Lehman Optimistic About Long-Term Care Insurance

NU Online News Service, July 12, 1:35 p.m. – Lehman Brothers Inc., New York, has published a research report on John Hancock Financial Services Inc., Boston, suggesting that the outlook for private long-term care insurance is bright.

Insurers are doing a better job of retaining LTC insurance policyholders, the push to offer unrealistically low rates is easing, and claims trends are favorable, according to Eric Berg and E. Stewart Johnson, the analysts who wrote the report.

So far, claims are running at about 95% of the expected rate, and tight underwriters are doing particularly well, the analysts write.