Like others who have posted here on this topic, I am wrestling with whether to accept one of the Haney-settlement required options for reducing my current Genworth LTC premium in light of anticipated premium increases in 2026. But I have a question about terminology.
As part of the settlement, Genworth was required to disclose its specific plans for increasing premiums. According to their disclosures, policies with a guaranteed annual increase amount of over 1% (which is the case with me - my policy benefits increase by 5% each year) will be increased 189% on policies with “lifetime benefits” or 97% on policies with “limited benefits. My question is what do they mean by "lifetime benefits" and "limited benefits"? My policy has a stated lifetime benefit which goes up every year by 5% and is currently around $280,000. But the policy also states there is a three-year payout based on a monthly benefit of approximately $7751. So is that considered a lifetime benefit or a limited benefit? It sounds "limited" to me since it only goes for three years, but they do throw around the term "lifetime" when referencing the benefits.
Depending on the answer to that question, I might consider not taking any of the current alternatives (which require a decision by July 1, 2024) since when they eventually raise my rates in 2026, they will again have to present me with alternatives for reducing the premium. So any help on resolving this definitional question will be very helpful. And yes, I do plan to call Genworth cutomer support next week to see what they have to say about this, but I have no idea of how long I will have to wait on hold before getting through to them. I suspect their Customer Support line is being bombarded with questions about this.
Thanks in advance for any thoughts on this!
As part of the settlement, Genworth was required to disclose its specific plans for increasing premiums. According to their disclosures, policies with a guaranteed annual increase amount of over 1% (which is the case with me - my policy benefits increase by 5% each year) will be increased 189% on policies with “lifetime benefits” or 97% on policies with “limited benefits. My question is what do they mean by "lifetime benefits" and "limited benefits"? My policy has a stated lifetime benefit which goes up every year by 5% and is currently around $280,000. But the policy also states there is a three-year payout based on a monthly benefit of approximately $7751. So is that considered a lifetime benefit or a limited benefit? It sounds "limited" to me since it only goes for three years, but they do throw around the term "lifetime" when referencing the benefits.
Depending on the answer to that question, I might consider not taking any of the current alternatives (which require a decision by July 1, 2024) since when they eventually raise my rates in 2026, they will again have to present me with alternatives for reducing the premium. So any help on resolving this definitional question will be very helpful. And yes, I do plan to call Genworth cutomer support next week to see what they have to say about this, but I have no idea of how long I will have to wait on hold before getting through to them. I suspect their Customer Support line is being bombarded with questions about this.
Thanks in advance for any thoughts on this!
Statistics: Posted by rickwmm — Sat Apr 20, 2024 4:12 pm — Replies 0 — Views 53