Long-term care insurance is probably a good idea. With an estimated 47% of men and 58% of women over 65 needed some type of long-term care, long-term care insurance will ensure that you get the care you need. On the other hand, Medicare doesn’t cover long-term care, so you can’t rely on that.
Unlike hybrid policies, which combine long-term care with life insurance, National Guardian offers a stand-alone long-term care insurance policy. These policies are less expensive than hybrid policies, but if it turns out that you don’t need long-term care, all the money you spent in premiums benefits the insurance company. Compared with other traditional long-term care insurance policies in the market, National Guardian policy is very competitively priced.
- Quotes of National Guardian Life Long-Term Care Insurance Policy
- Features of National Guardian Life Long-Term Care Insurance Policy
- Consumer Satisfaction Rating of National Guardian Life Long-Term Care Insurance
- Financial Strength Rating of National Guardian Life Long-Term Care Insurance
Quotes of National Guardian Life Long-Term Care Insurance Policy
We got a quote based on a 50-year old female non-smoker, in excellent health. Your quote may be different based on your health and where you live.
- Daily benefit: $200
- Elimination period: Zero days for qualified home and community care services, 90 days for everything else
- Benefit period: Three years with a one-year benefit extension rider, so four years.
- Total benefits: $200 x 360 x 4 years = $288,000
- Annual premiums: $4,507; pay for 10 years. Total premiums: $45,070
- If she ops to pay premiums for the rest of her life, the annual premium will be $1,926.
National Guardian does offer a lifetime benefits option as well, which may come in handy if you’re one of the 13% of people needing long-term care who will need it for more than five years.
It is worth noting that this is a traditional long-term care insurance policy, which means that if you end up with not needing long-term care, you will lose the premiums you have paid to the policy. If this is a big concern for you, you should consider a hybrid long-term care insurance policy instead, which will pay out a tax-free death benefit to your beneficiary in such cases.
>>MORE: The 5 Best Hybrid Long-Term Care Insurance Companies
>>MORE: The 5 Best Traditional Long-Term Care Insurance Companies
Features of National Guardian Life Long-Term Care Insurance Policy
National Guardian Life offer several riders in its long-term care insurance policy:
- Return of Premium rider
- Inflation protection options
- Couples discounts
- Extended benefit rider
- International benefits (up to 30 days)
- Waiver of premium rider
- Respite care benefit
We chose a 90-day elimination period, but you can choose any elimination period you want, from zero to 180 days. Kind of like the deductible on car insurance, a higher elimination period will reduce premiums, but you’ll have to pay more out-of-pocket if you need long-term care.
National Guardian also offers Partnership Long-Term Care protection plans in most states. These policies provide additional dollar-for-dollar protection of your assets, so it’s worth looking into to see if your state offers these.
Shared care benefit: This optional rider makes a third pool of money available which can be used by either spouse if you’ve used up your benefits under the base policy. This basically provides 50% more benefits should either spouse need it.
Consumer Satisfaction Rating of National Guardian Life Long-Term Care Insurance
The BBB gives National Guardian an A+ rating. There are only two one-star reviews and sixteen complaints on the website, which is not a lot. Some complaints reflect a lack of communication, and some seem to indicate customers had no idea what they had purchased or how their policies worked.
The NAIC gives National Guardian Life a complaint ratio score of .57, which is about half as many complaints as expected. The median average complaint ratio is 1.0.
Financial Strength Rating of National Guardian Life Long-Term Care Insurance
A.M. Best gives National Guardian an A- for financial strength, so it would appear they have the resources they need to pay claims.
Last Thoughts
Long-term care insurance is not as popular as it once was, mostly because hybrid long-term care policies have slowly filled that niche. But it your in the market for a traditional LTC policy, National Guardian is competitively priced and offer a few unique benefits. The lifetime benefits option and the shared care option are excellent benefits that you may well need. National Guardian is a good option for LTC insurance.
>>MORE: Our reviews of the top 5 hybrid long-term care insurance policies: