You have a lot of options if you’re interested in a linked policy—a hybrid life insurance and long-term care policy. A lot of people like these types of policies because they provide long-term care benefits if you need them and a tax-free death benefit to your beneficiaries if you don’t. Nationwide offers such a hybrid product and it is called YourLife CareMatters.
The main strengths of Nationwide hybrid long-term care insurance product are reasonable rates, indemnity benefits, and great customer service. It is definitely worth your consideration if you are looking for a hybrid long-term care insurance policy.
- Features of Nationwide Long-Term Care Insurance Product
- How Much does Nationwide Long-Term Care Insurance Cost?
- Customer Satisfaction Rating of Nationwide Long-Term Care Insurance
- Financial Strength Rating of Nationwide Long-Term Care Insurance
Features of Nationwide Long-Term Care Insurance Product
Nationwide has a hybrid long-term care insurance policy with several attractive features: YourLife CareMatters. Unlike traditional long-term care insurance, if you end up with not needing it, you will lose the premiums you have paid. If you have a hybrid long-term care insurance, your beneficiary still receive a good tax-free death benefit from the policy when you pass away.
The best thing about this policy is that it’s a cash indemnity policy. Your monthly benefit is paid to you every month and you spend it on whatever you feel you need, such as:
- Home health care
- Visiting nurse
- Assisted living
- Nursing home care
- Hospice
- Adult day care
- Alternative therapies
If you have a YourLife CareMatters policy from Nationwide and it pays $6,000 a month for long-term care. Even if your long-term care needs are less than $6,000 a month, you still get a check for $6,000 a month from Nationwide. No receipts, no hassles. You can pay a family member to help take care of you, even if they are not a nurse or licensed caregiver. This is a good benefit because you may be more comfortable being cared for by someone you know.
Although we chose four years’ worth of benefits, you can choose anywhere between two and seven years.
A not so great feature of this plan is that it does have a 90-day elimination period. That means you must pay for your long-term care expenses out-of-pocket for the first 90 days before your benefits kick in.
If you do use your long-term care benefits, Nationwide still allows for 20% of the face value of the death benefit to pass onto your heirs. This is called residual death benefit and can be used to cover final expenses, and if there’s anything left over, provides a tax-free lump sum to your loved ones. This is higher than most hybrid long-term care policies, most of which leave 10% of the face value and some only leave 5%.
Should you decide to move abroad, 50% of your long-term care benefits will be available. However, there are no restrictions on the type of care eligible for expense indemnity.
You can, if you want, build in 3% or 5% inflation protection into your policy.
The policy offers 3 payment options: single pay or multiple pay of 5 years or 10 years.
Nationwide also offers return of premium feature in its YourLife CareMatters product. It is 100% with 6-year vesting if the policy was purchased with single pay; or 100% vesting 1 year after last scheduled premium is made if it was purchased with multiple pays.
>>MORE: Compare the Best Hybrid Long-Term Care Insurance Companies
How Much does Nationwide Long-Term Care Insurance Cost?
Nationwide’s YourLife CareMatters’s long-term care insurance policy is at a fairly affordable price point. For a 50-year old female, non-smoker in excellent health, we got this quote:
- Total premium: 90,478
- Long-term care benefit: $288,000
- Benefit period: 4 years
- Maximum monthly benefit: $6,000
- Death benefit: $144,000
- Annual premiums: $9,048; pay 10 year. Total premiums are $90,480
If you use long-term care, you can spend up to $288,000. If you don’t need long-term care, when you pass away, your beneficiary will receive $144,000 in death benefit.
>>MORE: Life Insurance with Long-Term Care Benefits
Customer Satisfaction Rating of Nationwide Long-Term Care Insurance
On J.D. Power’s Life insurance study results, companies are rated on a 1,000 point scale, with the median average being 761. Nationwide gets a 783, which is “better than most.”
The BBB rates Nationwide with an A+, and Nationwide is accredited by the BBB. There are 236 customer complaints, and 115 mostly one-star reviews. To be fair, Nationwide offers many types of insurance, so these complaints cover everything from homeowners insurance, pet insurance, auto insurance and life insurance. Scrolling through the first few pages of complaints, we couldn’t find any about long-term care insurance.
On the NAIC’s website, you can select which types of insurance to see regarding the complaint ratio. We chose life and annuities, and Nationwide gets a ratio of .05. This means Nationwide gets far fewer complaints than expected.
>>MORE: The 5 Best Traditional Long-Term Care Insurance Companies
Financial Strength Rating of Nationwide Long-Term Care Insurance
Since Nationwide is a huge company and provides many different types of insurance, you probably won’t be surprised to learn that A.M. Best gives them a score of A+, or superior. They definitely have the resources they need to be able to pay claims.
Last Thoughts
With an attractive cash indemnity policy, decent customer service and fairly affordable rates for a hybrid life insurance/long-term care policy, Nationwide is definitely worth a look.