Genworth Financials

Hancock litigation on a 10-year old Policy
Penn Treaty is Open for Business in New Jersey
Employers Express Interest in Voluntary Benefits

Genworth Financial Reports Second Quarter 2004 Earnings

Genworth reported that long-term care insurance product sales were down 34 percent in the second quarter of 2004 from the prior year period, to $39 million, primarily due to new business price increases.

John Hancock Refuses to Deliver on 10 Yr Old Policy

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, a California case is about to go to trial that will test what constitutes lying about one’s health on an application for long-term care insurance.  What went wrong in this case is open to debate.  The insured met with a long-term care insurance agent in October 1994 and he filled out an application that included his medical background.  The application did not mention memory loss.  He then visited his doctor one month later and mentioned then that he had been experiencing some memory loss.  According to court documents, the doctor noted suspicions of early signs of dementia or possible Alzheimer’s in his medical records, but made no mention of it to the insured.  The insured purchased his long-term care policy in April 1995.  He wasn’t diagnosed with Alzheimer’s until 1998.  John Hancock claims they were deceived by the client and that he was obligated to report symptoms of memory loss before signing the policy.  His attorney says that it was up to John Hancock to conduct a medical evaluation as well as to review the applicant’s medical records.  Hancock has offered to return all premiums paid but the family will not drop the lawsuit.  For a complete copy of the article please contact us.

Penn Treaty is Open for Business in New Jersey

New Jersey is open for business and the Personal Freedom 2 (TQ and NTQ) and the Secured Risk Nursing Facility Plans are available for sale. This is great news. Especially, the ability to sell the Secured Risk policy to clients in NJ who may be otherwise uninsurable. Some of you are aware that prior to this announcement, clients had to travel to CT in order to purchase the Secured Risk policy. Now we can sell it in the state of NJ. Contact us today to learn more about the Penn Treaty series – especially the Secured Risk plan. Take a look at your database and review with us those clients who have previously been declined for LTC. This presents a great selling opportunity for those clients.

Employers Express Interest in Voluntary LTCi Benefits

A recent study by LIMRA International revealed that seven percent of employers are interested in offering long-term care insurance on a voluntary basis.  According to the study of over 1,000 employers, the primary reason for adding this new voluntary benefit is that “their employees ASK for the benefit”.  Contact us to learn how to make voluntary LTCi part of your LTC sales strategy.

Interest in Voluntary Benefits

We at CCS are continually looking for ways to keep our brokers up to date. If you’d like to send comments or suggestions to make this newsletter better, please feel free to contact us.

Debra A. Walker, LTCP, CLTC                                    Karin L. Wertheim, LTCP, CLTC