Deciding to Purchase LTC
Your reasons for opting for long-term care insurance may vary. Perhaps, you have a family history of predisposed illnesses which may raise your probability for needing future care, or maybe you are divorced with no children to care for you. For others, the decision may stem from lessening the possible future burden on loved ones, peace of mind, and ensuring they can afford the unexpected. Whatever your reasons may be, they are valid to your particular situation and have lead you to the decision to insure. By now you have probably conducted a google search or two on the subject and have found a vast pool of information on benefits, riders, carriers, and costs. If you are like most individuals you may find the subject of your future care to be daunting and slightly overwhelming, this may leave you wondering, what now?
Finding the right agent
Conducting thorough research before purchasing a policy will be crucial to ensuring you elect a policy thats best for you. Some factors to consider would be your own health, LTC costs in your state, benefit periods, benefit amounts and inflation. Along with this you will want to know information surrounding various different insurers and how they assign rate classes as well as how often they have had rate increases. You will also want to determine which type of policy is best for you, a traditional plan or a hybrid plan which combines life insurance offerings with long term care benefits. Our best advice on getting all these factors in order is to work with a licensed and experienced long-term care insurance agent. Most agents have been doing this for years everyday and all day, so they are likely to know exactly how to guide you through this process. A good agent will have experience working with multiple insurers, health profiles, states, and clients.
Finding the right policy
Once you find a qualified agent, the agent will discuss with you topics surrounding your individual wants and basic health profile. Using this information your agent can provide to you recommendations on types of policies and different carriers. Your agent will also provide you with various quotes to help you compare plans and assess costs. Once you come across a plan that works,, your agent will also work hand in hand with insurers to help collect documents, schedule interviews, and complete the underwriting process. Some plans will require you to undergo extensive medical underwriting involving physicals, nurse interviews, and a detailed health history. Other options may opt out of any medical underwriting, talk to your agent about all options available to you. Obtaining a great long-term care insurance plan for yourself can be easy and painless when using the proper resources.
If you or someone you love is interested in Long Term Care or Long Term Care Insurance be sure to visit: LTC TREE for more information.