Life-LTC Hybrid Sales Soar: LIMRA

Use of life insurance-based long-term care (LTC) planning arrangements soared in 2017, according to data from LIMRA's LIMRA Secure Retirement institute.

New premiums from life-LTC hybrids increased 18% over 2017 levels, to $4.1 billion, institute analysts report.

The number of policies sold increased 5%, to about 260,000.

(Related: LTC Product Sales Rise 12%: LIMRA)

The average amount of new premium revenue per new policy sold increased about 12%, to about $16,000 per policy, according to calculations based on institute data.

In 2017, about 25% of all new U.S. life insurance premiums paid for life products that offer LTC or chronic illness benefits.

Institute analysts based their figures on results from an insurer survey. A summary of the survey is available here.

Terminology

Institute analysts include life products that offer either long-term care benefits or chronic illness coverage in their life-LTC hybrid product totals.

All of the products can be used to pay for long-term care, but the analysts themselves describe the numbers as "life combination product" numbers, rather than as life-LTC numbers.

The analysts do not include results for annuity-based LTC hybrids in the life hybrid data.

Premium Details

In the past, many life-LTC issuers offered the products only to consumers who could buy the coverage with a single premium payments. Critics said the single-premium payment requirements put the products out of reach of ordinary consumers.

In 2017, products with "recurring premium" payments, or multiple premium payments, accounted for 89% of the life hybrids sold, up from 61% in 2011.

The average recurring premium for a multi-payment hybrid product was $6,397, up 29% from the average recorded in 2016.

— Read Shift in Long-Term Care Planning Shapes ILTCI Meeting, on ThinkAdvisor.

— Connect with ThinkAdvisor Life/Health on Facebook and Twitter.