A total of 71% of financial advisers in the UK
believe that providers should create new prefunded long term care
products, according to a new study.
The research from Defaqto, a financial
research and software company, comes after the UK’s Commission on
Funding of Care and Support published its report Fairer Funding for
All in July 2011, which proposed a lifetime cap on care costs.
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The preferred figure is £35,000 ($55,829)
which is the amount someone in long-term care would be responsible
for, after which, the government would fund care.
If the proposal is adopted, such products
would enable clients to insure the first £35,000 of care
costs.
Opportunity
The Defaqto report stated: “Such a cap
represents a real opportunity to develop insurance-based products
to help people plan ahead to cover their liability where,
currently, the risk is open ended.”
According to the report, research undertaken
by Defaqto among advisers in March 2012 found that 61% of
respondents did not advise on long-term care at all.
The main reason given for not advising on
long-term care protection was that respondents were not licensed or
qualified to cover this topic.
As a result, the research recommends that
financial advisers achieve the additional qualification for
long-term care in order to maximise the opportunities in this
area.
