Looking to secure long-term care insurance through a reliable broker? Look no further than Advisors Insurance Brokers. At AIB, we offer comprehensive long-term care coverage that can help you and your loved ones stay protected against the high costs of long-term medical care. Whether you're in need of long-term home health services or nursing home care, our policies are designed to provide the financial resources you need to access the quality care you deserve.
We believe that everyone should have access to this important form of protection, which is why we work closely with each client to understand their unique needs and find the right policy for their budget and lifestyle. So if you're looking for a trusted long-term care insurance broker with your best interests in mind, look no further than AIB.
What is LTC Insurance?
Long term care insurance (LTCI) provides funds to help offset the cost of an extended care event. Unlike traditional health insurance, which is designed to pay for acute (temporary) health care costs, LTCI pays for costs associated with chronic (longer term) care needs, provided in the home, in an assisted living setting or, if significant enough, a nursing home facility setting.
Historically, LTCI came in the form of traditional LTC insurance and had 4 basic components – a daily (or monthly) benefit amount, a benefit period (how long would the policy pay), an elimination period (akin to a deductible) and an inflation benefit.
Newer types of LTCI have come to the market, and often combine life insurance and annuity benefits with LTCI benefits.
Traditional LTCI is still very much available in the LTC planning space, though there are fewer carriers offering such products today vs. 10-20+ years ago.
Conversely, the newer generation policies combining life insurance or annuity benefits with LTCI benefits – and often referred to as “hybrid” or “combo” or “linked benefit” policies – have proliferated in the market, with more and more carriers offering such products.
Traditional LTCI offers the most cost-effective benefit-per-premium-dollar leverage. However, traditional LTCI does not offer premium guarantees or (generally) a return of any of the premiums paid in the event a policyholder dies not having used their LTCI benefits. Those 2 factors have led to increased popularity to the other types of LTCI policies, which often offer premium guarantees (however, typically at a much higher premium than traditional LTCI) and the potential to return premiums paid (and potentially much more) to the estate of the insured if s/he dies without using the LTCI benefits.
The newer generation policies offer premium payment options of (generally) either a single premium payment, a 3 year, 5 year, 10 year, to age 65 or even lifetime payment options.
There are 3 other important components of the newer generation life with LTCI rider types of policies advisors and consumers should be aware of:
- The nature of how the LTCI benefits are paid – the most common of which are reimbursement or cash indemnity
- Whether the rider on such policies provides true LTCI benefits (under Section 7702[B] of the IRC) or Chronic Illness benefits (under Section 101(g) of the IRC)
- Whether the rider providing such benefits in the form of a extra premium paid for the rider – where generally the entire death benefit of the life insurance portion of the policy is available to pay for LTC or Chronic Illness, or a no premium rider, where the actual amount of (usually) Chronic Illness benefits is uncertain until the time care is actually needed
There is no one right answer as to which type of LTCI is best. Consulting with qualified staff at AIB can help agents and advisors better understand the landscape to find the best LTCI solution for a given client or prospect situation.