Mistakes Long Term Care Insurance Dabblers Make

July 27, 2012 - PRLog -- This week a Connecticut couple almost paid $10,000 a year for long term care insurance based on the recommendation of their financial advisor.  They ended up buying excellent coverage for roughly $5,700.

“This is the first generation of Americans to shop for and buy long term health care insurance and most put their trust in the advice of what can often be the wrong individual,” explains Jesse Slome, executive director of the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance, the national organization that advocates for long term care “It just takes an insurance license to sell long-term care insurance http://www.aaltci.org but it really takes experience and some time to develop a real expertise in the field.”

According to the organization’s director, often an insurance agent unfamiliar with the field will take an ‘off the shelf’ approach to recommending an insurance product.  “For years, selling long term care insurance with a five percent compound growth option was the industry standard,” Slome notes.  “Today, that is the most costly formula simply because interest rates are at historical lows and it can double the cost of a base plan of protection.”   Most long term care insurance specialists today will recommend a far more affordable option where the future benefit grows at three percent or keeps pace with the Consumer Price Index.

Another area often overlooked by less experienced insurance agents or those without access to a comprehensive range of policies are the cost-effective use of newer policy provisions.  “Several of the insurance companies now offer a shared care option whereby two spouses share access to each other’s benefit pool,” Slome explains.  “Not all companies do and someone who dabbles may not even understand how to use this option to reduce the overall cost of coverage.”

Nationally headquartered in Los Angeles, the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance is the trade organization with the mission of educating Americans about the importance of planning for the risk of needing long term care.

For additional information on long term care insurance costs http://www.aaltci.org/long-term-care-insurance-costs  or to connect with a specialist member of the Association call (818) 597-3227 or visit the organization’s website.  There you’ll find and be able to freely long term care insurance planning guides which appear regularly in issues of Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine.