Mastering the Rate Increase Conversation

"I'll just drop the plan" sounds like a reasonable reaction to a rate increase letter until you compare the numbers. Learn how to turn one of the most emotionally charged conversations in LTCi into a planning opportunity.

Rate increase letters are one of the most uncomfortable moments in the long-term care insurance lifecycle for clients and advisors alike. But with the right preparation, empathy, and strategy, this conversation can actually reinforce your value and reaffirm the client's original planning decision.

In this episode of the Buddy Study Podcast, we walk through how to master the rate increase conversation from start to finish, from what to say at the initial sale to how to advocate for clients when the letter arrives.

We explore:

• Why preparing clients for the possibility of rate increases at point of sale sets up better conversations later
• How to explain the rate increase process, including the role of state insurance departments
• Why leading with empathy is critical before moving to logic and numbers
• How LTC industry history and early actuarial assumptions led to underpriced legacy plans
• Reframing the rate increase as evidence the client made a smart financial decision
• Running new business comparisons to demonstrate the value of an existing plan even after the increase
• Why the options listed in the carrier's rate increase letter may not be the best options available
• The potential trap of "stable premium" options and how to evaluate them
• When and how to call the carrier to explore custom benefit adjustments

This episode is designed to help advisors:

• Navigate rate increase conversations with empathy and confidence
• Show clients the real-world value of their existing coverage
• Advocate beyond the carrier's default options to find better solutions
• Turn a negative client experience into a trust-building planning moment

Chapter Markers

0:00 Welcome & Episode Overview

2:55 Preparing Clients at Point of Sale

4:58 How the Rate Increase Process Works

7:44 Leading with Empathy When the Letter Arrives

9:18 LTC Industry History and Underpriced Legacy Plans

13:25 Reminding Clients Why They Bought the Plan

16:50 Crunching the Numbers — Showing Plan Value

20:53 Walking Through the Rate Increase Letter

23:48 The Stable Premium Option Trap

26:33 Guest Insights on Inflation Growth and Benefit Value

34:49 Tools for Rate Increase Comparisons

38:26 Final Thoughts & Advisor Takeaways

Watch the video version:

https://youtu.be/6EvD23NWGmE?si=jGjqpeDVyLDFp52i

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🔎 About Buddy Study Podcast

The Buddy Study Podcast helps insurance professionals and financial planners master Long-Term Care Insurance through case studies, expert interviews, and carrier product updates. Our goal is to help advisors become more confident, efficient, and knowledgeable when helping clients plan for long-term care.

Transcript

Welcome & Episode Overview

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey everyone, welcome to another edition of the Buddy Study Group, and we're gonna have a pretty small group today. We've got probably three-quarters of the study group list at ILTCI today, but um I think this is a good time to cover a topic that um I get asked to do pretty regularly. Somebody just asked me to do it not too long ago. I try to do it once a year. You hear that from me a lot, but um, we're gonna have the rate increase talk today. And uh I've written on this topic before. Um my old position at a BGA that was working with uh wealth advisors, financial advisors. Um I got these calls a lot because there were folks again, rubber kind of meets the road on a plan, and a client has gotten a rate increase, and they really don't know how to consult on that when something like that happens. And I can totally understand the trepidation when you get notice that a client's gonna get a rate increase letter, or a client has already gotten one and reaches out to you and says, Hey, what's the deal with this? Uh, it can be a pretty intimidating scenario because all of a sudden you're dealing with a client who has uh kind of a negative emotion around something you have helped them put in place, right? So it's not a discussion that we're generally really excited to have, but it's important that we're able to execute really, really well on the conversation and kind of understand how we set ourselves up to make sure that conversation is one that is much more understood before it even happens. So I'm just gonna talk through a little bit of it. As I said when I sent out the agenda, I think the rate increase conversation is just as much about empathy, psychology, as it is about crunching the numbers. And I definitely stand by that because um, as I've said with other study group sessions, even when we talk about say declines, right? You have uh a situation that you need to defuse before you can get a solution, and even with uh, for example, the self-funding conversation, you have to kind of defuse anything adversarial before you can start pulling on the same end of the rope. And I think that's no different here. There's a lot of emotional, psychological work that you've got to go through before you can help a client understand how to move forward with their rate increase. But first and foremost, I think the the first

Preparing Clients at Point of Sale

SPEAKER_00 2:55

way we can make sure our rate increase consultation conversations are a bit more positive or at least a bit less negative is preparing a client ahead of time. If you're gonna be selling them a product that is not guaranteed premiums, not guaranteed. So if there is any possibility of a rate increase at all, we should be covering that early on in the sale, the initial sale in the conversation. We have to kind of set up our future by talking about a lot of these things, and that's no different than say talking to a client about underwriting, right? There's a possibility that we're approved, there's a possibility that we're declined, right? And I have options lined up for you should we be declined, right? We have backups. That is setting up a future conversation of a client potentially being declined, so there's no bad surprises. Same thing with rate increases. You know, you can say that these plans are um designed with uh, you know, designed in a way where premiums are um, you know, the objective is to keep premiums level, but it is not guaranteed. I can't sit across the table from you and guarantee that there will not ever be a rate increase on this plant. That is a distinct possibility. And I think when you help a client to understand that ahead of time and get them to still understand why this product may be their best fit and it may be their preference to go forward with this product, given that there is a possibility of rate increases. Um, as long as you drive that home, that will help set you up for a less negative conversation in the future. And I think it's important to teach a client how rate increases can even happen, right? At the end

How the Rate Increase Process Works

SPEAKER_00 4:58

of the day, it's not like a carrier can roll out of bed and say, I'm going to levy a rate increase and start sending out letters, right? So I think when we're able to explain that a carrier has to petition the state insurance department of each state and actually show evidence that they are uh essentially paying out way more in claims than they're taking in in premiums, and the rate increase is necessary for that reason, among other reasons. And when you mention that the State Insurance Department can approve or deny that rate increase or approve a rate increase, but not at the level that the carrier asks for, I think that's important for a number of reasons. It helps the client know, okay, the carrier can't just do this willy-nilly. But if they do actually try to levy a rate increase, the State Insurance Department, which is, you know, designed to be a watchdog for the consumer and is designed to look out for the consumer in cases like this, with them kind of having the final say, that makes me feel a little bit better. Um, to know that they're going to, you know, help regulate what the carrier can actually get on a rate increase on my plan. And to know that they can't give a rate increase to just me. It's about their experience on the entire policy block, the entire block of business. Those are things that just help give your client a little bit more insight and understand how the process works, and to understand that there is some regulation to this, and it's not just going to be something that's completely out of everybody's control. And if the carrier wants to do it, they can do it. That helps you a lot. So I think what you do in the very beginning in the initial sale can help make that conversation better on the back end. But also, we may go 10, 15, 20 years before we see any rate increases on a plan that you sell today, right? So the client is going to forget a lot of this information, but at least CYA, right? Document that in the conversation that you've talked about this in the past, and of course, be able to offer them a refresher. But let's say we have a client that's in front of us that's gotten a rate increase, and they are not happy about it. Their

Leading with Empathy When the Letter Arrives

SPEAKER_00 7:44

first reaction overall is going to be emotional 99.9% of the time. They're not going to think like us when it comes to seeing a rate increase, right? So the first thing to do is to really show empathy, you know, help the client understand that they've got somebody on their side that's going to advocate for them, but say, Yeah, this it stinks to have a rate increase on a plan. And of course, um, you know, when we bought this policy XYZ number of years ago, we talked about the fact that there could be a rate increase, but that didn't mean that a rate increase was guaranteed. So it is unfortunate to know that we're gonna have to pay a bit more in premium to be able to keep the plan at its same benefits. Just understand and acknowledge that emotional aspect, and that will help a bit to soothe what they're going through. But of course, it's not going to fix everything. You have to be there to provide a solution, you have to be there to be able to provide advice. And I think also helping people understand a little bit about long-term care's history as an insurance product can really help give some understanding too and help them understand why they're getting this rate increase. Um, so especially if you're

LTC Industry History and Underpriced Legacy Plans

SPEAKER_00 9:18

dealing with legacy long-term care policies, you're dealing with older Gen-Worth plans, you're dealing with CNAs, you're dealing with older John Hancock plans, you can talk a little bit about the fact that long-term care as an insurance industry is an infant compared to things like life insurance, compared to things like homeowners, compared to all other types of insurance out there. This is a relatively new type of insurance compared to some of the ones that have been around forever, right? And when an industry is new, you know, these legacy plans are closer to when the industry was really first getting started. Um, there had to be an initial pricing of the product and initial actuarial science kind of put into these plans and initial um just the key word is assumptions, right? And one of the ways that we kind of made mistakes as an industry in pricing these products early on is that we assumed that more people were going to drop this plan or drop their long-term care plan than actually did. Turns out, surprise, surprise, people saw the value in their long-term care policies, held on to them, and claimed on them. And what that resulted in is because we built in too many lapse assumptions, policies went out the door underpriced, and people still claimed on those policies. So that's why the carrier is in a position to be able to ask for those rate increases. But from your perspective, Mr. or Mrs. Client, I have to congratulate you on making a great decision to buy this long-term care plan when you did, because at the end of the day, you bought an underpriced long-term care plan. You bought a plan that was giving away far more value than what the premiums were being paid for at the end of the day. You are essentially receiving a gold mine tax by seeing this rate increase. Again, the state insurance departments don't just approve a rate increase because somebody walks up and asks for it, right? There has to be significant evidence that these plans were underpriced and they're going backwards as far as claims paid out versus premiums taken in at the end of the day. So know that it's not often in the insurance industry that the consumer gets a major one up on the carrier and gets something that's drastically underpriced in this way. And so you made a savvy financial decision. I think a little compliment about that, the reason you're in this situation is because you made a good decision and you actually got one up on the carrier, which doesn't happen often. I think that's a good way to put a client in perspective of, okay, I see, I've had the benefit of a plan that's essentially um discounted from what it really should have been sold at. And I've been paying a discounted premium for years and years. And at the end of the day, when a rate increase is improved or is approved, um, it is not going to be approved at a level that will get the carrier all of their value back, right? They can't levy a rate increase that would be like going out on the market and buying new business. They can't raise your premiums that much. We haven't seen it um, you know, to that level. So you will still, you know, after this rate increase, be paying essentially a discounted premium, right? Um, so that's another important piece to know. And I think just like some of our um study group presenters, like Rhonda or Linda would say in a situation like this is remember why we bought this plan in the first place. Remember the initial conversations

Reminding Clients Why They Bought the Plan

SPEAKER_00 13:25

we had around long-term care planning. You wanted to do this so that you could fund professional care so that your children wouldn't have to take care of you if you needed extended care, right? Remind them of the initial objective they had when they purchased this plan. Let them know that the reason they're seeing a rate increase is because they've gotten a really great deal for years and years, and let them know that after the rate increase, they're still going to have a great deal. Now, excuse me, um, I don't know if anybody has any experience um in general in working with lots and lots of rate increases. So let me know if your situation is different. But when I had rate increase consultations with agents or with clients uh in my old position, I found that generally about 99% of people ended up paying the rate increase. They ended up taking the full rate increase, keeping their benefits in place exactly as they were, and didn't worry about things like reducing benefits. Now, there were, of course, a few situations where folks um all of a sudden, you know, in the time they purchased the plan to the time they're getting the rate increase, they were put on a fixed income that is perhaps less than what they were bringing in the door when they were still working. The budget doesn't work anymore to pay any higher premium on their plan. So I did see some clients reduce benefits a bit to keep it at the original premium, but you have to remember also that um you have to let the client know in that scenario, this does not mean just because we've made an adjustment one time or paid the rate increase one time, that there couldn't be another one. There is a potential for a rate increase after you've already had one. So that's an important thing to keep in mind. And if you'd like to make the decision that you're set on now and understand that we'll have to um figure something out the next time around, if something like that happens, um then so be it. But in my experience, I found that most people paid the rate increase uh if they could, you know, comfortably afford it. Because at the end of the day, we've set up the conversation with understanding the value of what you have. The value of your plan is so good that the carrier is going to mom and dad at the state insurance department and asking for a rate increase because you know they're they're really getting taken for a ride on on the value of your plans. The fact that people have held those plans also says they have value. And uh, you know, there's been a lot of claims, which means the insurance company is keeping their promises. So a lot of those things add up to people just paying the rate increase, and a lot of how that's done is by crunching the numbers. So I've talked a lot about how to actually hold the conversation, you know, what emotional position the client may be in at the time of receiving the rate increase, and how to kind of empathize

Crunching the Numbers — Showing Plan Value

SPEAKER_00 16:50

and move forward in those situations. But there is some crunching the numbers to go through. You're gonna want to show the client how good of a value they actually have in their plan. So that's generally done by doing a couple of different comparisons. So, number one, you can compare what it would be like for this client to go out on the market and purchase a plan in new business today. Okay. Um, that is one of the ways you can do it. And of course, there's a lot of products with guaranteed premiums out there, so some clients may be interested in switching to say a hybrid plan that would lock in their premiums for life. Um, but at the end of the day, I think showing them the product that they have, like for example, if this is on a traditional long-term care case and you show them at your age today, if you left this plan and went to another plan, oftentimes you see premiums of three to four times or more what they're paying if we want to keep all the benefits equal. And in some cases, with much older legacy plans, five percent compound inflation was drastically underpriced, or we see lifetime unlimited benefits on those plans, which uh, you know, we're really running out of places to be able to even access lifetime unlimited benefits on the market for new business today. So part of it is helping the client understand, you know, you may have benefits in this plan that you actually can't go out and and purchase today, depending on a number of factors. And if you could, you'll see that premiums are multiple times more expensive on an annual or monthly basis to be able to purchase those benefits. But, you know, that may draw an objection of well, of course, I'm 15 to 20 years older than I was when I purchased this policy. You can even go back and show them at their issue age what it would be like to try to get benefits, uh try to get benefits equal to what they have in new business today. And you'll see, even for their issue age, if you were 45 when you bought this plan, look at what they're trying to charge a 45-year-old today for the same benefits or as close to the same benefits as we can get. And they will understand okay, they did actually underprice me when I was age 45, um, you know, back 20 years ago, right? So I think comparing that shows that okay, the industry has had rate increases under its belt, it's had those actuarial assumptions that didn't quite pan out under its belt. And knowing all the information they know about those mistakes that were made in pricing, here's what they're trying to charge today for new business. That will help people understand real quick. Oh, I'm actually really good where I am. And I actually did make a pretty darn good decision to purchase this policy 20 years ago. Um and that really helps people understand maybe I should just pay the rate increase because even if I pay the full increase, I'm still not even getting close to what it would be to go out and try to buy another plan on the market today. Even if I wanted to lock in my premiums, that policy is going to be a good deal more expensive, or it's going to require a single premium. And of course, I don't have a large return of premium in the plan that I'm in that's getting the rate increase. So, you know, yeah, I'm I'm kind of in this. I've paid my premiums into it. I have really good benefits on the other end. I might as well keep that going. And I think it's always

Walking Through the Rate Increase Letter

SPEAKER_00 20:53

important when you're doing a rate increase consultation, get a copy of the letter, get a copy of the options that they have. You want to make sure that if you have any advanced notice that a client's going to be receiving a rate increase, you get out in front of it and say, When you get that letter from the carrier, let's get together. I need to get eyes on that, and we can walk through those options because there's a couple of items to that. Number one, um, I'm sure many of you have seen a rate increase letter before where it gives you kind of anywhere from three to five options on a page that will say, you know, pay the full increase or drop the inflation protection or drop the number of years or drop the monthly benefit, you know, change the plan design around a little bit in general, dropping your benefit. And here's the premium you would pay if you went with this plan design. Um, I'm just going to say that the carrier picks those options and they are kind of just a static menu of options. Options when you're just looking at that page, and the carrier is generally not going to offer much that is going to be really beneficial to the client. Those options are to help the carrier, probably more than they are to help the client, right? We're helping the client and giving them options to reduce their premiums, but generally the drop in value that's realized from selecting one of those options is not equal to the amount of premium savings. You're sacrificing much more value in exchange for maybe a couple hundred dollars a year of premium uh taken off of your bill. So that's important to walk through, but you also have to understand that what is on that menu of options is not always the only options available to the client. So if you call into the carrier with the client and really ask further about your options, or if you have a specific option in mind that you want to see, hey, I have 5% compound on this plan. Uh, what would happen if I dropped to 3% compound or 1% compound? I didn't see that on the rate increase letter. Is that an option that's available? Oftentimes they'll want to make sure that you're on the phone with the client when you call in and ask about those things, but they can generally provide some sort of um, you know, illustration around what the premium would be if you were able to do that. So don't just take the options in the rate increase letter as these are all my options, and don't let a client go through those options alone because there

The Stable Premium Option Trap

SPEAKER_00 23:48

are, and I don't know your guys' experience, but there are some pretty predatory options, in my opinion, that are listed in some of these rate increase letters. We're starting to see now that a stable premium option is included in a number of these different rate increase letters that say we'll keep your premium stable for 10 years if you choose this option, right? And uh you'll have a bit of a reduced rate increase, but you know, for five years, 10 years, we can't raise your rate. And uh that tends to be, I would say, tempting for a client to say, oh, I know I don't have to deal with rate increases for five or ten years, but what happens on year six or year 11 is out of their control, right? And they may be in a situation where you know a rate increase is even more untenable for their financial situation. So that's one important thing to note, and you could be paying a stable premium option, and there may not even be a rate increase in that first five or ten years. So it's not always the um it's not always the best option. It can be uh a very um you know, it can be a very uh tempting option, but it's not always the best. Uh let's see what Diane says here. I think we need to use our words carefully when discussing the much higher cost of plans today. We don't want the next generation to be so discouraged that they don't ever consider planning. I totally agree. You know, um it's in it's important, you know, making that comparison is important, not so much to say plans today are so expensive. They're still providing great value for the dollar. And of course, um, you know, with cost of living increases, things like that, we expect new business rates to go up kind of regardless over time. It is more to show look at what a great deal you have, as opposed to look how expensive things are today. I I totally agree with that because um at the end of the day, if the client ends up claiming on that policy, the value is kind of immeasurable to that client. And uh it does feed down into the next generation and the next generation and the next generation, understanding the importance of having coverage, being able to fund professional care. So I I totally agree. It's it's that comparison is more for you know, you have a great deal in your hands today.

SPEAKER_01 26:30

Um Jason, could you over for a little input?

SPEAKER_00 26:32

Yeah,

Guest Insights on Inflation Growth and Benefit Value

SPEAKER_00 26:33

yeah. Go for it, Gene.

SPEAKER_01 26:34

Yeah. You know, I agree with several things you said before. Um, one of them is I think it's important to remind people how smart they were to do what they did. I mean, we all know there used to be what, 40, 50, 60 insurance companies offering this insurance, Jason, in the past. Now we're down on traditional, maybe five or six. It wasn't because they're making too much money, was it? Okay. Uh we call progress in this country living longer. And we've been given that ability to live longer, faster than anybody's been figured able to figure it out. Insurance companies, Medicare, Social Security. That's why they're all financially challenged here. And we have to remind people of that. I think the initial reaction people have is they've had a fixed premium, they had a following 10, 15, 20 years, and now they get an eight or nine page letter, and on the first page it says something out of rate increase, and they're reading the rest of the letter with tears in their eyes, so to speak. You know, nobody likes to see a rate increase. So I think it's important to let remind them just how smart they were to do what they did. The other thing I found that I've been dealing with more of these rate increases than I'd like to discuss, uh people forget a lot about those policies, including the fact that they've had inflation growth. So when you tell them that the benefits may be doubled or more than that, they had no idea. And if we remind them, if we remind them they've got premium waiver, one of the first questions I ask when I get on the call is, How old are we? And when somebody tells me they're 75, they're 80, they're 85, and yeah, I've been doing this a long time, I ask them how their health is doing. And when I hear about what's going on there, I say, you might need this sooner rather than later. And if we make any changes here, I can never put them back. So it's putting things in perspective, realizing their initial reaction is more of an emotional one than a necessary one. And, you know, emotional reactions are short-term. We have them, we get over them. We have to help them to get over it. And like you said a few moments ago, they've got other options. You know, maybe they don't need the inflation growth on there any longer because they needed it when they were maybe 60. But when you're 80, do you really need inflation growth on a policy? So there were options the insurance company doesn't show them that we can easily help them to grasp and understand. But it's helping to get over that initial emotional reaction, I find that tremendously helps me in enabling them to keep the benefits as they are or make the appropriate adjustments. 100%.

SPEAKER_00 28:56

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I I love what you said there. And I I think um what you said is important in we're not going to get anywhere if we don't uh, you know, recognize and empathize with the client that look, it sucks to find out that you're gonna have to pay more to keep the same of what you have. That's never a fun situation for anyone. Even us with the insight of new business pricing and our kind of professional logic around the matter. Um, you know, I can still understand that that stinks. I wouldn't be happy if I got a rate increase letter at the end of the day, even knowing what I know. So I I think just understanding that and helping them kind of you know sail through the inevitable mandatory negative emotion that that starts off this process, that's when we can start to get them open to a bit of the logic and understanding. So um Raymond in the chat says, what is your specific experience with what you said predatory pricing? What do you think is predatory? If predatory, what recommendations would you recommend? Um, you know, I just think when you get the rate increase letter and you get those, say, you know, four to five options available to you, there are some options that look attractive if you're not reading between the lines and really, really benefit the carrier, right? So um like those stable premium options, I just um really had distaste for those options as they were um sort of entering the market, so to speak, in that we'll keep your premiums level for X number of years, but it's not a guarantee that you'll never have a rate increase again, and it's not a guarantee that whatever rate increases they were going to try to get in that five or ten years of stable premium, they won't try to just layer rate on to the 11th year, right? So I think those can be um options that are a bit of a trap um for lack of a better way of saying it. And I think there are options that um really strip a lot of value from the plan in a disproportionate exchange of premium savings. Now, if we need to save premium somewhere, we need to save premium somewhere, and that's where um I would recommend again calling into the carrier with the client and trying to walk through what benefits, like Gene was saying, can we limit the inflation protection? Um, and and maybe we have uh you know other options that are a bit more palatable to us than just what the carrier offers us and they hope we pick, um, to check out to see if there's kind of a more equitable solution, right? Because if we're stripping, say, a year of benefit period off of a plan that has, you know, $250 a day of benefit, we're stripping a lot of policy value off. And if that's only an exchange for a couple hundred dollars a year in premium, you know, the the value you're giving to the carrier in exchange for surrendering some of that benefit is not equal to the value you would realize in save premiums if this is truly about trying to find the best value and not about I absolutely need to save some dollars here or there, or I cannot financially hold on to this policy at all. We don't want a situation where a client feels like they need to surrender their entire policy, but we also don't want to be in a scenario where we're having to give up tons of benefit just to save a bit of premium, right? So if the client has um that understanding and they have kind of the financial flexibility, that's why I see so many people just paying the rate increase instead of taking one of the options. But sometimes we're in a position where we need to take one of the options and we gotta look beyond just the rate increase letter to um try to find something that's amicable based on the client's situation. Good questions, good thoughts. Anyone else have anything they want to share as far as how they approach this specific conversation? I know if you've been in this business a while, there's no way you're not having this conversation with maybe not regularity, but at least a few times a year. So if anybody has any tips, best practices, or things that really work well for them, specific ways you run comparisons, um, how you walk clients through the options, anything like that, feel free to share.

SPEAKER_02 34:23

Jason, I have a question.

SPEAKER_00 34:24

Yeah, go for it.

SPEAKER_02 34:25

Um, is uh are there any of our tools that would help people with um the rate increase conversation?

SPEAKER_00 34:36

Yeah, I think so. I think um, you know, we're doing some work under the hood with Benefit Buddy right now, and if you're a regular user, you may have seen some of that. But I think the Benefit

Tools for Rate Increase Comparisons

SPEAKER_00 34:49

Buddy tool can be a really powerful way to do those comparisons or our quick quote tool because you can stack up the value of what you have that is receiving a rate increase, and you can even show the premium after the rate increase and the benefits you have versus what it would look like to go out and get something on the market today. You can also do that issue age comparison that I was talking about. Of course, I can't put you in a time machine and make you 45 again because you're 65 today, but just get a look at how well priced and how much value is in your plan compared to new business today, right? I think the side-by-side comparison is kind of undefeated and helping clients understand what they have. And because we gear our calculators to really show here's not just the pricing, not just the benefits, but combine it into a value metric, you know, the insurance multipliers in many cases will uh be quite eye-opening. Always helpful to remind clients that we can make reductions in benefits and premiums, but we can never put them back. Yeah, it's a it's a great point. It's a great point, Gene. And uh that's why I think this decision is such an important one, right? Because many folks who are receiving rate increases are folks who are nearing average claim age, right? Or at the very least, have aged to a point where their likelihood of an extended care claim is much higher than when they purchased the plan, right? So the plan becomes so much more important to us the more we age, which is what makes these conversations so delicate, right? Our financial situation becomes for many in the middle market more delicate after we retire, after our working years, and as we get into our 70s and our 80s, right? So that's why I think it's really important to be that guide on the back end for that client and really help advocate for them and help them understand the logic side when they're feeling emotional, you know? Um, because I think a lot of people will really their first knee-jerk reaction is oh great, I have to pay a rate increase on this. I'm I'm done paying premium into this plan, right? They're paying premium into something they haven't used yet. That's the nature of long-term care. We're gonna put this policy in a drawer and hope we don't need it ever. Um, but no, we're probably more likely to need it in 20, 30 years down the road, right? It is it is hard to keep paying the bill for that plan. And of course, that's why we exist, right? To have reviews with the client, to remind them about the importance of long-term care insurance to their financial plan and to keep that first knee-jerk reaction from being the one that wins out, right? That's why specialists are so important to this type of insurance, because it's for something out into the future that we have to keep paying premiums for. I mean, at the end of the day, that's why consultants are important in insurance in general. Um, so I think if you

Final Thoughts & Advisor Takeaways

SPEAKER_00 38:26

can take some of these best practices with you in your day-to-day when you're having these conversations, I think you will help reaffirm why the client made this decision in the first place. Uh, and it'll be an opportunity to pat them on the back and say, you made a great decision to purchase this when you did. And remember why we did this, and you're probably in the best spot you could be in for the planning that we did back then, right? So I think it can turn a very negative reaction into a very positive conversation, and at the end of the day, we'll reaffirm your value to that client. So that is all I have. Anyone have anything else that they want to um add today? Best practices, tips, any experiences you've seen? Um, anything else before we maybe wrap it a little bit early with our short group? You know, the ILTCI people get to have fun, so why don't we take an extra 1520 and find our own fun?

SPEAKER_02 39:40

I did drop your article in the chat, Jason, that you did a couple of years ago for California Broker. It's pretty evergreen.

SPEAKER_00 39:48

So uh tried to keep it to the principles, yeah. And a lot of it I discuss here, but um obviously with some time to sit down and think and write it out, you'll you'll get a bit more organized version of all of these thoughts. Appreciate that. Alrighty. Well, if if that's it, I think we'll uh set you all free. Thank you all for being here. We kind of created our own breakout session today. So um appreciate the few of the proud that showed up, and uh, we'll be here this time next week. And maybe we'll get to hear from uh Mark and Wendy and some of the other people who went to ILTCI, and they can give us a little debrief on what they learned. So stay tuned and be well. We'll talk to you this time next week. Bye, everyone.

SPEAKER_02 40:34

Bye.