Hybrid Long-Term Care Insurance Policy
What Does 'Hybrid Long-Term Care Insurance Policy' Mean?
If the long-term care benefit is not used or is only partially used, the unused death benefit is paid out to policyholder’s heirs like any other life insurance policy or annuity would do.
More Information
Hybrid Long-Term Care Insurance combines a life insurance policy or an annuity and Long-Term Care Insurance into one single policy. These are also known as linked benefits, asset-based, or combination policies.
The way hybrids work can vary, but generally, policyholders will have a death benefit (or annuity) and long-term care benefits.
If the policyholder needed long-term care, their policy would accelerate a portion of the death benefit to pay for care. If they use the entire portion of the accelerated death benefit, then an extra pool of long-term care benefits would kick in to cover the remaining costs. These extra long-term care benefits are an extension of the benefits rider.
After passing away, the policyholder's beneficiaries would still receive the portion of the death benefit left over after long-term care. If the policyholder never needed care, their beneficiaries would receive the entire death benefit.
Hybrid Long-Term Care Insurance policies meet the same requirements that normal LTC Insurance policies do. These policies cover all the same types of long-term care that a normal LTC Insurance policy would cover.
You can trigger benefits like any other LTC Insurance policy. Which involves needing help with two of the six activities of daily living or needing supervision due to cognitive decline.
Instead of paying a monthly premium, most people with hybrid policies pay one single premium when they purchase the policy. However, there are options to pay annually for 10 to 20 years.
Hybrid policies are more expensive than traditional LTC Insurance, but they guarantee money back as a death benefit or long-term care benefit. Premiums are also guaranteed never to increase.