How Can Insurance Agents Make Long-Term Care Insurance a New Year Cross-Selling Opportunity?

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Long-term care (LTC) insurance is a coverage type designed to help pay for the costs associated with chronic illnesses, disabilities, or other conditions that require daily assistance over an extended period. Insurance agents can integrate LTC discussions into annual reviews at the start of the year to identify coverage gaps in a client’s existing portfolio. This proactive approach to learning how to cross-sell long-term care insurance helps clients protect their retirement savings from the high costs of care while expanding the agent’s book of business.

How can you cross-sell long-term care insurance to existing clients to expand your book of business? The short answer is to make long-term care part of client conversations at the start of the new year.

Unfortunately, many people overlook the need for long-term care insurance until they have a sudden health event.

You’ve already earned your clients’ trust, making long-term care insurance sales a prime cross-selling opportunity. Help them start the new year strong by taking a more comprehensive approach to protecting their financial futures.

Shortcuts

What Makes the New Year a Good Time to Discuss Long-Term Care Insurance?

How Can I Introduce Long-Term Care Insurance Without Sounding Salesy?

What Is the Best Cross-Selling Process Agents to Use for Long-Term Care Insurance Sales?

Start the New Year With a More Complete Protection Strategy

FAQs About Cross-Selling Long-Term Care Insurance

What Makes the New Year a Good Time to Discuss Long-Term Care Insurance?

A new year is a good time to introduce long-term care insurance because clients are likely setting or revisiting their financial goals. Annual insurance reviews create a natural opening to discuss long-term care insurance.

Waiting too long to buy long-term care insurance can limit their options. As part of your annual review process, add some questions about long-term care insurance to get the conversation flowing.

Why Is It Best to Encourage Clients to Make Some Insurance Decisions Early?

Insurance protects your clients’ assets and their families.

Clients who can no longer care for themselves may need a caregiver. Caregiving costs can quickly deplete retirement funds. When funds aren’t available to pay for help, it can place a heavy financial and emotional burden on family members. Long-term care insurance takes away much of the financial burden and makes decision-making easier during a crisis.

Everyone benefits when your clients make early decisions about long-term care insurance.

Here’s why:

  • Premiums increase with age.
  • Long-term care insurance generally requires underwriting.
  • Health changes are common later in life and can affect eligibility.
  • Clients have more options by applying early.

Beyond that, shopping for long-term care insurance gives your clients more opportunities to get quotes from different insurance companies. According to the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance, your clients could pay up to 56% more for long-term care insurance if they don’t shop around.

While it’s worthwhile to consider every client a candidate for long-term care insurance, you’ll have better results if you define your target audience.

Which Existing Clients Are Good Candidates for a Long-Term Care Cross-Sell?

The best candidates for a long-term care insurance cross-sell are those who understand what they have to lose if they can’t take care of themselves or their loved ones.

During your clients’ annual review, look for trigger points that your client is open to a conversation about long-term care insurance. We’ll describe those trigger points below.

Life Insurance Clients

Your life insurance clients already recognize the value of financial protection. While a life insurance policy protects their loved ones after they die, long-term care insurance can help protect them while they’re living if they become terminally or chronically ill.

By showing your clients policy comparisons via screen-sharing, you can demonstrate how to add a long-term care rider to a term or permanent life insurance policy. Clients may also add accelerated death benefits to their life insurance policy, which give them a cash advance if they have a chronic or terminal illness to help cover unexpected medical care expenses.

Retirement-Age Clients

Clients who are approaching or entering the retirement phase are typically looking at how to manage their finances on a limited income. They’re often worried that their retirement savings may not last long enough if they have expensive medical costs to pay for. Long-term care insurance can help ease their worry about protecting their assets and retirement income.

Higher-Income or Higher-Asset Clients

High-net-worth clients often have significant savings. Nonetheless, they may worry about depleting their finances if they become ill and have to stop working sooner than they planned.

While some individuals may be able to pay for in-home care or nursing home care, it could drastically reduce the inheritance they intended to leave their families.

Clients With Aging Parents

Clients who have aging parents are often keenly aware of the need for long-term care insurance, making them a strong audience for a sale. They have experienced the emotional and financial toll that extensive medical care inflicts on a family.

In pursuing their options for caregiving, assisted living, or other in-home care for their parents, clients with aging parents often start to envision how their own families have to cope with similar expenses in the coming years.

Clients Approaching Medicare Eligibility

Medicare coverage works differently than traditional health insurance plans. As your clients approach the age when they qualify for Medicare, they’ll value having a knowledgeable agent who can answer their questions.

In having discussions about what Medicare does and doesn’t cover for long-term care, you can incorporate talks about broader retirement planning that includes long-term care coverage. And again, by sharing your screen, the value of long-term care will become evident.

How Can I Introduce Long-Term Care Insurance Without Sounding Salesy?

A salesy pitch can turn off customers quickly. It’s easy to detect a pitch that feels disingenuous. The best approach is to turn the conversation toward the client’s needs rather than the product.

Explore their concerns, goals, and plans for the future before jumping into a long-term care policy’s features. Ask thoughtful questions. Connect their answers to the benefits of long-term care planning. Realistic scenarios will bring the need for long-term care insurance to life.

Education creates a comfortable environment that helps your clients understand their options and make decisions.

Lead With Questions, Not a Product

It’s always good to have a few leading questions relating to long-term care insurance in your arsenal during sales appointments.

The following questions are a natural lead-in for turning the discussion toward the need for long-term care insurance:

  • Have you thought about how you would pay for care if you needed assistance later in life?
  • Would you prefer to receive care at home, in assisted living, or in another setting?
  • How would paying for several years of care affect your retirement savings?
  • Have you included long-term care in your retirement plan?

You can probably think of a few more.

Connect LTC to the Client’s Existing Goals

While you could come right out with asking a client if they’re interested in buying long-term care insurance, you risk the client simply saying no.

You’ll achieve better results by framing the conversation around these topics:

  • Protecting retirement income
  • Preserving assets
  • Maintaining independence
  • Reducing the burden on family members

A few realistic scenarios will help your clients relate to the topic.

Use Realistic Scenarios

One spouse will likely need long-term care sooner than the other, so an example that reflects this scenario is sure to hit home.

Here’s how you might paint the picture:

A 60-year-old couple has spent decades saving for retirement. The wife becomes terminally ill, and the medical bills are daunting. The couple is forced to tap their retirement savings to pay the bills. The ill spouse eventually dies, leaving the surviving spouse to pay the medical bills, with little retirement savings to support himself.

At this point, you can turn the conversation to how the same scenario might play out for your client, and how a long-term care policy could make a huge difference.

Make Education the First Step

As you engage in conversation about long-term insurance, you will soon learn how much your clients know about it, and what they don’t know.

Here is a good strategy to educate your clients about what a long-term care insurance policy can do for them:

  • Explain what LTC insurance does.
  • Explain common benefit structures.
  • Discuss traditional versus linked-benefit options where appropriate.
  • Let the client determine whether exploring coverage makes sense.

An educational slideshow helps you differentiate yourself from competitors. With the right software, you can ensure your customers are engaging with you.

CrankWheel allows you to share your screen in an instant – virtually or in person. Your clients won’t have to download anything or log in to get started. This screen-sharing software works on any device, including desktops, tablets, mobile phones, and even older computers.

On the backend, you can monitor whether your customer is actively looking at your presentation or if they’re distracted.

What Is the Best Cross-Selling Process Agents to Use for Long-Term Care Insurance Sales?

You can use an effective cross-selling process for long-term care insurance with every client on your books. Create a process and set up notifications in your CRM to remind you about the various life changes that signal a good time to introduce long-term care insurance to each client. While you are there, you can screen share directly from your CRM on the spot.

Step 1: Leverage Your CRM for Information

Use CRM information to identify clients based on:

  • Age
  • Retirement status
  • Existing policies
  • Household income
  • Life changes

Step 2: Add LTC Questions to the Annual Review

Make long-term care one of several planning topics rather than an unexpected sales pitch.

By keeping in regular contact with your clients, they will learn that they can rely on your expertise in all areas of insurance.

Step 3: Identify the Client’s Concerns

Determine the clients’ biggest concerns. Here are some common challenges:

  • Cost
  • Protecting assets
  • Maintaining independence
  • Family burden
  • Receiving care at home

Step 4: Determine Whether They Are a Candidate

It can help to develop a profile of your target client for a long-term care insurance policy.

Here are some things to consider to determine if a client may be open to purchasing a long-term care policy:

  • Age
  • Health
  • Budget
  • Existing coverage
  • Financial goals

Step 5: Compare Policies

Pricing can vary considerably between insurance companies for similar coverage. Point clients in the direction of the best value. Consider the coverages and features your client wants for the best premium.

Answer clients’ questions and give them time to think about their decision.

Step 6: Follow Up

With CrankWheel, you can deliver documents and receive the signed copies back during your appointment to close the sale. Be sure to follow up with clients who want to take some time to think about their choices.

Start the New Year With a More Complete Protection Strategy

The New Year provides an opportunity to help your clients take a broad view of their insurance needs.

Long-term care insurance should be more than adding another policy to your portfolio. It can become part of a larger conversation about retirement planning, asset protection, and family planning.

Successful cross-selling starts with helping clients look ahead. By incorporating thoughtful long-term care questions into annual reviews, you can create more meaningful client conversations, strengthen long-term relationships, and potentially uncover new business opportunities.

The goal is not to sell another product, but to help clients prepare for the financial and personal challenges they may face in the years ahead.

When you use CrankWheel, you can help your clients understand the benefits of long-term care insurance and why they need to purchase it soon rather than later. Try a free trial of CrankWheel today.

FAQs About Cross-Selling Long-Term Care Insurance

What is the best strategy for how to cross-sell long-term care insurance?

The best strategy for how to cross-sell long-term care insurance involves integrating discovery questions into annual reviews. By focusing on retirement goals and asset protection, agents can naturally introduce LTC coverage as a solution to potential financial burdens rather than using a pushy, disingenuous sales pitch.

When is the most effective time to discuss long-term care coverage?

Annual insurance reviews are the most effective time to discuss long-term care coverage. These reviews allow agents to identify life changes, evaluate current coverage gaps, and align long-term care planning with the client’s broader financial goals during a period when they are already focused on their future financial security.

How can agents identify high-potential candidates for LTC insurance?

Agents can identify high-potential candidates by using CRM data to segment clients based on age, retirement status, and household income. Clients managing care for aging parents or those nearing Medicare eligibility are often more receptive to conversations about protecting their own assets and reducing future burdens on their families.

Why is early enrollment in long-term care insurance recommended?

Early enrollment is recommended because premiums increase with age and health conditions can develop later in life, potentially affecting eligibility. Applying early provides clients with more options and ensures they secure coverage before their health status changes, making it a critical component of a proactive financial protection strategy.