LTC Sellers Eye Nontraditional Funding

In addition to asking about nontraditional sources of LTC funding, speakers asked about topics such as regulatory changes and the evolution of employer-sponsored LTC benefits.

The regulatory question gave participants a choice between predicting that, within the next 5 years, LTC insurance will become subject to federal regulation as well as state regulation with; that at least 20 states will require independent reviews of rejected claims; or that there will be a significant increase in the capital requirements for LTC carriers.

About 33% of the participants picked each prediction.

When responding to a question about a 5-year forecast for LTC benefits, 74% of the participants predicted faster growth than for individual sales, 14% predicted slower growth, and 13% predicted roughly comparable growth.

Only 9% of the participants said they expect chief executive officers of LTC insurance operations to want to give up on the operations in the next 5 to 10 years, and 52% said they expect LTC unit CEOs to believe the units have excellent prospects for profitable growth.

Only 6% of the participants predicted government-run LTC social insurance programs would crowd out private insurers.

The panelists who asked the questions were Malcolm Cheung, a vice president at Prudential Financial Inc., Newark, N.J.; Paul Forte, chief executive officer of Long Term Care Partners L.L.C., Portsmouth, N.H.; Gary Jacobs, a senior vice president at Universal American Financial Corp., Rye Brook, N.Y.; and Ray Welnicki, the principal at RPW Solutions L.L.C., Manchester, Conn.