How to help clients navigate the LTCi underwriting process

Agents and advisors are vital in assisting their clients with the often-challenging process of navigating long-term care insurance underwriting.

Two financial professionals recently shared a few steps that LTCi advisors can take to help their clients successfully manage this process and enhance their chances for approval.

Why clients need guidance

There are several reasons why agents should help guide clients through the LTCi underwriting process, according to Tom Riekse, managing director of LTCI Partners.

First, guidance manages their clients’ expectations. LTCi may be recommended, and the clients may perceive themselves healthy enough to buy it, but certain conditions could prevent purchase, Riekse said. A good example is someone who has not been to the doctor in several years and has an undiagnosed medical condition such as hypertension.

In this case, Riekse said, the client could be declined or postponed for LTCi coverage. Because LTCi is frequently purchased by couples, this could also affect the healthy spouse who might be approved for coverage but might decide to withdraw the application because of the other spouse’s decline. “Managing expectations means there is a plan in case one or both spouses are declined for coverage, that it doesn’t come as a surprise and it can be handled thoughtfully,” he said.

Helping clients with the underwriting process

What are some of the steps that agents and advisors can take to help their clients go through the LTCi underwriting process?

“Over the years, we’ve looked at several best practices that an advisor can use to help clients with the underwriting process,” Riekse said. “The most important is to explain that part of recommending a product or carrier depends on a client’s health; so, a preliminary health questionnaire is crucial.”

Riekse added that these questionnaires are typically completed online and are then used to see what the carrier-underwriting guidelines say.

“New AI vendors allow for an easier multi-carrier comparison of health conditions, recommend carriers that may be a fit and may recommend additional questions to ask,” Riekse said.

Once a carrier has been selected for application, it is important to understand that there may be additional questions that a carrier will ask during the application process, which will result in a decline. “Again,” Riekse said, “managing expectations is critical.”

He added that some brokerage general agencies have concierge application services that can help clients fill out the application, which can be a real timesaver. “Since every carrier has its own process, partnering with a BGA can ensure that applications are submitted in good order,” he said. “It’s also critical to have someone monitor the case through the carrier process since each case is different.”

The magic words in LTCi underwriting

David Wolf, president and owner of AgingPlan, also offered some advice on helping clients through the underwriting process. AgingPlan is a long-term-care planning firm based in Spokane, Wash.

Wolf said that advisors should “coach your clients that the magic words in long-term-care insurance underwriting are stability and activity. “Clients are best served to frame their health answers in these terms,” he said.

But Wolf added that most consumers frame their health issues in negative terms. For example, they might say they have a knee issue and they do not run anymore because of it. The secret, Wolf said, is to frame these issues in terms of stability and activity. So, they might say: "I have had some knee pain, but I haven't needed any treatment in three years,” or “I walk a mile a day.” Clients who understand and use this type of framing are not inadvertently sabotaging themselves, he added.

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Ayo Mseka has more than 30 years of experience reporting on the financial services industry. She formerly served as editor-in-chief of NAIFA’s Advisor Today magazine. Contact her at [email protected].