A client retiring today at the age of 55 or 60 can reasonably expect to live in retirement for almost as many years as they have worked. Longer life spans, coupled with reductions and restrictions in state sponsored care programs like Medicare and Medicaid have made long term care planning a vital part of a healthy retirement plan.
In fact, the cost of Long Term Care confinement can be so detrimental to retirement assets, many of our brokers recommend it on the basis of portfolio protection- insurance designed to protect the long-term growth and viability of a client’s retirement portfolio from being decimated by extended convalescence.
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How Does Agency Development Choose LTC Carriers and Products?
Before making the decision to represent a carrier, we screen the company
and product for:
(1) Excellent Financials- As in life insurance, our primary concern in identifying companies to work with is the long-term, financial strength of a carrier. We require a minimum AM Best rating of A or better and pay close attention to S&P and Weiss safety ratings.
(2) Consumer-friendly policy features- with the important features and benefits your clients need.
- Monthly Home Health Care Benefit Structure
- Calendar Days of Illness when calculating elimination and waiver of premium periods
- Single Elimination period for lifetime of the plan
- Care Coordinator provision free of charge
(3) “Goldilocks” premiums- Not too high and
not too low. We are firmly committed to the ideology that cheaper is not
always better when evaluating long term care products. A product that
is priced too inexpensively can create major financial difficulties for
the carrier later in that product’s lifespan, causing massive premium
increases for policyholders- that are now older and less able to competitively
shop the market as they may have been originally. Cheaper is not always
better.
(4) Fair and reasonable compensation schedules
We have identified four preferred Long Term Care carriers on the strength of their financials, client friendly features, fair premium schedules and their experience in the industry:
- Physicians Mutual
- Lincoln Benefit Life
- John Hancock
- State Life
Agency Development has a full-time, certified Long Term Care Expert on
staff: Kirk MacKenzie, Ph.D, CFS & CLTC . Kirk is a great resource to help you identify
and target LTC prospects in your current client base and is happy to assist
you in learning how to:
- Educate clients on the need to protect themselves with LTC insurance
- Help clients “find the money” to fund LTC insurance
- Target and educate business clients on the tax benefits of LTC
- Overcome client objections
- Identify LTC insurance as “Anti-Nursing Home Coverage” by constructing plans to provide for in-home care for as long as possible
We support you through providing:
- Individual case design and field underwriting assistance
- Back office support, including application processing, case tracking, licensing and commissions support
- Detailed analysis on competing carriers and policies
- Ongoing sales ideas
Remind your
clients that the best way to ensure they don’t end up in a nursing
home is to buy a good Long Term Care coverage.
- Product Details with Company Profile
- LTC Illustration Request Form
- Why Choose Physicians Mutual For LTC Insurance?
- Sales Ideas-
• LTC Insurance as “Anti-Nursing Home Coverage”
• LTC Insurance as Portfolio Protection
• Help Your Client “Find the Money”
• Actually, Virginia, LTC Coverage is Cheap
Some of the above
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