Individual LTCi Mini Market Review: Q3 2026

Reading a carrier announcement is not the same as knowing the product. This mid-year LTCi market review revisits what actually changed in 2026, and what those changes mean for your next case.

Much of the year's product news landed in a compressed window early in Q1, which means a lot of advisors caught the headlines and never circled back. In this episode of the Buddy Study Podcast, we walk through the year's notable launches, repricings, and underwriting updates across traditional long-term care insurance, hybrid life plans, annuity-based LTC solutions, and short-term care, with practical commentary on where each one now fits in a planning conversation.

We explore:

• How a new policy generation reshaped benefit design, from age basis to monthly benefit structures and elimination period credit, and which features were traded away in the repricing
• Underwriting movement on family history, cognitive testing, and conditions that were previously auto-declined
• Why a plan that does not compare cleanly on a spreadsheet can be harder to sell, even when the product itself is strong
• A new annuity-based LTC entrant, including underwriting classes, benefit multipliers, and what a high approval target signals about plan design
• How short-term care benefit ceilings, riders, and add-in benefits are narrowing the gap with traditional LTC
• A hybrid refresh that added benefits without a rate increase, and what expanded payment flexibility opens up for younger buyers
• Guaranteed issue annuity LTC updates, including a lower minimum issue age and a higher guaranteed roll-up

This episode is designed to help advisors:

• Refresh their working knowledge of the current individual LTCi landscape
• Match newer solutions to clients who did not fit a year ago
• Understand how underwriting shifts open up specific case types
• Spot in-force and follow-up sales opportunities created by product changes

CHAPTER MARKERS

0:00 Welcome & Episode Overview

2:18 Traditional LTCi: A New Generation of Benefit Design

8:01 Underwriting Updates on the Traditional Side

11:41 Why Plan Design Affects Spreadsheet Comparisons

14:19 A New Annuity-Based LTC Solution

15:55 Underwriting Classes, Multipliers, and Claim Design

20:06 Field Notes on Exchanges and Follow-Up Offers

24:48 The Six Underwriting Questions, Walked Through

27:18 Short-Term Care Raises the Benefit Ceiling

34:48 A Hybrid Refresh With No Rate Increase

41:02 Guaranteed Issue Annuity Updates

44:56 Closing Thoughts and Advisor Takeaways

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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_01 0:00

Hey everyone, welcome to another edition of the Buddy Group. And today, since it's been a little while and we are blinking, you'll miss it. We are at the end of July. That means we are entering, well, we're we're really right in the middle of quarter three. Uh I think it's time for a little bit of a market review. Uh, let's just go over today all that has changed in the market this year. So obviously, I mean, you know us, it's gonna be a lot of refresh on new products or um new solutions entering the market just to make sure everybody's aware. You may have heard announcements, but not actually revisited um some of the products that have been affected. Um, you may have found that you're actually seeing a good number of wins um with some of those products that have entered the market recently. We'll also talk about some industry trends. I would love for you guys to help me kind of fill in the blanks empirically as well. If there's just something you're noticing in your corner of things, in your work with clients, I think those are some of the best learning experiences we can have on the study group. Um, anecdotes really go a long way. And uh, I think if we can tune your antenna uh to one or two more new solutions or just make you a little bit more aware of what's going on in the market today, I think that's a win, and I think you would agree. So why don't we go through it? Um I'm gonna say that a lot of the major changes in the market this year kind of took place in Q1, uh at least as far as new products are concerned. So I I think we had like a good one to two week period in there where we had like an explosion of carrier news. Um, so I want to review some of those. So back in February,

Traditional LTCi: A New Generation of Benefit Design

SPEAKER_01 2:18

we had um essential LTC flipping over to honest LTC, and uh I think there was a lot of trepidation with NGL switching to a new policy generation because some of our favorite features of the plan or features that we couldn't find in other plans were going to be leaving. Um, but you know, NGL's aim with this new product launch was to add some more of those benefits that we've been requesting that are very consumer-centric. So just to review, um we are now on an age last birthday instead of age nearest birthday with NGL. Um, I think that's a fantastic change as far as I'm concerned. You should get credit for uh the amount of years you've lived and not be charged with an extra one if you're halfway through. Um, so that makes a big difference in kind of pricing, in uh a lot of timing with cases. You have a lot more time uh to preserve younger age with folks, and uh, you know, some of those um key age milestones are much easier to uh deal with now. We move from a month or from a daily benefit to a monthly benefit design. So um I thought that was another great change. You know, we're generally gonna prefer monthly to a daily benefit, and we see a lot of carriers um, you know, out there offering daily benefit. Um, and I like the fact that you're able to, of course, um deal with some of those higher cost of care days uh and have those covered as long as you're staying under the monthly benefit max. So uh another good move. We have increments of $300, uh ranging from $1,500 to $12,000 now, uh, 90 and 100 day 180 day elimination period, and we have the one equals seven. I thought that was another really, really nice change. So one day of paid service counts as seven days towards satisfying the elimination period. Um, so I think that's another really, really good one. Um I think that is one that I would generally want to uh advertise or put in front of clients, right? Um uh this is uh Robert, this is NGL. So um their one equals seven uh was something that changed with the flip over to Honest LTC. Uh as we know, a lot of the self-funding comes from satisfying the elimination period under or for benefits we are covered under, right? Um, so that drastically reduces the amount of out-of-pocket pay. Uh on joint policies, each insured does have their own elimination period, though. That is something to look out for. Um, the scope for that, uh, there is a uh first day home and community care rider that was repriced. Um, there was a zero-day option that was included in that that also counts toward the facility elimination period. I thought that was really nice. So the scope for that is home care, adult daycare. Um, and uh again, I think all of that is uh a lot of really sales-relevant improvements. Basically, inflation.

SPEAKER_02 6:06

Are you screen sharing or no?

SPEAKER_01 6:08

Uh I'm not.

SPEAKER_02 6:09

Okay, I just want to make sure.

SPEAKER_01 6:11

I'm not. Yeah, I'm I'm just uh reading off of some notes.

SPEAKER_02 6:14

Okay, thank you.

SPEAKER_01 6:15

Um, but I can provide you what notes I have.

SPEAKER_02 6:16

Somebody asked, somebody asked that in the chat.

SPEAKER_01 6:18

Yeah, I'll provide you what notes I have uh um with the recording. Uh inflation protection. So one to five percent inflation protection, um, waiver premium in the base contract. Um, the third pool shared benefits staying intact is also another really nice piece to this. Um, this fousal survival benefit, survival, the survivor in the relationship can take remaining third pool benefits or drop the rider for a premium reduction. I thought that was really nice. Um, but of course, that doesn't come without some sad news. We lost unlimited benefit periods. Um, this was from what I've heard, due to regulation, but the 10-pay rate guarantee was cut to five years. Uh, single pay uh was removed as well. Um and I think those shorter benefit durations actually took uh larger premium increases in the repricing. Um, but I think that a lot of these changes were really nice, they were a long time coming. I think this kind of allows NGL to competitively reposition uh a little bit. Um I know they're trying to get more competitive with uh Thrive It and Mutual of Omaha. I think they might have um gotten a good deal closer in um couple scenarios. Um and then they had some

Underwriting Updates on the Traditional Side

SPEAKER_01 8:01

underwriting changes. Um applicants with two first degree relatives diagnosed with Alzheimer's or dementia after age 75 may now apply. Um, that's something that actually Moo can't even match, um, from what I remember. Face-to-face cognitive assessments are expanded to partners age 60 to 65 when a co-applicant 66 plus triggers cognitive testing. So a little bit of tightening of the belt there. Um, lymphoma and cancer waiting periods uh that I saw were cut uh significantly. Major depressive disorder codes are now reviewed individually rather than auto-declined. Um, so that's one of the things that can be tough with NGL pass fail underwriting, right? Um, yeah, Romeo, I'll um I'll give you the notes that I have. I'll send that out with the recording um to make sure everybody's got it. Um and let's see what else we have. I think that's about it um that I had for honest LTC. But I would like to hear from you all. Has anybody, even if it's just a raise your hand, has anybody dove in to honest LTC? Much are you finding that it's competitive in scenarios where you're offering traditional long-term care, um, any sort of feedback that you guys have? I would love to hear from y'all. Well, Rhonda, Rhonda's uh an NGL superstar. Um, what are you finding early impressions?

SPEAKER_04 9:42

I love the new product because it really does put us on an even playing field with the monthly benefit, um, calendar EP, including the alternate planet care. So uh I'd love to be able to offer the unlimited and the in the single pay, but you know, the 10 pay. So we got we got what we need, but even the pricing really is not that much more considering they're rolling on a new product and you're getting all these built-in features. And they also added couples discounts. So even if you have one spouse applying, so it really is good. Um, but so you really get a lot more bank for your dollars, and it's really not that much more premium. Um, the one thing I did notice is there's not as much change on going from two years to three years. It's never been a big change going from two to three years, but this one is just very minute. So it's so that's what I saw uh as well, and what I had in my notes is that two-year benefit period um kind of got more expensive relative to and if you if you're a partnership fan, if you like believe in partnership and think that's a big thing, you know, that's where NGL shit shines because you got that whole third pool, so you get an extra bonus pool for asset protection.

SPEAKER_01 10:56

100%. That's uh that's a really good point, really good sales idea. I also like, you know, that they've gotten a little easier in some states for partnership by offering that spectrum of inflation protection. There are some states that will uh you know allow you to qualify for partnership with any level of inflation protection. Some will um, you know, have specific asks on the term of the inflation protection or the uh amount or percentage of inflation protection. So having that one to five option really, really helps. Um, and I agree with you, Rhonda. You kind of alluded to it a little bit, but I think uh when we're talking about just competitive scenarios and

Why Plan Design Affects Spreadsheet Comparisons

SPEAKER_01 11:41

comparing products, carriers with their designs can get themselves into a little spreadsheet issue because that is how initial quotes are really done, right? I mean, a majority of the market uses something like Stratacy to compare products. And if every one of your cells are different from all the competitors, right? Um, we're showing daily benefit, we're showing a different age, right? Um, that is pricing us up higher because we're age nearest. Um, and and everything just seems to work differently next to two carriers that look exactly alike. There's going to be a lot of questions. There may be a lot of over-explaining of the plan, and that becomes more difficult to sell, even if you, you know, do end up selling the product, the client can still see the value. Uh, I don't think everybody sells the same way as everybody on this study group, but a lot of people use spreadsheets. So if you're not easily um spreadsheetable, you you don't fit in, and not for very good reason. Um, it it can be hard to compete. Not that you can't, it's just a little bit harder. Um I agree with you, Chris. I don't like the name honest either. Um, honest LTC. Um, you know, I don't see them changing it from what it is, but uh yeah, it feels to me just a little bit overcompensaty. I I know where they're going with it, right? Like we're um really adding all of those sort of client-centric benefits that we should have been offered. So this is kind of in the nature of maybe um being a little bit more transparent and in line uh with the rest of the field, but that's a piece of feedback I hear all the time. I expected to hear it. Um yeah, that's why I'm just kind of referring to them as NGL in general. Uh, I never called it essential LTC anyway, I just called it NGL myself. Um, so anybody else have any uh experience with honest LTC? You can feel free to um throw your thoughts in the chat or um speak up, interrupt me. Um, you know, not a big deal. I'm always happy to be interrupted. Um, but what I want to just kind of um make

A New Annuity-Based LTC Solution

SPEAKER_01 14:19

clear in this market review is we saw changes with all product types, essentially, right? Um changes or new additions, and so the next one's an annuity long-term care change. This was also um in February. This was nationwide's Care Matters Annuity. And I'm interested to hear your guys' thoughts on this because this is really a new offering. Like honest LTC, I I kind of consider a new generation. Um, but care matters annuity is altogether a brand new long-term care solution for nationwide as a whole. Not that nationwide doesn't have annuity products, but one that's geared toward LTC. I really like to see carriers getting a little bit more horizontal, offering different solutions in the market. Uh, I think it's really encouraging, means there's um demand that they want to meet at the end of the day. Um, and it means that they are dedicated to the long-term care market. You know, we want to be able to help people of all different shapes, sizes, and ages, right? So um I thought this was great. Um, and I like the design that they're working with, you know, the the cash indemnity annuity long-term care plan really looks uh a lot like um forecare to me, as far as how they do their underwriting with a two or three times uh long-term care benefit multiplier. Um

Underwriting Classes, Multipliers, and Claim Design

SPEAKER_01 15:55

and underwriting is really the key for this product for me because they are targeting over a 90% acceptance rate. I think it was somewhere between 90 and 95 that they're targeting. Um, so you know that can inspire a wide range of emotions. Uh, I think as long as the product is designed and priced responsibly, that can absolutely uh be something that's very doable, of course, because we see Equitrust Bridge with guaranteed issue underwriting. Um, but they are going to essentially underwrite you for number one, outright acceptance, but also for contract value. Um so preferred, standard, and select are their underwriting classes. And select is really for those in the the the older ages. So the max age on this is eight years old. Obviously, kind of um one of the obvious reasons why you might get into the annuity market is to maybe reach some of those older ages. And in those older ages, we generally have health challenges. So if we can kind of pull the right levers on the underwriting side to accommodate those people, that's kind of a brand new market share we have a play on, right? Um, so based on how you get through underwriting for those ages 40 to 74, preferred gets you three times the contract value, which gets you 72 total months of long-term care. And if you're standard, it's a two times. So just to keep it really simple, you underwrite for three times or two times. Um, two times is going to give you a total of 48 months. And then per select, those who are ages 75 to 80, it's also a two times, um, but they spread it out over a longer benefit period. So they're not going to give you as high of a monthly benefit amount, but um, you got six years of benefit there, six underwriting questions, and uh actually what I have from my notes is 90 95% approval target, um, guaranteed 3% crediting rate, two of six ADLs, 90-day elimination period, and they've got that retroactive elimination period payback, which nationwide kind of pioneered. So you get through the 90-day elimination period, you get four months of benefit in that um very next month when you start receiving benefits. So that is nice. Take some of the sting uh out of having the elimination period, uh, 100% of long-term care benefits available internationally. Um let's see here. What else did I have? Um, we had that benefits continue to inflate while um on claim with care matters, but with the care matters annuity, benefits actually lock in once on claim. Again, that's probably a plan design aspect that allows them to go after a 95% acceptance rate. Um, so that's one thing just to be aware of. Um, pretty limited on state availability for right now, um, but will definitely be expanding over time. Let me see if I have any other internal notes here. Um, but did anybody have uh a good, bad, indifferent experience with care matters annuity yet? I know annuity long-term care in general in the market is definitely increasing in popularity. There's a lot of people out there that hold annuities, 1035 Exchange, Pension Protection Act, always a good sales idea. Have you guys used much of the Care Matters annuity to this point?

Field Notes on Exchanges and Follow-Up Offers

SPEAKER_01 20:06

And if you have, uh, what were your thoughts on the experience and how a stack does?

SPEAKER_03 20:12

I'm just looking for some more notes here, but feel free to uh hey so one of the things with the Care Matters annuity is if you're transferring from a different annuity, um, they say you have to have an a less than 8% surrender charge. And I was able to, with exception, um, transfer a secure horizon plus annuity with a larger surrender charge because it wasn't a long-term care rider, it was a life insurance with a chronic illness rider. Right. So we were able to go over the head of the regular route and get approval to take the bigger um surrender charge because it was getting him the three times the value instead of just the value of the annuities. So there's things you can do talking with them if you're close to somewhere. Um, they'll work with you.

SPEAKER_01 21:06

That's good. I appreciate that. That's uh that's definitely a helpful case study. And always good to know like where you can speak up and ask. It never hurts to ask anyway, all right. But knowing where you're gonna have a better chance uh really helps. So I I definitely appreciate that. Um I also had noted that um there was an upfront separately identifiable premium, but for riders only. Um, so I thought that was an interesting um play there. Uh, let me see what else. Legally married spouses can continue the care matters annuity contract as an option without long term care. Also, pretty interesting. And and this is a product where I think uh nationwide's also taking notes from One America's book, right? What one America is really good at is when you have uh an Asset care decline, generally they are going to follow up or in that same breath, in that same email, provide you with an annuity care offer if your client will qualify. Um, it will take some time, and I think they've gotten a handle around this already. It is the nationwide's going to look to do the same thing with uh any care matters, life hybrid declines. Um, so that's nice to have an automatic sort of follow-up option. Um, and I think the way they see it is we're targeting 95% approval on this annuity product. If your client applies for Care Matters um life hybrid and doesn't get an offer for Care Matters annuity, uh, we probably should have done more field underwriting before we submitted or some sort of just crazy aberration. Um so I think you're gonna see more and more of that. Um let me get you. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 23:12

Can I just add on to that that's uh One America is automatically going to test you for the annuity care? Yep. On the care matters, they're trying to get to that level as an automatic review. Just make sure if you do get a decline or it seems to go decline, it doesn't hurt to ask either ask your case manager or ask your R VP to review it for the annuity care because it's just not as fluid as One America right now. We do quite a bit of One America and in our shop, and and it it always helps to ask that question with HMI where it's automatic for one America. I just want to throw it out there because it's a new product and newer, newer, I guess, uh underwriting process. Uh sometimes you get an underwriter or a case or a new business associate that isn't um I guess as proactive. Love them to death, absolutely love them to death, but just it wouldn't that help say, hey, did this get reviewed, or can you review it for the care mayor's annuity real quick for me? It it would be a a good conversation.

SPEAKER_01 24:11

Yep, I appreciate that. And um yeah, that that kind of is consistent with what I had heard that in some cases they may, um, and and uh in other cases they might not immediately, but that doesn't mean your client has also declined for the annuity solution. So yeah, I agree. Speak up. And Alan Gregoire runs a pretty tight ship, so I I have a feeling in in no time you're gonna see people trained to a level where you get those follow-up groups on the right. Um and then I just want to do a quick review of health questions with you guys.

The Six Underwriting Questions, Walked Through

SPEAKER_01 24:48

So let me pull that up. This is um these are the six underwriting questions, and I can kind of go over them a little bit. Uh so they talk about kind of your sort of traditional knockouts here, hospitalization, confinement to a bed, uh residing in a care facility, um, and then they ask about all the durable medical equipment, um, so walker, wheelchair, oxygen, um, dialysis, you know, uh not unlike what we see on other applications. Um they ask about ADL assistance, right? And then they're gonna ask about specific conditions in the past five years: MS Parkinson's paralysis, muscular dystrophy, ALS, Huntington's disease, um, you know, back surgery with ongoing pain, memory loss, any sort of cognitives, um, COPD with tobacco use, cirrhosis of the liver. So these are pretty um serious conditions in many cases that they are asking about here. Um, surgeries, hospitalization treatments, or tests that weren't followed up on that were recommended in the past five years. And then they're going to ask uh about a longer list of conditions in the past two years. And they're going to ask about diagnosis, treatment, prescription for any of those following conditions. And essentially, the way they run the underwriting is pretty darn straightforward as far as I am concerned. Um, let's see what I had here. It was, I believe, two yes answers. If you only have two yes answers out of those questions, you can qualify for preferred if you are under the age of 75. If you have four yes answers, you can still get standard. Um, so you saw the questions. Uh you've seen a lot of underwriting processes. Pretty darn liberal to be able to qualify for standard. Five plus yes answers is a decline. Um, so pretty easy to understand. Um, nice positioning in the market, and um, you know, a great carrier getting into the uh long-term care annuity space uh is something that I really enjoyed from this year. And then uh I said we're gonna cover a lot of product types moving on from nationwide.

Short-Term Care Raises the Benefit Ceiling

SPEAKER_01 27:18

Um, we have Aetna's recovery care choice. So again, uh kind of an enhancement on Aetna's original um recovery care. And and yes, Robert, to answer your question, um you still could get approved in that case. Um so Aetna's recovery care choice really raised my eyebrows about the short-term care market. Not that we haven't um seen a lot of things that have raised eyebrows in the short-term care market, but we're seeing pretty bold product enhancements coming out of this marketplace. Again, you might not be too close to the short-term care market because you work locally in a state where short-term care is not available or just hasn't hit your radar, not something your clientele normally gravitates to. But recovery care choice um raised their maximum daily benefit to $700 a day. That is quite a lot of benefit. I know um all of us saw that and said, you gotta be kidding me. It is real. $700 a day is their maximum. Um, and let's see, one of the other things I liked was that they allowed existing clients to buy up to that maximum with a 15% discount. Uh, I thought that was really interesting and an in-force uh sales opportunity worth looking at. Um, they have benefit periods or covered days of 90, 180, 270, or 360 elimination periods at 020 or 100 days. Most people who are working in short-term care will generally say, let me, you know, just zero day elimination period for, again, such a short-term benefit. Try to max out cover days and see how um high up you can get on that daily benefit. Uh home care indemnity rider up to $2,100 a week. Family and friends can receive 25% of that benefit if they're providing services. And inflation protection is available, three or five percent simple or compound. I thought that was interesting, given that you can sort of um buy your own inflation protection, build in your own inflation protection with such a high daily benefit. And then I just um I saw a an unbelievable amount of add-ins with this product. And I think we're gonna continue to see that more and more in this market as uh you know, we're seeing a lot of uh, especially like Medicare Advantage, Medicare supplement carriers looking to add short-term care products and just the nature of the senior market, maybe um Medicare age for many um products out there have a lot of different add-in benefits. Uh, and this product was really no different as far as I was concerned. So they had a prescription benefit uh with a $300 uh annual max for policy year. Uh, they have a whole modification benefit, um 30 visits a year for adult daycare, um 20 mental health visits a year, Medicare Part B excess add-in, bad reservation, outpatient rehab, pet boarding was another interesting benefit that they had if you have to um go into a facility for a specific amount of time. So a lot of really interesting add-in benefits, and that is um not all that's on the list. Um, so there's a lot that you can really look to and piece together a benefit that works for you based on your situation. Um and let's see. One of the things uh that I always want to make folks aware of pre-existing conditions generally are not covered for the first six months, um, but excludes mental or nervous disorders and substance use disorders. Um let's see. Obviously, it's pretty lenient underwriting, no height weight. Um, but you gotta be able to get through the knockout questions. Uh let's see. I think they were available in about 20 states as of the last time we discussed them on the study group. I don't know if that number is increased. I'll go back and check on that. Um, but what do you guys think? Uh, whether it be Aetna or whether it be the short-term care market as a whole, um, I think there are many folks who are on the side of the fence that given some of these like bold um benefit options that they're rolling out, extremely high um daily benefits, inflation protection, restoration in certain cases, if you meet certain conditions of the benefit. Um, it seems as if short-term care is inching ever closer um to providing the same amount of benefit as long-term care. Wish they were available in more states. Yeah, I I think we all wish they were available in more states. They provide a really unique and interesting sales opportunity, right? Um, not only for folks who have underwriting challenges, but I also think um affordability on a pay as you go premium is really in demand. And of course, not every client is going to purchase a $700 a day benefit with 5% inflation. As a matter of fact, most won't. So it is a nice offering to kind of have in your back pocket. Um, but has anybody written Aetna much lately and uh have any thoughts on it? I think Aetna and Manhattan Life are kind of the two biggest competitors right now. I would not be surprised to see more competitors over the next 12 months. Uh, it could not happen, but I think uh there seems to be a lot of competition for that market share. And of course, bankers life um and the way their uh fundamental and fundamental plus plans are designed to look very much like short-term care and you know, achieve uh very wide state availability because they are still technically traditional long-term care. I think that's going to inspire a ton of competition that short-term care really started, right? Um, so one of the pieces of the market I'm actually most interested in kind of keeping my finger on the pulse of. Um, but again, uh not available to all states. So that's why I think we might see some traditional carriers, the the bold ones, um, maybe try to enter that market and compute a little bit. Um beyond that, Securian, Securian did have a new release, Secure Care 4,

A Hybrid Refresh With No Rate Increase

SPEAKER_01 34:48

uh, at the beginning of this year. And I think one of the coolest things was just the way they were able to announce Secure Care 4. We added a number of different benefits, and we didn't increase rates. Uh, how often do you hear a carrier say that when a new uh policy generation comes out? It's very, very rare. Um, and so what I saw as far as benefits added, death benefit is now at least equal to premium paid at all ages. Um, so I thought that was um, you know, pretty interesting. Um, so your death benefit always meets or exceeds your cost basis. That's pretty nice. New 20 pay option. I know there have been uh a lot of folks waiting for more good options for 20 pay. I I hear about that quite a lot. You know, maybe I don't have the capacity to pay it all up in one shot, but I'm not the kind of person who wants to pay year over year. Um, you know, middle class, upper middle class as as far as income assets, what have you. Um, a 20 pay seems to fit really nicely in there. I I do find that some clients can't stomach a 10 pay, but could look at a 15 or 20. So I really like that 20 pay option. Um, more premium payment options, the better, as far as I'm concerned, because we can really dial into if it's individual financial pictures for everyone. Uh the most important thing is feeling comfortable paying the premium. Um adapting the nationwide retroactive elimination period payback, I thought, again, was a really, really good move. Um, as opposed to offering a zero-day elimination period, um, I think it's it's interesting. You know, the client does still have to self-fund for that 90 days, but uh, they get that benefit paid back on the 91st day. Thought that was cool. 100% international benefits. We do absolutely uh love that. Um, but at the 50% rate, I believe. Um cash indemnity, of course, just continues to be huge. Um, all policy designs now include the waiver of premium rider. Thought that was great. Paid up options of premiums are not continued. Um, no new underwriting uh updates that I saw. Um, but of course, uh for those of us in California, we're staying on Secure Care UL. Um, no plans for New York, uh, as we hear will be most. Um, and there are still a few states that remain on secure care food. Um, but I think again, just like really, really smart tune-ups to the product, like the other guys are offering it. Why can't we kind of um you know adapt that into our product? They're not huge, flashy updates, but they're practical ones that make sense. Uh, and without an increase in premium for any rate sales, I think all the better. Um, how have you guys been enjoying secure care for? Have you been enjoying secure care for? Or um are are you finding it's not necessarily fitting the bill for your clients? Feel free to shout out and and let me know if you've had a good, bad, or indifferent experience. But um, in this hybrid market, it's it's all about competition. You'll notice that most hybrid plans look very similar to each other, and it's moving more in that direction. You know, a carrier will come out with a really innovative benefit. Um, maybe they realize a little bit of increased market share for that, and other carriers say, why don't we just level the playing field? So it's going to be in many cases very little differentiations, um, whether it's pricing or uh one tiny little benefit or a payment mode that was offered with one carrier and not another, um, that can really make the difference. So um always a competitive market. Uh let's see. Anyone with anything on Secure Care 4 before I move on?

SPEAKER_03 39:28

Jason, the only thing I have, this is Diane, is it it's really helping some of my younger people be able to budget that 20 pay in and fit, and that waiver premium just is kicking it because the only one other one with a true waiver premium is one America, who cost that much more.

SPEAKER_01 39:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 39:47

So that helps a lot.

SPEAKER_01 39:49

Yeah, like a yeah, small changes, but really smart changes. Uh, I think it it has taken a bit, um, but the hybrid market is now able to accommodate all folks that have. I mean, if we look back 10 years, right? We're looking at almost a single pay market only, not completely, but it's almost like to get the really good value out of these plans, you've got to have the capacity for a single pay or at least a 10 pay, right? So this increase in flexibility uh is something I really, really like. Uh let's see. Robert says going back, they changed nationwide to servicing nationwide annuity, right? Um not sure what you're asking there. Um Robert, if you want to provide any clarification, I'm happy to take a stab at it, though. Um all right, we are we are running out of time. I think the one other super major piece to this, um, as far as product updates was Equitrust

Guaranteed Issue Annuity Updates

SPEAKER_01 41:02

Bridge. Um, so we talked about care matters annuity targeting 95% acceptance, Equitrust Bridge, obviously uniquely positioned as a guaranteed issue underwriting, annuity long-term care carrier. Um, and really underwriting you for higher leverage from there. Fixed index annuity product, 7702B long-term care. There's a lot that's differentiated about Equitrust. Um, and again, just some tune-ups to the product. Minimum issue age dropping from 55 to 50. Huge. Huge. Uh, because folks at younger ages have underwriting issues as well. Um, and may very well be holders of annuities with significant cash, right? So that can really swoop in and help a lot of folks in that age segment. Um, guaranteed benefit-based rollup increased from two to three percent pound annually for 20 years. Um, always nice to add a little bit extra value to this plan. Um, and this is gonna get really, really technical. I will have you refer to uh our study group recording with Tommy John Dahl earlier this year, where he talks about the coverage ratio leverage um applying to all premiums paid in the first five years rather than the first year premium only. Um, so it's really going to open you up to a number of different strategies where you're not necessarily just paying it up in one shot or have the ability to um kind of add premiums on top over the first few years. Um, so you gotta think like uh RMD strategies are are potential uh there or specific staged contributions um can be pretty nice. And there were some changes to the Neverstop Wellness Program, which I know had some uh growing pains as far as the process goes, but um as as far as how those wellness credits are applied, that has changed around to kind of increase their value. Um they obviously want people to be using Neverstop. Uh and let's see, we did get some news from them that about 70% of applicants currently classify as um preferred, which is their highest um health rating, which I thought was really interesting and encouraging. So obviously, not just the solution um for clients who cannot get any other solution, no matter how hard they try, but you know, can also result in uh high leverage for uh you know folks in decently good health. Thank you, Gretchen, for sharing that recording. Um you're welcome. Appreciate it. And let's see. Did I have anything else on Equitrust? I just think this product is really, really cool. Um interesting design. Obviously, it helps a lot of people. You have to have the um capacity to fund a plan uh either from a 1035X or a single pay or a very limited sort of multi-year pay, um, but still continues to be a product whose name gets brought up a lot just because there's a number of really good sales opportunities that come up from it. Um, but I think those are the major items I wanted to cover today, and that takes us right up to about time. Did

Closing Thoughts and Advisor Takeaways

SPEAKER_01 44:56

anybody have anything else interesting from this year? Observations, um, any other products to put a spotlight on uh before we wrap it up and send you on your way? I highly recommend you check out that recording that Gretchen uh put in the chat too. Uh Tommy really knows his stuff and did a wonderful breakdown of how Agatrust works. And that's a product you need in your portfolio for sure. All righty. Well, I hope you guys enjoyed. Uh, I hope um anything that was brought up today gives you another reminder reason to take a second look at a product, makes you think about a client that you have in mind that could benefit from any of the information here today. And uh thank you all for sharing your experiences with um some of these um newer products this year and uh how it's going for you. Really appreciate that. Helps the conversation a lot. And that's all I've got for you. So be well, be good, and we'll see you this time next week. Thanks, everyone.

SPEAKER_02 45:57

Bye.