Nursing home

Long Term Care tax deductible and other questions

As the 2018 midterm elections approach the senior vote as always will be important in the November elections. A common question for senior voters is how to plan for long term care in their retirement and what if anything can the government do. Here’s a q’s and A from a voter on all things including if Long term care insurance premiums are tax deductible.

Q and A blog to post:

Long Term Care Insurance Companies agent:

  1. We’d still be your agent and involved going forward and help with claims if needed. You of course could also deal directly with the company for anything you need in the future. To this day I have clients who bought from me back in 1999 who I still help and are in contact with.
  2. They all will still be in business in 20 years in my opinion. There has not been one major life insurance company that has failed and not paid claims that I can think of in 100 years. Not to say it could never happen but it would be highly unlikely because the insurance companies are required to set aside reserve money that they must invest in safe things like T-Bills, plus they also re-insure one another in a system called the Guarantee Insurance Association. With that said, Mass Mutual clearly has the best financial strength and would be the one I’d go with.
  3. Yes, the word should be changed to best deal. Mass Mutual combines a good price with much better financial ratings than Genworth. Genworth is the lowest financially rated company of the group and I feel rate increases would be more likely with them vs. Mass Mutual. (see attached current financial ratings)
  4. We can add that with any of the companies but if you heard the merits of that rider from another agent, they types often lead people to believe it will save them money have a shared rider added when in fact it adds about 20% to the cost. When you compare the cost, it’s about the same price to shares six years’ worth of benefits than to each have five years’ worth individually. I’d rather have the later but of course we can design it however you like… I just wanted to give you the other side of the coin.
  5. Sure, see attached.
  6. $200/day in new attached quotes

As far as us being out of town, our advantage over most all agent is objectivity, experience, and sheer volume of sales. We work with all companies so can call the balls and strikes as pitched. Another agents who maybe sell just Genworth and Mutual of Omaha might leave out the negatives that some companies have because they can’t sell all of the companies like we can, in this case Mass Mutual. They might not tell you that Genworth’s stock price fell to $1.58 just a month ago (now about $2.70) down from $18.00 a year ago. They might not go over the past rate increase history of the companies., etc.

The low stock price does not mean Genworth will fail  because of the firewalls I mentioned in number 2, but rather lead to rate increases if they don’t get their act together. I’ve personally been selling this since 1998 and that gives me an advantage over most agents. I’ve actually been in the trenches with boots on the ground and seen the trends of the industry first hand which enables me to help my clients predict what’s going to be their best path forward.

Lastly, most local agents sell maybe 20 policies a year because they just work their one area. I personally sell over 300 a year and my company LTC Tre over 700 a year. Not to brag, but it’s like a doctor who has performed 300 hip replacement surgeries this year vs. one who just has performed 20. The sheer volume of sales we are able to achieve selling in all 50 states gives us a huge advantage on advice and product offerings. (off soap box) Ha-ha!

Client:

We have finally collected and reviewed all of the data and have compiled a few questions before we proceed. Please excuse us if we ask a silly question or two.

  1. Once a policy is decided on and sold to us by you, the people that we will work with from that point on will be the LTC Carrier and their representatives? Correct? You will be out of the loop?
  2. In your experienced opinion, which Carrier will still be here in 5, 10, 20 years? It will not be a pleasant experience to be forced to convert or change to a different Carrier when we are older!
  3. Reference “Plan A” and your cover letter to us: you stated that “Mass Mutual has the best rates”. However, Genworth is nearly $200 less ($4,383 vs $4,563). What did I miss here?
  4. Regardless of which Carrier we decide on, the feature of “shared benefits and waiver of premium is a must have!
  5. is it possible to provide a “mixed” set of quotes, based on the following criteria:

-Keep the 3% Inflation Factor and 90 day Period

-A THREE year Term for Ken ( which you provided) and provide a new FIVE OR SIX year Term Quote for Penny?

  1. I remember and understand that you felt that in our area (150 miles outside Chicago) that we may not need $200/day coverage ($6,000/month). Therefore, your data only includes quotes for $150/day ($4,500/month). To caution on the safe side of inflation, and perhaps a better Care Facility, can you please adjust the quotes to the higher totals and resend?

Lastly, we hesitate to commit and do big dollar business with people from too far out of town. What can you tell us to help make a final decision about someone based out of the beautiful city of Atlanta?

We have also sent our questions to the other groups that we have been in contact with. Once we regather and reevaluate the revised data, we will possibly have one last set of questions for you.

Thank you very much for your help and patience. This is a very costly expense for retired people and we both understand the importance of LTC in today’s world.

Best regards,

Client