With reference to long term care insurance, what is a “linked benefit policy”?
A. Linked benefit policies combine life insurance and long term care insurance in one policy. Such arrangements are structured differently by the various insurance companies which provide such programs. One type of arrangement involves the payment of a fixed sum into a single policy that will provide an immediate death benefit as well as lifetime long term care benefits at a particular daily amount for daily nursing home care or home health care. The death benefit would be payable to a named beneficiary upon the insured’s death. Payments of the long term care benefits may reduce the ultimate amount of the death benefit that will be payable. A rider can be purchased which would assure that the benefit payments for long term care services would not reduce the death benefit below a certain level. Typically, the policy would include a guaranty of insurability rider which would provide a limited right to increase both the death benefit and the long term care coverage by a certain amount (su
