LTC Bullet:  2017 LTC Insurance Surveys Published

Friday, August 11, 2017

Seattle—

LTC Comment:  Broker World magazine has published its annual long-term care insurance surveys for 2015.  Highlights after the ***news.***

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LTC BULLET:  2017 LTC INSURANCE SURVEYS PUBLISHED

LTC Comment: Every year Broker World magazine publishes surveys of traditional and worksite long-term care insurance.  The surveys’ authors are well known LTCI experts, Claude Thau, Allen Schmitz, and Chris Giese.  We’ve culled a few highlights from this year’s surveys below.  Check out all the details in the July and August issues of the magazine.  Be sure to subscribe to Broker World if you haven’t already.

It’s clear from the following data that the private long-term care insurance industry continues to face daunting challenges.  On the other hand, it is equally true that private LTCI is playing a bigger role in financing extended care as its policies mature and claims increase.  What the future holds is anyone’s guess, but a likely scenario is that publicly financed long-term care will face harder times, and the obstacles holding back LTCI will retrench over time.

Excerpts from “2017 Milliman LTCI Survey,” Broker World, July, 2017

  • “The 17 carriers reported sales of 88,922 policies ($220,501,539 of new annualized premium) in 2016, which we believe represents 100 percent of the stand-alone LTCI industry’s 2016 individual and multi-life sales.”

  • “Overall, the number of policies sold was 13.6 percent less than in 2015 and the annualized premium was 14.2 percent less than in 2015.”

  • “‘Combo’ policies (i.e., LTCI combined with life insurance or annuity coverage) and policies that offer LTC-related accelerated death benefits more than made up for the sales reductions.”

  • “Six insurers increased sales compared to 2015.”

  • “The average issue age dipped from 55.9 to 55.8, the lowest ever reported in this survey. Fewer insurers offer coverage to people under issue age 40 or above issue age 75.”

  • “The average premium per new insured dropped slightly from $2,497 to $2,480 (reflecting 17 insurers), and the average premium per new buying unit (recognizing couples as one buying unit) dropped slightly from $3,526 to $3,496.”

  • “Reported affinity business amounted to 6.1 percent of the 2016 new insureds (down from 6.8 percent in 2015 and 7.8 percent in 2013 and 2014) but only 5.1 percent of the premium (consistently a lower percentage of premium than policy count).”

  • “Northwestern and Mutual of Omaha continued as the number one and number two carriers, combining for 45 percent of the new sales in terms of premium.”

  • “In 2015, the number of in-force policies for our participants dropped for the first time (0.2 percent). In 2016, the number of in-force policies dropped again, by 0.3 percent.”

  • “Nonetheless, year-end in-force premium increased 2.9 percent in 2016 (2.4 percent in 2015). In-force premium is increased by sales, price increases, and benefit increases, and is reduced by lapses, reductions in coverage, deaths, and shifts to paid-up status for various reasons.”

  • “Participants’ individual claims rose 6.9 percent and group claims rose 4.7 percent. Overall, the stand-alone LTCI industry incurred $9.7 billion in claims in 2015 based on companies’ statutory annual filings, raising total incurred claims from 1991 through 2015 to $107.8 billion.”

  • “The average time from receipt of the application until a policy is issued dropped from 44 days to 38 days, the fastest time since 2012.”

  • “Insurers continue to deal with disheartening price increases on existing policies and unsatisfactory results for those older blocks. Recently priced policies are based on assumptions that rely on far more credible data, hence premiums should generally be more stable, but many financial advisors presume that currently issued policies will face steep increases.”

  • “We are aware of only 37 times claimants have resorted to independent third-party review (IR), and the insurers’ denials were upheld 89 percent of the time. . . . The existence and voluntary expansion of IR and the insurer success rate when appeals occur all work to justify confidence in the industry’s claim decisions. Such confidence may be reflected in the media, as the industry has received little criticism regarding claims adjudication in the past few years.”

  • “The annual number of life insurance policies sold with long term care benefits is now more than twice the number of stand-alone policies sold.”

  • “Only one participant believes there will eventually be a government LTCI program and expects that program to provide limited benefits. Seven insurers responded that they do not expect such a program, and the other participants chose not to answer this question.”

  • “The shift to gender-distinct pricing is nearly complete, but the impact continues to evolve. At the beginning of 2013, all products used unisex pricing. Now only one insurer uses unisex pricing outside the worksite. (Note: two carriers use unisex pricing for couples.)”

Excerpts from “2017 Analysis of Worksite LTC Insurance,” Broker World, August, 2017

  • “In 2016, participants reported sales of 14,929 worksite [WS] policies for $23.7 million of new annualized premium, increases of 22.1 percent in the number of WS policies and 12.4 percent in new annualized WS premium.”

  • “These increases contrast with the declines in total 2016 LTCI sales compared with 2015 (13.6 percent fewer policies and 14.2 percent less new annualized premium).”

  • “Worksite LTCI sales accounted for 18.5 percent of the policies sold in the industry (up from 12.5 percent in 2015) and 11.9 percent of the annualized premium (up from 8.7 percent).”

  • “For one carrier, 64 percent of its new premium came from WS sales. Another carrier had 37 percent of its sales from WS. The other three carriers sold seven percent to 11 percent of their new premium in WS.”

  • “The average worksite premium dropped from $1,740 in 2015 to $1,590 in 2016. Among participants, the average varied from $1,344 to $3,453, so a change in distribution by carrier can significantly affect the overall average premium. Core business drags the average worksite premium down a lot and carve-out business pulls it up, so a change in distribution by core versus carve-out can also have a big impact on average premium.”

  • “The WS share of the total market has been increasing for the past three years despite pressures affecting the worksite market. Most of the increase in WS market share reflects the decline in NWS stand-alone LTCI. The popularity of combo products has eaten into the NWS stand-alone LTCI market much more so than in the worksite market.”

  • “Our data indicates that the WS market has become increasingly dominated by female sales, perhaps because females are becoming informed about the attractiveness of unisex premiums and because the WS market charges males a lot more than males are charged in the NWS market.”

  • “Insurers have also raised their minimum ages to avoid anti-selection (few people buy below age 40) and, to reduce exposure to very long claims, stopped insuring people who don’t go to the doctor regularly.”

  • “Uncertainty related to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) continues. The waves of confusion and work for employee benefit brokers and employee benefit managers continue to make it hard for brokers and clients to consider WS LTCI.”

  • “Voluntary worksite LTCI sales may gravitate toward combo products, which have the added advantage of providing valuable life insurance coverage that is viewed as a more immediate potential need.”