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I was thinking about buying long term care insurance and I was wondering if anybody can recommend a good insurance company. I see many online and I read the reviews but I am not sure if I can trust all the reviews. I see plans for AARP, State farms and Genworth. Does anybody have experience with these companies?
really would be interesting to hear from those attempting to collect on their plans.....but so far, no problems paying my premiums to Fed LTC plan through John Hancock.
I broker LTC, depending on your state, I would recommend looking at Mutual of Omaha and Transamerica. I would stay away from Genworth, their financial ratings have dropped rather dramatically.
Most of the "bad news" you hear about Genworth is written for investors explaining why they should not invest in Gewnorth bonds or Genworth stock. However, there is a big difference between investing in an insurance company and being a policyholder. In fact, what's good for the policyholders are oftentimes NOT good for the stockholders (investors).
A couple years ago Genworth added almost $2 Billion to their LTCi claims reserves. That was good news for all of the policyholders. That was bad news, however, for the stockholders. The stockholders would have preferred that money be counted as profits which would have increased the stock price. Instead, after adding that money to their LTCi claims reserves Genworth's stock dropped and that was the cause for the class action lawsuit.
The last time I checked Genworth had over $19 Billion in reserves set aside just to pay long term care insurance claims. Reserves are funds that are NOT counted as assets. Reserves can't be touched by creditors (or China Oceanwide). Reserves are used exclusively to pay claims.
Genworth collects about 2.5 Billion in LTCi premiums each year.
They are incurring about $1.5 Billion in LTCi claims each year.
And they have over $19 Billion in LTCi reserves (to pay future claims)."
I won't need long term insurance for decades but I like to plan ahead. Thank you to the people who gave useful responses.
I think in your late 50 and early 60's might be the best time to buy. Problem is insurance co's are having a hard time figuring out what the cost of claims will be and thus the premiums. The market could be completly different when you want to buy the insurance.
Employers may have a plan and it could be price so you can buy cheaper and earlier.
Study the history of premium increases. This might be a question to post. Also co's just dropping all plans
Look for a trade group you can join. The group can probably get a better policy than you can on your own.
There are life insurance policies that include long term care. Might look at these and they might be of interest now.
there are problems with those hybrid life policies and they end up being very poor deals . besides the fact they are very very costly internally and become more so as rates rise the fact is you may have to double the size of the policy decades from now when the amount is 2x what you planned for .
like reverse mortgages , these hybrids really should be policies of last resort , where you can't qualify for a regular ltc policy . regular ltc insurers are very very strict as to who they take .
even our broker couldn't get one as he was to far over weight . i almost was rejected because i waited to long to finally apply and now i had some blood tests that showed i was diabetic even though with diet ,exercise and no meds i was down to prediabetic ,.
as michael kitces stated :
As traditional long-term care (LTC) insurance becomes more and more expensive, and interest rates remain at ultra-low levels, planners and their clients have become increasingly interested in so-called “Hybrid LTC” policies that match together a life insurance or annuity policy with LTC coverage, especially with a more favorable set of tax rules that took effect in 2010. For many, though, the primary appeal of hybrid policies is the simple fact that, unlike their traditional LTC insurance brethren, the premiums really are guaranteed and cannot be increased in the future. Given some of the extraordinarily large premium increases that traditional LTC coverage has experienced in recent years – especially for some of the early policies issued in the 1990s and early 2000s – a cost guarantee is remarkably reassuring.
Yet the reality is that the guarantee of LTC premiums in a hybrid policy may be entirely offset by the fact that the insurance company controls the cash value, and is under no obligation to pay a going rate of return, especially if interest rates rise. In other words, it doesn’t really matter that the insurance company can’t increase the premiums on the policy by $4,000/year, when the company can simply under-pay on the interest rate by $4,000/year to accomplish the same result! And while the cash value of a hybrid LTC policy generally does remain liquid, taking a withdrawal to reinvest to get better, higher rates would entail surrendering the policy and forfeiting the LTC coverage! In fact, for some types of hybrid LTC policies, the arrangement contractually provides no rate of return to the client at all, and is essentially the equivalent of the client selling a call option on interest rates to the insurance company, where the more rates rise the greater the company wins at the expense of the client!
Given the unique structure of hybrid LTC policies, though, there are still several circumstances where they may be appropriate, despite the concerns about how they may perform in a rising rate environment. In some cases, simplified underwriting provides a way to get coverage for those who otherwise couldn’t get any, and in other scenarios, the favorable tax treatment alone can make a hybrid policy compelling as a place to park an existing appreciated annuity. Nonetheless, the bottom line is that in today’s environment, consumers must be careful not to engage into hybrid policies that amount to little more than offering the insurance company the unilateral right to profit if/when interest rates rise, when the reality is that simply following a “buy LTC insurance and invest the rest” philosophy would lead to a far better outcome in the long run.
Last edited by mathjak107; 08-24-2017 at 04:09 AM..
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