Consumer Reports and Long Term Care Insurance

   I have always subscribed to Consumer Reports Magazine and ConsumerReports.org for their insightful knowledge of seemingly all products and services.  I ran across the report they did on Long Term Care Insurance and was impressed as usual.  They took a look at the industry and product from top to bottom and gave great advice for consumers shopping for Long Term Care Insurance.  They had the product's important considerations broken down into sections... 

...the first section was:

1. Look for a Strong Insurer:  As an independent general agency I wholeheartedly agree with them that your long term care insurance policy is ONLY as good as the company behind it.  Consumer Reports went on to say to look for companies with a A+ or better financial rating by the financial stability rating companies like AM Best, Moodys, Standard & Poors, and Weiss Rating.  These rating companies do their homework for the most part and I've found their rating to be good precursors to spotting suspect companies who later had financial woes.

2. Consumer Reports also mentioned how important inflation protection is in a long term care insurance policy.  Most buy this insurance in their 40's and 50's and they might not use the benefits for 30 or 40 years, so you want a policy with built in or automatic 5% Compound Inflation protection.  This means a $4000/month in benefits policy today will grow to about $18,000/month in 30 years.  It's important to note that your benefits grow 5% automatically if you have inflation protection, but your premiums do not grow automatically.

3. A Four Year Benefit Period plan should be efficient, Consumer Reports states that 90% of people over the age of 65 who need long term care ONLY need it for 5 years or less.

4. Get at least 3 different long term care company quotes because prices can vary from company to company based on your age and combination of benefits.

     The last piece of advice Consumer Reports states: to shop around.  Helping consumers compare long term care insurance companies is LTCtree.com's foundation.  We are independent brokers for all the A+ name brand companies you've heard of like John Hancock, MetLife, etc. so we can give you that apples to apples comparison Consumer report say you should get.  Simply fill out the form below and we'll get the quotes in the mail usually within 24 hours.