A bit of intriguing information in the long term care insurance industry passed by on the press release (PR) news wire this morning that John Hancock Life Insurance Company sold more long-term care insurance (LTCI) than any other carrier in 2007, according to recent survey of long-term care insurers by LIMRA International (LIMRA).  According to LIMRA, John Hancock sold more than 100,000 policies across its retail and group LTC businesses. John Hancock Life Insurance Co. was one of few carriers in the industry to have double-digit growth in the year and was also the top carrier for number of new individual lives sold.  John Hancock's retail business had a whopping 28% increase which was the top in the industry as well compared to an average growth of 3%.

So what do all these figures mean to you the consumer and what trends do they reveal?  The long term care industry is consolidating as companies like Conseco and Banker's Life experience financial woes consumers are flocking to companies like a John Hancock that have deep pockets; they do this because long term care insurance is a policy you might not use for 30 or even 40 years down the road and what I hear from consumers across the country is they want a company that will still be there to pay their claim.  Another problem I see and a concern I hear from consumers is potential rate increases down the road on long term care insurance.  Genworth which is formally know as GE Financial, did a modest rate increase of around 8% on policies sold before mainly 1997 when GE bought their long term care division from another company.  I suspect that the previous company under-charged on the policies before GE took over so now Genworth is having to do a bit of clean up.  The point is that even the big players can have hiccups so it's imperative to pick a company that has strong financial ratings.  John Hancock is one of our favorite products because of their impeccable financial ratings (no rate increases on existing customers since 1987) and innovative "extra" features their policies have over the competition.     

The article goes on to give so interesting facts and figures:

"John Hancock is one of the largest providers of LTC insurance overall with more than 1,000,000 LTC insurance clients and $1.4 billion of in-force LTC insurance premium. The company holds $8.1 billion in LTC reserves and has paid $1.8 billion in LTC insurance claims as of December 31, 2007.

Having entered the retail LTC insurance market in 1987, John Hancock is one of the largest carriers of individual coverage in the country. John Hancock began selling group LTC insurance in 1988 and today is the largest provider of employer-sponsored group LTC insurance in the U.S."

At LTCtree we work with John Hancock along with the other top companies and will help you shop around for the best product on the market to fit your needs.  John Hancock is a fine company but will not be right for all situations so be sure to get quotes from at least 4-5 other companies when you shop.  Take a minute below and fill out the form and we will mail you a side-by-side comparison of the top long term care companies.