Author: Amie Clark | 
Expert: Cory Smith | June 3, 2024 |
When it comes to life insurance with long-term care riders, New York Life is one of the best options.
Editor's Rating:June 3, 2024 Author: Amie Clark | Expert: Cory Smith | June 3, 2024 |
With strong financial ratings and local agents in all 50 states, New York Life is a great option for long-term care insurance. The company’s policies include stand-alone long-term care coverage, as well as life insurance with long-term care benefits — both of which can drastically offset the rising costs of assisted living, nursing homes, or home care. Some of New York Life’s policies even include inflation protection, locked-in premiums, and residual death benefits, so beneficiaries can still be paid out from your policy if long-term care is never needed.
Did You Know: To learn more about the best long-term care insurance providers, check out the rundown of our favorite long-term care insurance providers.
New York Life offers two types of long-term care insurance policies: Traditional long-term care insurance and hybrid long-term care and life insurance. The benefits and names of these policies may be different depending on the state you live in.
Used to offset the costs of long-term care, an LTCSelect Premier policy provides reimbursement for assisted living, skilled nursing facilities, and home care, among other qualifying types of long-term care. Like most long-term care policies, LTCSelect Premier will come with a waiting period — in most cases, 90 days — before benefits begin. This policy type can be paired with optional riders such as inflation protection and premium waivers.
Another stand-alone long-term care policy, My Care long-term care insurance provides similar benefits to LTCSelect Premier, but this option is a bit more affordable. Monthly premiums start as low as $30 per month, and monthly benefits can be anywhere from $1,500 to $7,000. Once you’ve satisfied your deductibles, you can even begin waiving payments of your premiums.
Similar to the other stand-alone policies, New York Life Secure Care reimburses policy-holders for certified long-term care services. The primary difference, however, is that Secure Care will begin to pay dividends after 10 years of policy life. These can be used to reduce your premiums, and, if the policyholder passes away before using all their benefits, any remaining dividends can be passed on to a designated beneficiary.
A combined life insurance and long-term care insurance policy, Asset Flex functions like a traditional life insurance policy. You pay monthly premiums and receive a benefit upon death, but the long-term care component also provides reimbursement for certified care services.
If you’re interested in life insurance, then Asset Flex is a great way to provide an inheritance to your beneficiaries and remain covered for long-term care. If you pass away without needing long-term care, then your policy will still have a residual value passed on to your beneficiaries. The policy’s downside is the steep up-front cost. To purchase Asset Flex coverage, you’ll have to pay a one-time initial premium between $10,000 and $50,000.
Monthly premiums for New York Life long-term care insurance vary from about $25 to $300. The cost varies greatly depending on your age, location, gender, policy type, and coverage amounts within your policy. Additionally, if you purchase a hybrid life and long-term care policy, then you can expect to pay one-time initial premiums.
To receive New York Life long-term care benefits, you will need to choose a benefit period of two, three, five, or seven years, depending on your policy. You will also need to first satisfy a waiting or elimination period of 90, 180, or 365 days before benefits from New York Life will become payable.
Claims can be made either through the mail or through the New York Life online portal. In our experience, the online portal made for quick and simple claims processing.
Depending on the specific policy, New York Life offers a variety of additional benefits and optional riders to augment the basic coverage of your insurance. These include:
To purchase an insurance policy through New York Life, we recommend visiting the company’s website and clicking “Find an agent today” for a listing of over 12,000 agents in all 50 states. All you need to do is enter your first and last name and provide additional information to get connected with a local financial professional. You can also visit the Contact Us page and call the main customer service line at 1-800-225-5695.
The Better Business Bureau gives New York Life a B- ranking for customer satisfaction. Unfortunately, New York Life Insurance Company is not BBB accredited, even though it has been in business for 177 years. It has also had 458 complaints closed in the past three years and 130 complaints closed in the past 12 months, with a customer review rating of 1.4 out of 5. According to ConsumerAffairs, New York Life has a rating of 3.9 out of 5, based on 258 reviews for overall customer satisfaction.
Insurance companies tend to have low scores from customer-review aggregators. New York Life’s scores are low, but they’re about par for the long-term care insurance industry.
It’s important to align yourself with an insurance provider in strong financial standing. A.M. Best, a global credit-rating agency, gave New York Life an A++ (Superior) rating for financial strength. S&P Global Ratings affirmed its AA+ rating, and it has a AAA rating from both Moody’s Investors Service and Fitch. It has maintained high financial-strength ratings over the decades.
If you’re deciding between a traditional long-term care policy and a hybrid policy, New York Life may be able to help. With affordable rates and flexible premium payment options, the provider offers added benefits such as inflation protection and locked-in premiums.
It offers a plethora of policies with optional riders, but the best place to start is contacting an agent. From there, you’ll be able to walk through the available options and figure out which one best suits your needs.
As always, you’ll want to compare coverage and premiums to other providers, so be sure to take a look at our additional guides.
New York Life long-term care policies vary widely in cost, but you can expect to pay a minimum of $30 per month. Policies with greater coverage amounts can easily push upward of $300 per month.
The maximum age to buy a New York Life long-term care policy is 79.New York Life long-term care insurance helps cover the cost of nursing homes, assisted living, adult day care centers, home care, hospice, and other certified care services.
Yes, New York Life may offer a client loyalty discount. Couples and people who hold other New York Life policies may receive discounts of up to 10 percent. Married couples will also receive a 15 percent discount.
Amie has been writing about senior care products and services for the last decade. She is particularly passionate about new technologies that help improve the quality of life for seniors and their families. Seeing her parents and grandparents age made Amie ask herself, “Would this be good enough for my loved ones?” In her spare time, Amie enjoys outdoor adventures and spontaneous road trips. Learn more about Amie here
