The Power of Word Association

By Jeff L. Levin, Divisional Vice President, OneAmerica Care Solutions ILFS

Mention long-term care and most people will associate the term with a nursing home setting. As most of us know, care at home is the predominant setting when it comes to long-term care needs, followed by assisted living and lastly nursing homes. Similarly, when most people discuss long-term care, it’s thought of in terms of being an insurance policy. Long-term care is simply the need for care that is expected to last for 90 days or longer because someone can’t perform life’s everyday activities of living on their own or they are challenged by a cognitive impairment. It could just as easily apply to someone who underwent surgery and requires a prolonged period of recovery as it could mean increased care as we grow older. I would say that a more accurate and holistic view of long-term care is that it’s a lifestyle and not a specific setting or an insurance policy.

When we talk about long-term care or present long-term care as part of a holistic plan, there are four positive words that should be used in every conversation: effective, efficient, access and control. Each of these words are powerful when it comes to positioning long-term care solutions and preserving a lifestyle. Ask anyone who is savvy with their money, and they will tell you there are three things that are important: preservation of capital, effective and efficient use of their assets, and maintaining access and control over both their money and the situation. We don’t want someone else controlling our money or making our decisions. Now, let’s use those four positive words.

We’ve all heard people say that, in the event of a long-term care event, they are going to pay for their care out of pocket. Your reply: While money is important and you could pay for this care on your own, I can show you a more effective way to create greater efficiency. In addition, you can make this happen while maintaining access and control over your money and care and solving for an unlimited and unfunded liability.

With asset-based long-term care (LTC) protection, you can effectively create a solution that more efficiently covers the costs associated with a long-term care event. Should the client never need long-term care, their money will pass to their estate and beneficiaries, in some situations tax-free. This allows all parties to maintain access and control over their dollars whether it be for long-term care or in the form of a death benefit. Asset-based LTC can be framed in these terms for you — you either use it, you use it, or you use it. Live, quit, or die, asset based LTC is an effective means of creating greater efficiency while maintaining access and control of your money and care.

As you live and as you grow older, your chances of needing long-term care increase and an asset based LTC policy will provide you with long-term care benefits, potentially for your remaining lifetime. If you quit and decide to surrender the policy, a cash value has accumulated that can be returned to you. Finally, if you die, an asset-based life insurance policy will pay a death benefit to your loved ones or to your estate. With an asset-based solution, you create a win-win-win scenario.

So, when it comes to word associations, let’s change the paradigm. From now on, if I say, “long-term care,” no longer should your clients immediately think of “nursing homes.” No more should long-term care be synonymous with an insurance policy or a certain setting. Long-term care does not translate to care in a nursing home, care in an assisted living facility, or, for that matter, care at home. Through each of our daily conversations, whether it be with distribution partners, existing clients, prospects or care providers, we have an opportunity to work together and change a negative stereotype while creating a new definition and a new image of long-term care. OneAmerica® is the marketing name for the companies of OneAmerica.

This article is excerpted from an article that first appeared in Broker World. Read the original at brokerworldmag.com/the-power-ofword-association/.