Long-Term Care Insurance: What You Should Know - Part 4 of 5

4. The Insurer’s Claims Process

“When we’re talking to our clients about long term care, the main thing is making it a realistic conversation, not overselling the capabilities of long term care insurance,” says Gwenn Branstad, CLTC, an advisor with The Stonebridge Group, an affiliate of Thrivent Financial for Lutherans in Edina, Minn.

Caution is needed, she says, because even when the contract is in force, insureds and those assisting them with a claim must work through the insurer’s procedures. 

“As the my client's trusted advisor, I still have to jump through some hoops to get a claim open and paid and to establish communication between the insurance company and the provider of care,” she says. “So much of the advisory process helps the clients think about this not from their perspective but from the perspective of their family or their children or the person taking care of them.”