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.
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.
The research recommends
that financial advisers achieve the additional qualifications for
long-term care products in order to maximise the opportunities in
this area.
