Insurance, Bandaid For Bad Markets
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Advisors are finding that interest in investment protection needs has rocketed among clients after so many of them watched the market crush their retirement portfolios last year. The number of advisors saying that clients are asking for help in this area versus previous years is way up. But fewer advisors say clients are asking for estate planning, or long-term-care for the first time. It may be that these are services clients were already well acquainted with.
“Wall Street was not as reliable as we had wanted, and people are looking to rebuild their assets and reconfigure retirement plans,” says Beth Ludden, senior vice president for Long Term Care Product development at Genworth Financial. “Where they might have had the flexiblity to self-insure before, in this current environment every penny is being allocated to income needs and there is an urgency to protect that income flow.”
For clients who don't appear to be able to self-insure, 69 percent of advisors say they recommend purchasing long term care insurance and 42 percent recommend a combination of life and long term care insurance. “Before last fall, long term care insurance was somewhere in back of clients' minds, but healthcare costs and retirement have since moved up front and center,” says Ludden. The survey was conducted by Penton Media, and sponsored by John Hancock.
