A study on perceptions of long-term care (LTC) protection conducted by OneAmerica, in collaboration with Hanover Research, found that only 54% of financial professionals are currently recommending or offering LTC protection to clients.

The study, which included a survey of more than 400 financial professionals, aimed to better understand their behaviors and views related to LTC planning and selling LTC products.

While just over half of surveyed financial professionals currently include LTC protection in their recommendations to clients, an additional 25% have recommended it in the past but are no longer doing so. About one in five — 21% — said they have never offered such protection to clients.

These results highlight a potential gap in helping clients prepare financially; the Administration for Community Living estimates that almost 70% of individuals¹ over the age of 65 will require a form of LTC services at some point in their lives.

“As an industry, we can — and should — be doing a better job of helping people prepare for the risk of a major expense that, statistically, we know they’re likely to face,” said Jeff Levin, vice president of distribution, Care Solutions, OneAmerica. “LTC protection can help protect the retirement income that financial professionals and their clients have worked so hard to build.”

The results of the survey of financial professionals follows the LTC Consumer Planning Study, which examined perceptions of consumers about LTC.

The two studies show the top two reasons financial professionals sell long-term care insurance are the same reasons clients purchase it — to remove the financial burden of LTC events from clients’ families (73%) and to provide financial security (67%).

Clients who inquire about LTC protection are most likely to have family members who have experienced an LTC event. Other clients who express interest in LTC are those who are about to retire and those who have recently experienced a health challenge or who have been diagnosed with a health condition.

Asset-based LTC protection viewed more positively

As in the consumer study results, asset-based LTC protection was preferred over traditional LTC protection. Eighty-five percent of the financial professionals surveyed had a positive impression of life insurance with a long-term care benefit, while 60% had a positive impression of traditional long-term care insurance.

While financial professionals said they like selling traditional LTC insurance because of cost and ease of use, they shared their reasons for recommending asset-based LTC protection were more substantive and more aligned with the needs of their customers.

The top three reasons financial professionals said they recommend asset-based LTC protection were:

• Unused amount passed to heirs
• Clients can combine life insurance with LTC benefits
• Tax advantages of repositioning assets

“Financial professionals who are familiar with asset-based LTC showed they understand how it can benefit their clients,” Levin said. “It’s part of a well-rounded approach to financial planning.”

Learn more about how financial professionals view long-term care and download the full financial professional research survey.

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1 “How Much Care Will You Need?” 2/18/2020. https://acl.gov/ltc/basic-needs/how-much-care-will-you-need

Methodology

The OneAmerica Long-Term Care Financial Professional Planning Study was administered in association with Hanover Research and distributed online to financial professionals. This analysis includes more than 400 respondents, following data cleaning and quality control. Respondents were at least 18 years old, employed in the United State as a financial professional and have an awareness of long-term care insurance. Hanover Research is not an affiliate of the companies of OneAmerica.

About OneAmerica^®

A national provider of insurance and financial services for 145 years, the companies of OneAmerica help customers build and protect their financial futures. OneAmerica offers a variety of products and services to serve the financial needs of their policyholders and customers. These products include retirement plan products and recordkeeping services, individual life insurance, annuities, asset-based long-term care solutions and employee benefit plan products. Products are issued and underwritten by the companies of OneAmerica and distributed through a nationwide network of employees, agents, brokers and other sources who are committed to providing value to our customers. To learn more about our products, services and the companies of OneAmerica, visit oneamerica.com/about-us/companies-of-oneamerica.

OneAmerica is the marketing name for the companies of OneAmerica.

Media Contact:

Zach Osowski

Zach.Osowski@oneamerica.com