Sun Life Financial today announced the introduction of Sun Long Term Care Insurance, aimed at protecting the assets of Canadians who require care due to accident or deteriorating health.

Sun Long Term Care Insurance is the next generation of a introduced in 1999.

According to Sun Life, the new product:

  • offers the flexibility to design plans with varying lengths of comprehensive income benefit, facility care income benefit, or combination of the two,
  • is available from issue age 21 to 80;
  • makes two inflation protection options available at the time of purchase; and
  • offers an optional 20-year paid-up feature, or for younger ages, to age 55, whichever is later.

Claim eligibility for both benefits is the same, and is based on the inability to perform activities of daily living, such as feeding and bathing. The facility care benefit also requires the insured person to be admitted to a qualified facility.

Sun Life has a dedicated team of long term care insurance specialists who work directly with clients exclusively on evaluating their long term care insurance needs. These specialists often come from a healthcare background and provide expertise on various healthcare issues, the range of private and public care options available in their region, and the features and benefits of the company’s long term care insurance.

“We’ve invested significantly in our specialist network because we strongly believe in the need for this product, and we recognize that our Sun LTCI Specialists are integral to helping people determine their needs and select the appropriate coverage,” Diana Deverall-Ross, vice president, individual health insurance for Sun Life Financial Canada.

The LTCI Specialist model has been successful. At the end of 2004, Sun Life held 71% market share of new Canadian sales for long term care insurance, according to LIMRA survey results. In the six years since the original product was introduced, Sun Life has built its distribution channel to 150 Sun LTCI Specialists across Canada and has paid more than $1.5 million in claims.

Sun Life’s Clarica sales force refers clients to the company’s Sun LTCI Specialists, and Sun Life also has a referral agreement in place with Investor’s Group.

Sun Life expects to add new referring partners in 2006.