Independent
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
- Joined
- Oct 28, 2006
- Messages
- 4,629
I take it you're referring to whole life insurance policies and not term life insurance where there is no surrender value. I view LTCi more analagous to term life insurance, with premium that can reset periodically, which also occurs with term life policies, as the risk of death becomes greater (i.e as we get older).
At some point, deferring the decision effectively means pricing one out of insurance coverage. I'm ok with paying for all the term life insurance I've purchased for over 38 years -- it's sunk in cost I hope never to recoup. It will eventually get too pricely for me and I'll drop the coverage next year -- and I'll "self insure." I might do the same with LTCi, but for now, I'm completely satisfied with this picture now and going forward.
Yes, I was referring to whole life, not term. LTCi has been sold as level premium for life contracts. The right to raise premiums was (and is) supposed to be a last resort for companies that experience unpredictable adverse experience.
I would have bought LTCi years ago if there had been a term option with scheduled premium increases that roughly matched the increasing risk.
And yes, deferring means accepting the insurability risk. In our case, that kind of bit us. Still, I'm not crying a lot about missing out.