GROWING OLD: IS IT COOL OR COSTLY
BE INFORMED ABOUT LONG-TERM CARE
If you are getting close to 60 you are probably paying more attention to all those ads for Long-Term Care insurance. Have you seen the one with Dennis Hopper in his cool shades telling us it’s great to get old? He says “dreams don’t retire.”
“It may be ‘cool’ to get old,” says Frank N. Darras, the nation’s top insurance lawyer. “However, it’s also ‘cool’ to make sure you are financially sound in your golden years.
Darras says, “Hopper is right about something. It’s not so bad getting old. Retirement can be a time to enjoy your dreams. But Hopper also says that you need to plan in order to make this happen.”
Baby boomers are living long, productive, healthy lives and there are a lot of them. Four million a year are turning 60 and retirement planning is becoming critical and making front-page news all over the nation.
Darras has a few suggestions to get you started:
-First, today’s market for LTC insurance is treacherous. The market is oversold, under-priced and poorly underwritten. You need to be careful, there are real opportunities with some companies for you to become a victim of bad faith claim denial. Some companies see this as an easy market to enter by just price cutting the competition.
-These carriers who have low-balled to get into the market may be gaining market share, but they have over promised and will surely under deliver or begin premium rate increase when seniors can least afford it. In a poorly performing economy the only way bad companies can make up for their low-performing investment portfolio is to a) lobby for premium rate increases and b) turn their claim departments into “profit centers.”
-These carriers are making the claims process so difficult and confusing that many seniors just give up. Plus, many seniors are on fixed incomes and any rate increase could seriously jeopardize their ability to keep making premium payments.
So before you purchase any LTC policy, do your research carefully.
Darras warns, “The most important thing is to find a carrier you trust and that will be around for the next 20 years. Lower premiums get you nothing if the company goes belly-up when you need them most.”
When doing your research, find out how committed the company is to LTC insurance. Find out how long they have been selling it and what their record is for claims complaints and rate increases. Last thing you want is to have to hire an insurance dispute lawyer should things go wrong.
“The bottom line is to stay smart so you can play it cool,” concludes Darras.
Tags: Insurance Claim Dispute, Insurance Claim Help
Insurance Claim Dispute Insurance Claim Help
