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Long Term Care Blog

Getting Approvals for Declined Long Term Care Insurance Applications

by Jack Lenenberg

Declined For Long Term Care Insurance"One man's trash is another man's treasure."

Just as this famous proverb so aptly describes that an item considered worthless by one person, may be considered valuable by another; so it goes with long term care insurance underwriting that your medical history considered to be an uninsurable risk by one company may be a perfectly acceptable risk to another company.

A common phone call I receive is the following:

Consumer: "Hi Jack, I am looking to buy long term care insurance for my wife."

Jack:  "Sounds good.  And you? Are you not interested in coverage for yourself?"

Consumer: "I have been turned down before and I know I that I can't get it."

Jack: "Well, please tell me more and let's see."

In many instances I have found that I am able to properly analyze the health history and I ultimately am able to secure approvals for my clients' prior declined applications.

Long term care insurance  is not an exact science.  Underwriting guidelines can and do vary by company.

Additionally, even if underwriting guidelines across companies are similar for certain conditions, underwriters are human and may interpret your medical records differently thus creating a different outcome for you.

Let's take a look at a few common health fact patterns and the differing guidelines by leading long term care insurance underwriters.

Diabetic. History of heart disease.

Genworth: Decline

John Hancock: Decline

Mutual of Omaha: Will consider

Mass Mutual: Decline

Transamerica: Decline

Stroke.  Single episode. Full recovery. No residual effects.

Genworth: Decline

John Hancock: Decline

Mutual of Omaha: Will consider

Mass Mutual: Decline

Transamerica: Will consider

Height 5'10, weight 295 lbs.

Genworth: Decline

John Hancock: Will consider

Mutual of Omaha: Will consider

Mass Mutual: Decline

Transamerica: Will consider

Now, consider additionally that your medical health history file will have records encompassed over years and will include significantly more data than the simple fact patterns above.  Consequently, it is understandable that variance will exist in underwriting results.

The advantage of working with an experienced agent

When you have health issues that demand to be underwritten the experience of your insurance agent will be critical to the success of your application.  You deserve to have your application approved.

To use a basketball analogy, every insurance agent (well, I hope so) can make a layup.  Shooting 3 pointers require more skill.

Many long-term care insurance agents will fail from the 3 point line or from half-court.  When health issues exist the shots become harder and the shooting percentages will decrease.

Most long term care insurance agents run into difficulty for two reasons;

1) Lack of access

2) Lack of experience

Lack of access

The majority of agents are either captive agents (can only write business for their primary company) or even if promoting themselves as an "independent agent" they in reality only use only 2-3 companies to run their business.  Consequently, your agent has nowhere to turn after your application has been declined.

Lack of experience

Most long term care insurance agents write less than 5 policies per year. Should your agent lack experience, a decline will be a difficult hurdle for your agent to overcome.

Get approved for long term care insurance

We have underwritten long term care insurance on a large volume basis since 1998.  We will work to get your applications approved, even should your application have been declined before through another agent.  We have relationships with all of the leading long term care insurance underwriters including Mutual of Omaha, State Life, Securian, Lincoln Financial, Pacific Life, Transamerica, Forethought, Thrivent Financial, LifeSecure and more.

To discuss your health history with us, please contact us direct toll free at (800) 891-5824 or complete our quote request form.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Signature Ltc

Jack Lenenberg

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