Pat Foley is right in the middle of the action for life insurance policies and annuity contracts that offer long-term care (LTC) benefits.
As president of individual and retirement services at OneAmerica, he works for an Indianapolis-based company that has been offering "hybrid LTC" products, or "asset-based LTC" products, before the hybrid products were cool.
He personally has been involved with efforts to protect consumers against the risk of death, and of outliving income, since the 1980s.
OneAmerica is an active, visible player in the LTC planning market. It's still expanding distribution networks and web marketing efforts, and supporting the LTC sector's annual Long-Term Care Awareness Month outreach campaigns.
Here's a look at five things Foley said he's seeing in the market for LTC solutions now, drawn from a telephone interview conducted Wednesday.
1. He thinks the predicted increase in interest in LTC planning is definitely here.
"There's growing interest because of the demographics," Foley said. "It didn't really start happening till the last five or six years."
Foley said he sees growing consumer, and financial professional, awareness that depending on government programs is not a great option.
"We need to get our house in order," Foley said.
2. He sees sellers of traditional stand-alone long-term care insurance (LTCI) starting to warm up to some hybrids.
Even today, many agents who live to protect clients against catastrophic LTC risk shudder at the thought of offering consumers products that offer only limited protection against LTC risk.
Those agents are passionate about the idea that paying more to get more protection will be worth the cost for any family hit by a catastrophic LTC need.
(Photo: Thinkstock)
