Long-term care insurance is a difficult product to sell but advisors are suggesting simple changes by insurers could change that
Pricing, or more aptly put, the availability of affordable pricing, is one of the biggest negatives mentioned by advisors when discussing long-term care insurance. It’s a major headwind for growth but there is a solution and it’s not at all complicated.
Hybrid products.
LTC expert Karen Henderson suggests that there are four big LTC players in Canada – Desjardins, Manulife, Sun Life and La Capitale Financial Group – compared to a dozen or more in the U.S. When it comes to hybrid products there might be 10 or so in Canada while in the US, advisors have hundreds of options to meet their clients’ needs when it comes to long-term care insurance.
“Years ago there used to be 109 companies in the United States selling long-term care insurance,” LTC expert Karen Henderson told LHP. “The U.S. is far more insurance inclined because they don’t have the socialized system that we do. Having said that, too many Canadians believe our health care system will look after them when it won’t because it can’t afford to.”
If the insurance industry in Canada wants to get ahead of the dilemma facing our aging population as it struggles to cope with the costs not covered by provincial health insurance, including long-term care, it might help to get on the U.S. bandwagon and increase the number of hybrid products it introduces into the Canadian marketplace.
“A few companies are offering to convert a critical illness policy at the end of term into a long-term care policy, crediting the amount of money that was paid for critical illness and not used,” Manulife advisor Monica Weissmann told LHP. “It would make sense to provide a few goodies for the conversion. I think there are some but not sufficient for us to be able to provide this as a compelling benefit to buy critical illness and/or long-term care.”
Carriers need only add a few perks to hybrid products and Weissmann sees them as very viable. Not only that but combining products such as critical illness and long-term care would save time and money.
“[Hybrid products] It will help the government, the insurance companies, and it will help the people,” Weissmann said.
See more: Long-term care gets a wake-up call
Hybrid products.
LTC expert Karen Henderson suggests that there are four big LTC players in Canada – Desjardins, Manulife, Sun Life and La Capitale Financial Group – compared to a dozen or more in the U.S. When it comes to hybrid products there might be 10 or so in Canada while in the US, advisors have hundreds of options to meet their clients’ needs when it comes to long-term care insurance.
“Years ago there used to be 109 companies in the United States selling long-term care insurance,” LTC expert Karen Henderson told LHP. “The U.S. is far more insurance inclined because they don’t have the socialized system that we do. Having said that, too many Canadians believe our health care system will look after them when it won’t because it can’t afford to.”
If the insurance industry in Canada wants to get ahead of the dilemma facing our aging population as it struggles to cope with the costs not covered by provincial health insurance, including long-term care, it might help to get on the U.S. bandwagon and increase the number of hybrid products it introduces into the Canadian marketplace.
“A few companies are offering to convert a critical illness policy at the end of term into a long-term care policy, crediting the amount of money that was paid for critical illness and not used,” Manulife advisor Monica Weissmann told LHP. “It would make sense to provide a few goodies for the conversion. I think there are some but not sufficient for us to be able to provide this as a compelling benefit to buy critical illness and/or long-term care.”
Carriers need only add a few perks to hybrid products and Weissmann sees them as very viable. Not only that but combining products such as critical illness and long-term care would save time and money.
“[Hybrid products] It will help the government, the insurance companies, and it will help the people,” Weissmann said.
See more: Long-term care gets a wake-up call
