OneAmerica Introduces New Asset Care Policy With Lifetime LTC
October 24, 2024
OneAmerica Financial has updated its popular market-leading Asset Care policy. The new Asset Care hybrid long term care policy is now available in 38 states.
Asset Care is a whole life policy that will allow you to access 100% of your life insurance benefit to help pay for qualifying long term care expenses. Built into the Asset Care policy is a long term care continuation of benefits (COB) rider that will extend your long term care benefits beyond the face amount of your life insurance benefit.
The unique benefit of Asset Care is the COB Rider has the option for you to extend LTC benefits for your entire lifetime.
OneAmerica Asset Care is the only life insurance policy with long term care benefits that can provide you with Lifetime Unlimited LTC coverage.
For this reason, OneAmerica Asset Care has generally been the most popular long term care plan over the past 10 years.
New for 2024, OneAmerica will now provide you with the option to receive the acceleration of your life insurance benefit for long term care needs to be received either as a cash indemnity benefit or as a reimbursement.
The reimbursement model requires receipts for paid care to be provided in order to claim policy benefits. OneAmerica will now allow paid care to be provided by independent providers to help bridge the gap between informal and formal care.
The cash indemnity model does not require you to submit receipts for paid caregiving to be eligible to claim policy benefits.
This new cash indemnity option on the Asset Care policy will provide you with additional flexibility should your care be able to be provided at home informally by a family member or a loved one.
Access to a cash benefit will provide you with a way to offset costs and ease financial burdens resulting from loved ones providing informal care at home.
OneAmerica will also be enhancing its Care Benefit Concierge services and its ongoing support for policyholders.
When you need to file a claim, OneAmerica will provide you with an in-house Care Benefit Concierge that will be dedicated to support all of your claim needs including helping you with completing claim forms, and contacting your care providers and doctors on your behalf to gather information, and handle direct payment to your care providers making the reimbursement process as smooth as possible for you.
Should you be receiving informal caregiving with the cash indemnity option, OneAmerica will also provide you with a Caregiver Consultant available at no cost to provide ongoing counsel and support services for your informal caregivers.
The unique benefit of the Care Benefit Concierge services provided by OneAmerica is that its Concierge team is based in its home office in Indianapolis. Unlike most other long term care insurance companies, OneAmerica does not use third party vendors for its care coordination support services. OneAmerica provides its Care Benefit Concierge services for you directly through its employees. This dedicated attention and personalized service to each policyholder is an important consideration for you when choosing to decide upon the best policy for you.
So, with these policy enhancements in mind, let's take a closer look at the new OneAmerica Asset Care policy, the options that you will have to design your plan, and some pricing examples.
Policy Highlights of OneAmerica Asset Care
Issue classes: Individual and joint life for spouses, partners and couples
Issue ages: ages 35 to 80, maximum 25 year age difference for joint insureds
Minimum Face Amount: $50,000
Maximum Face Amount $1,000,000
LTC Acceleration of Benefits Rider: Option of 75% Cash Indemnity or 100% reimbursement on a monthly basis. The AOB Rider provides monthly benefit payments for qualifying long term care by drawing down on the Face Amount. The AOB Rider persists until the Face Amount is used up.
LTC Continuation of Benefits Rider: 100% reimbursement. The COB Rider is optional and provides monthly benefit payments for qualifying long term care expenses after the AOB Rider has exhausted the face amount. The COB Rider may extend LTC benefits an additional 2 years, 4 years, 6 years, or Lifetime Unlimited (Recommended)
Inflation Protection Rider: This optional rider increases the Monthly benefit Limit and Total LTC Benefits by the growth option selected, compounded annually. You may elect to include optional 2%, 3% or 5% compound inflation protection. Inflation protection may be included on the Acceleration of Benefits (AOB) Rider and/or on the Continuation of Benefits (COB) Rider. You may elect inflation protection for a 20 year period or for your entire Lifetime.
LTC Elimination Period: Upon being diagnosed as Chronically Ill, this is the number of days of qualified care that must be provided before having access to long-term care benefits. 0 days for home health care services, 90 calendar days for facility care.
LTC Benefits: facility care (all levels), assisted living, home health care, homemaker services, care coordination, hospice care, adult day care, respite care, international facility, bed reservation, caregiver training, supportive equipment.
Payment options: Single Premium, 5 Pay, 10 Pay, 20 Pay, Pay to 95, & IRA Rollovers are accepted. Fixed and guaranteed premiums.
Care Benefit Concierge: Policy review and claims support throughout the claims process.
Caregiver Consultant: available at no cost to informal caregivers when the cash indemnity option is elected for the Acceleration of Benefits Rider.
Separately Identifiable Life Premium and LTC Premium: The Asset Care policy breaks down the premium components to pay for the life insurance costs, the long term care insurance costs, and the inflation protection costs. Your long term care insurance and inflation protection costs may qualify for tax deductibility.
Designing Your Long Term Care Benefits with the OneAmerica Asset Care Plan
With long term care insurance planning, there are typically 3 choices you need to make when you design your plan:
1. Monthly Benefit: In today's dollars, what amount would you like to receive each month to help you with caregiving costs or room and board in a facility?
2. Benefit Period: Should you need care, for how many years would you want to receive your monthly benefit payout?
3. Optional Inflation Protection: Would you want your monthly benefit to increase annually to keep up with rising costs of care?
So, essentially long term care insurance simplified is "How much money do you want on a monthly basis, and for how long, should you need care?"
Now, what's nice about the Asset Care policy is the answer to the How Long? question is already answered. If you are looking at the Asset Care policy, your answer to How Long? is "Unlimited. Lifetime."
I can say this because if you do not want Unlimited Lifetime coverage, Asset Care will not be the policy for you. So, even though OneAmerica does have limited LTC benefits as an option, if you feel 4 or 6 years of long term care benefits will suffice, we have other policies that might generally be better options for limited benefit period coverage.
The OneAmerica Asset Care is the only hybrid long term care plan that offers Unlimited, so this is truly the benefit that we design the plan around.
So, with the Asset Care policy the most important question for you to think about is how much monthly benefit do you want to have?
You may want to research the costs of care in your area or where you plan to retire to gain a sense as to what current caregiving costs are today. And remember, insurance policies do not always have to cover the total cost of your care. Many of my clients buy policies just to "Take the Sting Out" of the high cost of long term care.
With this in mind, I would like to share with you a few illustrations for policyholders at different ages so you can be provided with a sense of the cost and the benefits of the Asset Care policy.
For the purposes of these illustrations I will keep the designs straightforward, and easy to understand.
Let's look at joint life illustrations for couples that will provide each insured with a $10,000 monthly long term care benefit for Lifetime.
So you can see the difference in premium costs for different ages, let's review plans for couples ages 50, 60 and 65.
Total Single Pay Premium | $135,933 |
Death Benefit (at 2nd death) | $240,000 |
Total LTC Benefits | Unlimited |
AOB Monthly Benefit Limit | $10,000 per person |
COB Monthly Benefit Limit | $10,000 per person |
So, if you are a 50 year old couple you could elect to reposition funds in the amount of $135,933 and immediately own a paid-up joint whole life benefit of $240,000. Should either of you need to receive long term care, each of you would be eligible to receive $10,000 month tax free, forever. Payments received for long term care would reduce the death benefit of $240,000 on a dollar-for-dollar basis.
Now, let's see how the premiums change if you are a 60 year old couple.
Total Single Pay Premium | $196,913 |
Death Benefit (at 2nd death) | $240,000 |
Total LTC Benefits | Unlimited |
AOB Monthly Benefits | $10,000 per person |
COB Monthly Benefits | $10,000 per person |
So, if you are a 60 year old couple you could design the same Lifetime LTC benefits of $10,000 monthly per person for a single pay premium that is $196,913. If care is not needed, your estate or beneficiaries will receive $240,000 as a life insurance payout.
Now let's look at an age 65 year old couple.
Total Single Pay Premium | $243,929 |
Death Benefit (at 2nd death) | $240,000 |
Total LTC Benefits | Unlimited |
AOB Monthly Benefits | $10,000 per person |
COB Monthly Benefits | $10,000 per person |
If you are age 65, you can see that your premium cost is now $243,929 to obtain a $10,000 monthly long term care benefit per person forever. If care is not needed, you will receive $240,000 of your premium back as a death benefit.
Now, the above premiums are for the single premium payment option, which is the least costly option overall to pay your premium.
There are other payment schedule options as well for you to consider.
You may spread premiums out over 5 years, 10 years, 20 years, or to age 95. You may even fund your plan with a rollover of Qualified Funds inside your retirement account. Here are the links to the complete illustrations. Within the illustrations you will see the costs for these Alternative Premium Options on either Page 9 or Page 10.
Illustration 50 year old Couple
Illustration 60 Year Old Couple
Illustration 65 Year Old Couple
So, I hope these numbers and these illustrations help you to gain a sense of the costs of these plans.
Now, premiums and monthly long term care benefits have a pro rata relationship. So, if you are curious as to what the premium would be if, for example, you buy $5000 month instead of $10,000 month, your premium will be exactly 50% of the premiums reflected above. $10,000 x 50% = $5000. The death benefit of $240,000 would also be reduced by 50% to $120,000.
Current Availability Of The New OneAmerica Asset Care Policy
With this initial launch of the Asset Care policy this week, we are able to sell the policy in 38 states.
The policy is not yet available in Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Indiana, Montana, New Jersey, North Dakota, South Carolina and South Dakota.
My guess is that the majority of these states will have the new Asset Care policy approved by the end of March 2025. Possibly for a few states it may be Summer 2025. For California, it could be 2-5 years (lol, not kidding).
OneAmerica does not sell in New York at all. If you are a New Yorker, hopefully you are a snowbird with a 2nd residence in a consumer friendly state.
If you are interested in the policy, and are a resident of one of these states that Asset Care is not yet available please call me at (800) 891-5824 and I will put you on my list for follow-up once the policy is approved in your state.
The Underwriting Approval Process for OneAmerica Asset Care
The underwriting process is fairly easy with OneAmerica.
To be approved for the Asset Care policy you will be required to complete a telephone health interview lasting approximately 45 minutes. The health interview may also include a cognitive screening exercise to test your memory recall. Once your interview is completed, my personal underwriter will review your interview, and (hopefully) approve your application. The process to receive health approval can be fairly easy and quick. We often receive approvals within 3-5 days once you have completed your interview.
Sometimes, however, my underwriter will review your interview and may decide that she wants to order medical records from your primary care physician or other medical specialists that you have seen. If she orders medical records, you can expect the process to be 3-4 weeks to receive records and to reach a decision.
I have a very high success rate with receiving underwriting approvals for my clients. Prior to submitting your application, I will fully review your health history, and if needed, receive pre-qualification with my underwriter to set reasonable expectations.
Underwriting approvals are good for 60 days generally before payment is needed.
Final Initial Thoughts On the New Asset Care Policy
I am very pleased with the enhancements OneAmerica is including within this new Asset Care policy that it launched this week.
First of all, I commend OneAmerica for being 100% committed to the long term care insurance arena which is evidenced through its continued offering of Lifetime benefit periods on its long term care insurance coverage. While every other insurance underwriter will no longer extend its policyholders more than 6-8 years of benefits, I am truly grateful that OneAmerica will continue to offer Lifetime. My stepmother has now been in memory care for 2 years, however she was cared for at home by my dad for many years beforehand. So I fully understand the importance of the Lifetime coverage option, especially should cognitive impairments such as dementia and Alzheimer's develop.
The new inclusion of the cash indemnity option within the Acceleration Of Benefits rider also shows that OneAmerica is listening to its policyholders and its claimants' families to ensure the policy is more flexible at the initial time of claim when family is often stressed and in crisis management. Having the cash indemnity option available to use, if needed, will certainly lessen the immediate burdens upon family members providing care at home.
Additionally, removing the requirement of needing to receive care through a home care agency, and now allowing independent care providers to be hired will help to provide flexibility, as well as enable policyholders to stretch their benefits further by having access to possibly more affordable formal care options.
Lastly, the development of the internal claims team in home office to support policyholders with Care Benefit Concierge services to handle your claim, and to provide a Caregiver Consultant as a touchstone to family caregivers does not go unnoticed by me.
I work with almost a dozen long term care insurance companies. In today's world, a lot of the policies look alike, and are priced alike.
I want to know that the Company behind the policy cares. OneAmerica is one of the companies that I work with that gives me this feeling.
Receive Personalized Long Term Care Planning Guidance
I understand that long term care insurance can be complex and difficult to understand, at times.
It will be my pleasure to simplify the process for you, and help guide you through your long term care planning options.
I am an independent agent licensed in all 50 states and for 27 years have worked with all of the leading underwriters including OneAmerica, Nationwide, Lincoln, Securian, Brighthouse, Mutual of Omaha, Thrivent, National Guardian, Global Atlantic and more.
To receive personalized service call me direct toll free at (800) 891-5824 or you may schedule a call, with me at the link below to my calendar.
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