From physorg.com:
Many Americans have lost more than just retirement savings amid a
year-long economic meltdown that has sliced the U.S. stock market's
value by nearly half in a little over a year, a University of Illinois
elder law expert says....
"This is a wake-up call for
people who were willing to use their own resources for long-term care
expenses, figuring that they'd never outlive their savings," he said.
"The point is that now, after a 45 percent drop in the stock market,
they just might."
With the market-driven decline in the value of retirement assets,
many older Americans may be taking a second look at long-term-care
insurance, Kaplan said.
"But that insurance is a risky product that has only gotten riskier
in the last few months," said Kaplan, who wrote a 2007 paper that
appeared in the Lewis & Clark Law Review calling long-term health-care needs the greatest gap in retirement planning.
"Nothing has happened since then to make people more comfortable
with this product," he said. "What has changed is that people may need
to consider it because their other investments have declined in value.
But long-term-care insurance is even riskier today than it was just a
year ago."
Hefty premium increases for existing policyholders that have long
been charged by smaller insurers are now surfacing among the industry's
very largest companies, he said. Three leading insurers – Genworth
Financial, John Hancock and MetLife – had never before raised premiums
for existing policyholders, but recently bumped rates by as much as 18
percent, he said.
Those rate increases come as policyholders grow older and may have
no realistic alternative to paying higher rates, said Kaplan, a member
of the National Academy of Social Insurance.
For More...
Many Americans have lost more than just retirement savings amid a
year-long economic meltdown that has sliced the U.S. stock market's
value by nearly half in a little over a year, a University of Illinois
elder law expert says....
"This is a wake-up call for
people who were willing to use their own resources for long-term care
expenses, figuring that they'd never outlive their savings," he said.
"The point is that now, after a 45 percent drop in the stock market,
they just might."
With the market-driven decline in the value of retirement assets,
many older Americans may be taking a second look at long-term-care
insurance, Kaplan said.
"But that insurance is a risky product that has only gotten riskier
in the last few months," said Kaplan, who wrote a 2007 paper that
appeared in the Lewis & Clark Law Review calling long-term health-care needs the greatest gap in retirement planning.
"Nothing has happened since then to make people more comfortable
with this product," he said. "What has changed is that people may need
to consider it because their other investments have declined in value.
But long-term-care insurance is even riskier today than it was just a
year ago."
Hefty premium increases for existing policyholders that have long
been charged by smaller insurers are now surfacing among the industry's
very largest companies, he said. Three leading insurers – Genworth
Financial, John Hancock and MetLife – had never before raised premiums
for existing policyholders, but recently bumped rates by as much as 18
percent, he said.
Those rate increases come as policyholders grow older and may have
no realistic alternative to paying higher rates, said Kaplan, a member
of the National Academy of Social Insurance.
For More...
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