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Long Term Care In The News......
December 20, 2005
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Volume 43
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Welcome to the forty-third edition of Long-Term
Care in the News. We, at Custom Care
Solution, LLC, want to wish you and your families a joyous Holiday Season
and all the best in 2006. We look forward
to another great year as we expand our business with other products for you
and your clients. Including,
Disability Income Insurance, Life Insurance, Employee Benefits and Fixed
Annuity products.
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METLIFE WILL NOT LAUNCH VIP2 FOR FLORIDA OR NEW YORK PARTNERSHIP
BY YEAR END- BUT NEW JERSEY, PENNSYLVANIA & MASSACHUSETTS WILL LAUNCH VIP2 ON DECEMBER 30TH.
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MetLife has announced that VIP2 will not launch for Florida or the New York State
Partnership on December 30. They
originally announced that the five remaining states, including Massachusetts, Florida, New
Jersey,
Pennsylvania and New York
Partnership, would launch on December
30, 2005. Since then they have confirmed that VIP2 will not launch in Florida and New York State Partnership on
December 30th. A revised VIP2 launch date for Florida will be
announced. NY Partnership will now
launch on January 9, 2006. You should assume that Massachusetts, New
Jersey
and Pennsylvania will still be part of
the December 30th launch.
We cannot stress to you enough, the significant differences in
premiums from the current VIP series to this new product. You may be thinking that your clients
will put you off until after the holidays, THINK AGAIN. Illustrate to them, that by applying for LTC today, they may save
themselves upwards of 30%. Remember,
in most cases, it takes over a month to complete the underwriting process
plus your clients then have a 30 day period to make their premium payment
so in realistic terms, we are talking early February before they have to
“write the check”. Don’t let the
holidays get in the way of your sales.
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2006 FEDERAL TAX TABLES
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The
Internal Revenue Service has released inflation adjusted tax tables for
2006. The limitations under section
213(d)(10), regarding eligible LTC premiums includible in
the term “medical care” are:
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ATTAINED AGE BEFORE
CLOSE OF 2006 TAXABLE YEAR
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ALLOWABLE
DEDUCTION
(for the
tax year 2006)
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40 OR
YOUNGER
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$280
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41
THROUGH 50
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$530
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51
THROUGH 60
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$1,060
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61
THROUGH 70
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$2,830
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71 &
GREATER
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$3,530
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These
amounts represent the deductible medical expense limits for individuals who
itemize their deductions. Also note
that the per diem amount for 2006 will change to $250.
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MEDAMERICA TO CHANGE CAP ON DISCOUNTS IN NEW YORK, MASSACHUSETTS, ILLINOIS, INDIANA, SOUTH CAROLINA
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Do you have clients in any of the above states that
are married and in perfect health???
The company is modifying CareDirections
Simplicity’s aggregate maximum for Care Partner and Preferred rate
reductions. Applications must be
signed before December 31 and submitted to MedAmerica by January 20th. The new maximum discount will be capped
at 20%. Today, the maximum discount
when both spouses apply and receive preferred discounts is 35%. This is a significant change to MedAmerica’s pricing structure and your clients should
not miss this window of opportunity.
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2006 MINIMUM BENEFITS FOR NY, CT,
IN PARTNERSHIPS
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This
is to notify you that the minimum benefit levels for all Partnership
products issued in Connecticut, Indiana and New York will increase
effective January 1, 2006. All Partnership policies with an issue
date after December 31, 2005 must be issued with
the new minimums. IMPORTANT: All policies with an issue date in 2006
must adhere to the minimums for 2006, even if the application was signed
in 2005. Unless you are absolutely
certain that the policy will be issued in 2005, we recommend that you
quote your clients using the 2006 minimum benefit amounts. The 2006 minimums for CT are $159 NH
Daily Benefit/$79.50 Home Health Care.
The new minimums for New York are $189 Nursing
Home Daily Benefit/$94.50 Home Health Care and the minimums for Indiana are $110 Nursing
Home Daily Benefit. Also, please
be aware that all states require a broker to complete a Partnership
Certification course before being able to sell a Partnership product. For more information about any of these
products, please contact
us.
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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
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