What Can Help Clients See the Long-Term Care Cost Threat? Science

Long-term care planners can help clients plan for a high-probability threat — huge long-term care bills — by talking about how taking action now can improve their safety and security today, Jeff Kreisler said Monday in Denver.

Kreisler, the head of behavioral science at JPMorgan Chase, was the keynote speaker at the 2023 Intercompany Long-Term Care Insurance Conference.

The ILTCI Association kicked off the latest, four-day conference Sunday, with about 950 attendees, 200 speakers and moderators, 270 participating companies, and 42 sessions in seven tracks, on topics such as long-term care wellness programs, state legislative efforts and moves to support caregivers.

Kreisler discussed strategies for using the science of behavioral economics to get clients to act.

When an LTC planner is talking to a client, "take 10 seconds and ask, 'Who is this person?'" Kreisler advised us attendees. "Don't focus on money, legal documents or health. Instead think about what motivates them… Focus more on what they want instead of what you offer."

Kreisler also recommended that a planner work with a client to build an LTC plan, rather than presenting a fully developed plan, to take advantage of the "Ikea effect."

"When you are part of building something, you value it more," Kreisler said.

The ILTCI Conference

The long-term care division of the Society of Actuaries began organizing the ILTCI conferences in 2005. A nonprofit ILTCI Association now runs the conferences.

COVID-19 forced the cancellation of the 2020 conference, and it forced the association to hold the 2021 conference online.

Last year about 700 people attended the in-person conference in Raleigh, North Caroline.

Steve Schoonveld of FTI Consulting, this year's chair, welcomed the attendees at the opening session on Monday. He compared what people who promote better long-term care planning do to a chess game, with pawns.

"Pawns take the initiative, because they move first," Schoonveld said. "We need to lead the way to make it happen."

The Keynote Speaker

Jeff Kreisler, the keynote speaker, is a Princeton graduate with a law degree from the University of Virginia who has worked as a comedy writer for Nickelodeon and an executive humor coach at Stanford University.

He entered the world of behavioral economics in 2017, by co-authoring a best-selling book about the topic with Dan Ariely, and he moved to JPMorgan in about two years ago.

At the ILTCI Conference, he told us that one principle of behavioral economics is that people have a hard time thinking about risk. They first focus on the probability of something happening — not the impact, such as bankrupting your family due to needing long-term care.

One takeaway for LTC planners is that we should help clients focus on the benefits of having a LTC plan in place now, in addition having what the benefit would be in 20 years, Kreisler said.

Margie Barrie, an agent with ACSIA Partners, has been writing the LTCI Insider column since 2000. She is the author of two books and a frequent conference speaker.