While overall sales of long-term care insurance declined in 2015, six insurers reported sales growth of as much as 62 percent
Los Angeles, (March 25, 2016) – Six leading long-term care insurance companies recorded increased policy sales in 2015 compared to their sales during the prior year according to the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance.
“This is a positive sign as is the fact that one new insurer will begin selling policies in 2016,” said Jesse Slome, director of the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance (AALTCI). Slome shared information and an industry outlook with the organization’s members.
According to Slome, overall sales of traditional long-term care insurance continued to decline compared to the prior year. “The number of new policies (lives) sold in 2015 was down around 20 percent,” Slome noted.
“The numbers don’t surprise me,” Slome acknowledged to the insurance professionals. “Consumers we speak with perceive long-term care insurance protection as expensive, that insurers seek continual rate increases and they express concern after reading online reports about denied claim. Consumers are wrong; but perceptions can easily become the new reality.” AALTCI recently reported that LTC insurance companies paid $8.15 Billion in claim benefits in 2015, a four percent increase over the prior year.
Linked products on the rise
The national long-term care insurance expert noted that while sales of traditional long term care insurance were declining, sales of linked benefit products were experiencing robust growth. “I believe the number of people buying these policies is far greater than any of the reports you read,” Slome added. “No one is really doing an accurate analysis of policy sales and senior-level executives have acknowledged that as many as 30-to-40 percent of all life insurance policies they sell now include some form of long-term care benefit,” Slome shares. “People are being protected and that’s what matters most to me.”
The American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance advocates for the importance of planning and supports insurance and financial professionals who market long term care insurance solutions. Slome is also head of the National Advisory Center for Short-Term Care Information, established in 2015 to create awareness for the benefits offered by short-term care insurance products.
2015’s Top-10 Long-Term Care Insurance Companies (ranked by # lives sold)
- Northwestern Mutual
- Mutual of Omaha
- Genworth Financial
- Transamerica Long Term Care
- John Hancock
- New York Life
- Bankers Life and Casualty
- Massachusetts Mutual
- Thrivent Financial
- LifeSecure Insurance Company
