OneAmerica Is Making the LTC Conversation Easier

With 52%¹ of people turning 65 every day eventually needing some form of long-term care (LTC) in their lifetimes, engaging clients in a conversation about unexpected, future health events should be easier. With some knowledge, typical barriers — persistent misunderstanding about LTC protection including what it covers, how one can pay for it, and whether products that can support a well-rounded retirement plan are available — can be overcome.

OneAmerica^® can help you tackle these education needs and help your clients prepare for potential LTC through asset-based long-term care solutions with features unavailable anywhere else. With the Care Solutions^® product suite from The State Life Insurance Company^®, a OneAmerica company, clients can live a long life with the security of having an LTC benefit to cover care if they need it or leave a financial legacy if they don’t. 

1. Protection that may become an asset that can pass onto loved ones

“There’s still some lingering confusion among consumers and producers from the history of stand-alone long-term care insurance that affects their perceptions about modern asset-based long-term care protection,” said Joe Howard, divisional vice president at OneAmerica. “Today’s protection includes guarantees and options that weren’t available on earlier products.” 

Modern products like OneAmerica asset-based long-term care protection work. Clients can leverage a life insurance policy or an annuity and add long-term care benefits through a rider. They can use the LTC benefit if they have an LTC need, or if not, they can have a death benefit as part of their financial legacy. These products, combined with an aging baby boomer population faced with a need for LTC protection, have created a surge of demand for asset-based LTC protection.      

“Often, the baby boomers are still focused on asset accumulation rather than what’s going to happen when they start using those assets for income in their day-to-day living,” said Scott Hall, regional sales director, OneAmerica. “But with life expectancy increasing thanks to medical advances, and longevity planning becoming a key focus due to chronic illness, conditions like Alzheimer’s and a host of other aging-related conditions, we need to focus on trends for future challenges that middle-aged and older consumers are going to face and the new solutions that are available to them.”

Care Solutions from OneAmerica addresses the limitations of early, traditional LTC policies that some consumers still remember. With Care Solutions, premiums never increase, LTC benefits never decrease, cash value can grow, death benefits are available if not used for LTC, and clients have a return of premium option.

“If someone needs care in their home, an assisted living facility or a nursing home, the policies of today allow them to go where their care is needed,” said Tracey Edgar, vice president of sales and distribution, Care Solutions. “LTC protection can be a very important part of their retirement plan that can help them avoid spending down personal assets to pay for their long-term care. If you’ve chosen the lifetime benefit option, you can’t outlive the benefits.”

 

2. Making sure both spouses are protected — under one policy 

Asset-based LTC products are about helping clients be prepared and provide protections they won’t get from other options. That way, if care is needed, they can pay for those services and care, so loved ones don’t have to provide the care or change their lifestyles to provide care.

OneAmerica Asset Care^® is a life-insurance-based LTC solution that can cover both spouses under one single policy. This shared benefit typically costs less and provides more protection than purchasing two individual policies. 

“This solution offers a great deal of flexibility. Benefits are based on the care that a couple needs,” said Edgar. “Plus, with OneAmerica, if the first person to claim benefits uses all the death benefit, the extension of benefit option would be there, up to a lifetime, for the other spouse, without worry they will run out of benefits.”

If a need for LTC arises for both spouses simultaneously, each is eligible for their own monthly benefit limit. This means the full LTC benefit is still available, but for a shorter period of time.

“LTC joint protection is one of the differentiators of OneAmerica,” said Howard. “I think it’s easier for a couple to envision the likelihood of one of them needing care and sharing a pool of insurance as opposed to purchasing the correct amount for two individual policies. It just makes sense to the consumer.”  

3. The only lifetime benefit that you can’t outlive

Some might think they don’t need LTC protection beyond the average length of care between 2.2 years and 3.7 years² for men and women, respectively. But preparing for only the average length of a care need can leave a large gap. Among LTC claims during the most common ages (75-84) people use LTC benefits, almost 30% of claims lasting longer than one year end up lasting longer than six years.³

“OneAmerica is the only one in the industry that offers lifetime benefits,” said Hall. “People are becoming aware of the implications of illnesses like dementia and Parkinson’s, and it makes people fearful that they’re going to need care for longer. Lifetime benefits offer the extra peace of mind that clients are looking for.”

Your clients aren’t average, so why is their long-term care?

“OneAmerica recognized a great need to educate financial professionals about why LTC is important and how it can be part of every single person’s financial plan regardless of age or net worth, and in doing so, we’ve created several avenues for that,” said Edgar. “Our education materials are robust and comprehensive and include a range of topics, such as the basics of long-term care, long-term care planning, taxation and long-term care in businesses, as well as ready-made marketing campaigns that cover the basics of getting the conversation started.”

Learn more about our forward-thinking, asset-based LTC solutions that include joint protection and lifetime benefit options. 

Visit TalkLTC123.com to download the OneAmerica guide “Let’s talk LTC.”

1. AARP Long-Term Support and Services, published March 2017.

2. http://www.aaltci.org/long-term-care-insurance/learning-center//ltcfacts-2019.php#2019end Published 2019

3. Society of Actuaries, 2015 Intercompany Long-Term Care Experience Study

About OneAmerica® 

A national provider of insurance and financial services for more than 140 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/companies. 

OneAmerica® is the marketing name for the companies of OneAmerica. Products issued and underwritten by The State Life Insurance Company® (State Life), Indianapolis, IN, a OneAmerica company that offers the Care Solutions product suite. Asset Care form numbers: ICC18 L302; ICC18 L302 JT; ICC18 L302 SP; ICC18 L302 SP JT. Annuity Care and Annuity Care II form numbers: SA34, R508, SA35, ICC15 SA35, ICC15 R521 PPA ND, ICC15 R521 PPA, ICC15 R522 PPA. Not available in all states or may vary by state. Provided content is for overview and informational purposes only and is not intended as tax, legal, fiduciary, or investment advice.

On July 19, 2019, The State Life Insurance Company® was rated A+ (Superior) by A. M. Best. This is the second-highest rating of 16 possible ratings assigned by the agency.