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As a financial professional, your clients trust you'll be there to help them stay ahead of the curve. Think about it. You sell life insurance to protect families, disability income insurance to replace earned income, but have you considered selling long term care insurance to help protect your clients' assets, preserve their independence, and secure their lifestyle? Ask your clients who've created wealth what they'll do to protect their finances - and their family - should a long term health care situation arise.
The best time for clients to buy long term care insurance is when they are active and working. Target 50 to 65-year-olds who are focusing on retirement. Long term care may be top of mind, and its importance underscored, for individuals whose parents or friends' families may be experiencing care issues. People often think of care in a nursing home when long term care insurance is proposed. In fact, most long term care takes place at home. Long term care insurance helps not only those who need care, but enables caregivers to provide better care for a longer period of time.
The two common policy designs on the market today are indemnity and reimbursement. Indemnity products are designed to pay a daily benefit no matter what the charges for care happen to be. Advantages for clients can include not having to record expenses and enabling unlicensed people (e.g. family members) to act as informal caregivers. Less costly, reimbursement policies only reimburse clients for actual costs. However, unused benefit can be used to extend a benefit for a longer period. For example, someone who buys a three-year benefit period and only needs two-thirds of its daily benefit amount may be able to add unused benefit beyond year three.
Once you understand your client's needs, look for a financially strong carrier, given that long term care insurance is guaranteed renewable, meaning premium can increase. Select companies with strong financial ratings and a proven history of withstanding claims experience without impacting company performance.
For more detailed information on the importance of long term care insurance and MassMutual's SignatureCare® product, click here.
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