Brighthouse SmartCare

[tgotch]

I was watching the Belmont Stakes race yesterday (of course my horse did not win), and saw a commercial for Brighthouse SmartCare.

Looks like a hybrid universal lift/LTC plan.

Cursory view of their site shows the following (Hybrid vs. Traditional LTC plan:

No premium increase
Death benefit
Return of premium

I haven't looked into the costs/fees associated.

Anyone with more info on this options?

 

[COcheesehead]

I think many life insurance companies offer something similar under the premise of adding a LTC rider to a life policy.

 

[Scrapr]

Brighthouse does short term loans to under capitalized workers...at 149% per annum. Personally i would not want to work with someone like that

 

[ncbill]

I was watching the Belmont Stakes race yesterday (of course my horse did not win), and saw a commercial for Brighthouse SmartCare.

Looks like a hybrid universal life/LTC plan.

Cursory view of their site shows the following (Hybrid vs. Traditional LTC) plan:

No premium increase
Death benefit
Return of premium

I haven't looked into the costs/fees associated.

Anyone with more info on this options?

Over on bogleheads one guy who sells LTC policies notes you pay roughly 3x with these hybrid plans as you would for a stand-alone LTC plan with the same benefits.

BTW, normally the insurance premium increases every year with universal life (like annually renewable term)...the sellers assume that earnings will cover those increases, but in my experience that never happens, so the policy eventually will require new money to stay in effect.

So I'm skeptical of the "no premium increase" claim.

Look at the guarantee on the illustration and make sure the above doesn't happen with this policy...I've had two universal life policies "blow up" because of the above...I didn't buy the policies but got stuck paying for them.

 

[COcheesehead]

I am a bit skeptical of the 3x the cost claim. My wife and I have a hybrid that provides a total of $1,000,000 in death benefits which equates to $900,000 in LTC benefits and we pay about $200 a month. The dividends will cover the premium if I want to stop paying all together. LTC would be much higher. If we decide to bail on the policy we have six figures of cash that is still ours. That is impossible with a stand along LTC policy. You use it or lose it.
As far as increasing costs, you just reduce the benefit if you don’t want to pay the higher premium.