long-term-care insurance, writes Harley Gordon of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys. Gordon suggests focusing the conversation on consequences for loved ones, rather than risk to oneself. InsuranceNewsNet Magazine
A National Association of Insurance Commissioners task force has tabled a request to study creation of a uniform rate-review process for long-term-care insurance after encountering opposition. Birny Birnbaum, executive director of the Center for Economic Justice, calls the proposal “significant misuse of market-conduct authority.” InsuranceNewsNet Magazine online (8/6)
A study from Moll Law Group shows Americans underestimate their need for long-term care, as well as the cost and how soon they might need it. The study also finds 64% of respondents have nothing saved to pay for long-term care. ThinkAdvisor (free registration) (8/6)
Clients want to “get something back” from their long-term-care insurance if they don’t end up tapping into benefits, said financial planner Dan Moisand, and this concern could fuel growth in sales of policies that combine life insurance and long-term-care insurance. Data from LIMRA shows sales of combination policies nearly tripled…
Brian Starr, a long-term-care insurance advisor in Phoenix, says he is seeing a trend in which millennials purchase the product for their parents. Starr says millennials want products that are "internet-based" and notes they put value on working with advisors who have been personally recommended to them. InsuranceNewsNet online
Sales of hybrid long-term-care policies have more than doubled in the past five years, but the products' potential for growth remains strong, LIMRA says. That's because fewer than 7% of people older than 50 have any kind of long-term-care coverage, according to a LIMRA analysis. Financial Planning online
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