Long-term care insurance plan design isn't a one-size-fits-all proposition. The policies are as individual as the clients that buy them. It can be confusing deciding what benefits to show your clients.

Where to begin? Many clients have heard that long-term care insurance is too expensive!  It sure can be when you look at the rising costs of care in nursing homes.  For example, according to Genworth if you live in Manhattan and check out he cost of private nursing home care you'll find the median cost is $450 per day.  If you are trying to insure to pay for all of a nursing home stay, the resulting premium can frighten away even the wealthiest New Yorker. 

Think about where your client would like to receive care.  For most clients, the answer to that question is simple- at home!  Because of this, I start most illustrations at or just above the average cost of home health care in the client's desired retirement location.  Using the example above, the median home care cost in New York is $21 per hour - or $168 for an 8 hour shift.  

This doesn't mean you need to call around to facilities and home care services in  that area.  There are several cost of care suveys available online.  Both Genworth and John Hancock have great surveys available, but in general the range for home care costs is much narrower nationally than nursing home costs.

Once you've found your client's average cost of home health care, you can further customize their LTCI quote by subtracting from their monthly benefit any money they might have set aside to co-pay for their care. Because 40 hours of home health care can cost around half the cost of a stay in a skilled nursing facility, building your clients plan this way accomplishes a few different things. You've built them a policy that would pay for most of a long-term care event at home or at an assisted living facility, you've shown them a policy that is much more reasonably priced than a policy designed to pay for a nursing facility, and most importantly,you've made it easier for them to put a long-term care insurance policy between them and a the risk of a long-term care event.  

Here are some other ways to design more affordable LTC plans