San Antonio — Some of the long-term care insurance (LTCI) community players who came for the Intercompany Long Term Care Insurance (ILTCI) conference this week are trusting in the raw care-financing power of traditional LTCI to get them through the current hard times.
Attendees are watching eagerly to see whether National Guardian Life, for example, is going to roll out a new traditional LTCI product. Rumors about the product have been circulating for months.
John Hancock, Genworth and other carriers are promoting new, and relatively new, next-generation traditional LTCI products that are designed to withstand a low-interest-rate universe.
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Traditional LTCI players have been known for their passion for the raw long-term care (LTC) services financing power of traditional LTCI, but this year some longtime traditional LTCI market loyalists are here to talk about projects in other, nearby sectors.
For a look at what three of those explorers are saying, read on.
1. John O'Leary
John O'Leary, a veteran LTCI product development consultant, ran a session on a new product concept he's working on: simple, inexpensive term life insurance that turns into an LTCI policy when the insured turns 65. The insured would cope with inflation with a coverage purchase option, rather than a built-in inflation adjustment feature.
O'Leary showed analyses suggesting that, for a 45-year-old purchaser, an issuer could hold the monthly premium for a policy like that with a $100,000 death benefit and a $135 daily LTCI benefit to about $50 per month.
O'Leary said he wanted to hear other people's reactions to the concept. "The objective of this session is to see where the leaks in the boat are," he said.
O'Leary said regulators in California, Minnesota and Nebraska seem to be interested in the product concept.
One audience member said he had run into trouble with a similar product development effort years ago: At that time, regulators had viewed a hybrid product that provided LTC protection only after retirement as a "long-term care insurance product with a 35-year exclusion period."
(Image: James O'Leary. LHP/Allison Bell)
2. Bill Jones
Bill Jones is the former president of MedAmerica Insurance Company who now leads the National Alliance of Insurance Agencies Inc., an organization that connects manufacturers of short-term care insurance (STCI), annuity-LTC hybrids, life-LTC hybrids, noninsurance products, and other alternatives to traditional LTCI with independent insurance agents and agencies.
One product that excites him is a family of group life products from Transamerica that offers workers access to life-LTC combination features.
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