Number One Provider of Medicaid Compliant Annuities

Financial Product Sales in 2008 - Long Term Care Insurance - Medicaid

In 2008, according to a recent poll conducted by the NAIFA's advisorToday.com, annuity sales topped the financial product sales marketplace at 34 %.  Next, whole life sales followed at 25%, term life sales at 16%, disability income sales at 14%, universal life sales at 9%, and long term care insurance sales at 2%.  Did the last statistic surprise you?  

In an article entitled, "Discussing Life Expectancy", which appeared in the March of 2009 edition of NAIFA's advisorToday magazine,  I learned that a married couple has a higher exposure to the risk of living too long than does a single person.  What is the premise behind the argument?  According to the article, the argument is premised on the principle that the life expectancy of two people is greater than the life expectancy of one person.  The article goes on to say if a husband and wife are age 66, there is a 50-percent probability that one of them will live 25.3 years, which is about seven years more than the life expectancy of either the the husband or the wife as a single person.

In light of the above, it is my opinion that if the aforementioned result were to occur, the surviving party will certainly have a higher need for long term care.  Additionally, if the surviving party wants to avoid losing more than half of his or her assets to a long term stay in a nursing home in order to qualify for Medicaid benefits, he or she will need to purchase a long term care insurance policy. In order to get the best deal on a long term care insurance policy, an individual must be less than 80 years of age, and be in good health. 

Finally, in those cases were a couple has explored the opportunity to purchase long term care insurance and one of them is declared uninsurable, based on the aforementioned statistics, the insurable spouse still needs to purchase the long term care insurance coverage. 

Insurance Planning Mistakes

MISTAKE #1: Creating a "three on a policy" (designating separate parties as owner, insured and beneficiary). This can result in gift tax at the death of the insured.

MISTAKE #2: Failing to designate a successor policy beneficiary. In the event the beneficiary predeceases the insured, the proceeds will be paid to the insured's estate, subjecting the policy to creditor claims, probate and, potentially, more tax.

MISTAKE #3: Creating a three-party corporate problem. As with the above three on a policy, three parties on a business policy can result in proceeds being classified as dividends or compensation upon the business owner's death. Result: Gift tax.

MISTAKE #4: Failing to comply with IRC section 101(j) provisions respecting employee notice and consent. Unless a contract falls within certain expectations, then a portion of the death proceeds will be subject to income tax.

MISTAKE  #5: Failing to consider the 3-year estate tax inclusion rule. A violation of the rule will keep a policy gifted by the insured in his or her estate.

MISTAKE #6: Violating the transfer-for-value rule. A transfer of a policy in exchange for value will subject a portion of the death proceeds to ordinary income tax, except where the transfer is to one of five statutory exceptions.