Combination Life Insurance Policies Increase Dramatically

A combination life insurance policy typically combines a pool of benefit dollars for long term care, a death benefit payout, or both.  They have become increasingly popular among consumers in the marketplace and the product showed huge growth in 2010.  Based on LIMRA research, new premium sales for this type of life insurance product increased 62% to $1.2 billion.

Catherine Ho, the LIMRA research actuary, says overall sales of combination life insurance products in '10 were outstanding, especially considering they just came off a double digit growth in 2009.  They attribute the growth to increased marketing campaigns and a growing desire from consumers for an alternative to typical long care insurance plans.  According to the article "Sales of Combination Life Insurance Products Soar" by Ruthie Ackerman on financial-planning.com, combination products are often more affordable than standard long term care plans.

Sales of combination products were only 6% of the individual life insurance market with over 26,000 policies sold in 2010.  Much of the growth in the past few years in the combination product industry has come from linked benefits which usually involves long term care and a death benefit.  It makes sense that consumers want to combine these two desirable products into one convenient policy, especially if it can end up saving them money.  Financial institutions and banks sold about 32% more combination products from 2009 to 2010 and financial planners sold 33% more in the same time frame.  The products seems to be experiencing substantial growth through many avenues.