NU Online News Service, Nov. 18, 2003, 1:50 p.m. EST – Rate increases and the exit of some carriers from the market have made the recent past challenging for long-term care insurance agents. But the future for the industry is far from bleak, says Marc Cohen, president, LifePlans, Waltham, Mass.
The recent troubling trends create "a challenge for agents because in some sense, agents are selling this as a product to provide long-term security, and if customers are less certain that as they age they will be able to use the product, it makes it harder to sell," he says.
There's also the ongoing challenge of selling to a young person who might not use the product for more than 20 years, Cohen says. The industry has responded to this challenge by selling access to a pool of benefits, rather than just to nursing home care, he says.
"So the issue is not, if you become disabled and need nursing home care; it's if you become disabled, you can use the benefits in a variety of areas," he says.
