There’s nothing worse than putting time and effort into a clientn's long-term care insurance case  only to have it declined by a carrier.  Though there’s no way to guarantee that a LTC insurance case will be approved, there are many things an advisor can do prior to submitting the application to increasethe likelihood of an approval.  Pre-underwriting is the KEY, and there are many different tools available to advisors from organizations like brokerage general agencies such as LTCI Partners.

Each carrier has a unique set of underwriting standards and a corresponding underwriting guide to assist in pre-underwriting.  These guides are great for looking up build charts, finding out the rating for a particular health condition, and even obtaining additional health questions that you should ask your client.  Though these guides are very helpful, they can be confusing if you have a client with multiple health issues.  To help with this issue, some carriers have developed a web-based version of their underwriting guide that holds your hand through all of the detailed health questions.  Genworth’s eValuate tool does just that.  Step-one asks for date of birth, gender, height/weight, tobacco status, and even blood pressure and cholesterol readings.  From there it will ask information about the client’s parents, red-flag medications, and health conditions.  If you mark “Yes” to a particular question, it will prompt you with more follow-up questions.  All the while in the process, at the bottom of the screen it will list the health rating that the client should be submitted at. You can connect to the tool here.

There are also other helpful things to assist with pre-underwriting clients. Many clients do not want to discuss their nitty gritty health info with an advisor.  However, they might feel much more comfortable filling out a form or a secure, online health questionnaire.  An example of a fillable underwriting guide can be downloaded here.  

However, the most effective tool might be to set up a phone call for a BGA such as LTCI Partners information with an advisor, but they feel just fine talking about it over the phone with a professional they don’t know.  These calls allow for someoneto dig a bit deeper and ask the follow-up questions you can’t always find on a form.  The BGA can then take that information to the carriers to find the best fit for the prospect.

Find the pre-underwriting method that works best for you and stick to it - ask for help which is always availalble.