National Guardian Life had a busy booth Sunday at the opening of the 2019 ILTCI Conference exhibit hall. (Photo: Allison Bell/ALM)
Members of the long-term care insurance (LTCI) community gathered in Chicago Sunday with the understanding that the product is still trapped in the doghouse, and Alzheimer's disease is still roaming around free.
The 2019 Intercompany Long Term Care Insurance Conference opened with Drinker Biddle, a law firm, sponsoring the lanyards that hold up the attendees' badges, and serving deep dish pizza in the exhibit hall. Drinker Biddle notes in the brochure on its exhibit hall table that it can help LTCI issues with filing for rate increases, and coping with claim litigation.
Ryan Krueger, a securities analyst with Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, is preparing to talk Tuesday about why investors are skeptical about insurers' LTCI blocks in general, and especially about morbidity improvement assumptions and other reserving assumptions.
Lawyers will be speaking at a panel Monday about a slowdown in LTCI rate increase litigation but an acceleration in LTCI claim dispute litigation.
Many longtime ILTCI Conference attendees care deeply about squeezing the most possible LTCI coverage out of the premium dollar, to protect families against the kind of financial devastation that a loved one's 10-year stay in a nursing home can bring. They have been skeptical about the idea of offering clients long-term care hybrid products, based on life insurance policies or annuity contracts, that might lead to any decrease in protection against catastrophic LTC costs. This year, many presenters at the conference are talking about how to market and sell hybrid products.
But a continuing worry about catastrophic LTC risk surfaced today, at a meeting of the Society of Actuaries' Long Term Care Insurance Section council.
The section is working on an update of an LTCI claims experience.
Phyllis Shelton, a longtime LTCI agent and sales trainer, asked council members when they'll providing new claim duration numbers.
She said LTCI agents would love to see the actuaries break out separate claim numbers for claimants who collect benefits for at least one year.
"That's the true claim," she said, referring to the likelihood that many people with short-term claims are using benefits to recover from acute illnesses, while the people collecting benefits for more than a year are likely to be suffering chronic conditions.
Shelton cited an older study suggesting that a man who's been on claim for at least a year will be using long-term care for an average of another 3.8 years, and that a woman who's been on claim for at least a year will, on average, need about 4.7 more years of long-term care.
