As the leader in the group long term care market, Unum provides an annual review of sales and claims trends each fall in recognition of Long Term Care Awareness Month in November.

“We carefully track these trends so we understand the needs of our customers,” said John Noble, director of long term care products for Unum. “More people expect to be able to receive care at home, and making that possible is an important element of long term care coverage.”

Of Unum’s inforce policies, 93.4 percent are purchased to cover some type of home care. And nearly 70 percent of Unum’s group customers use their long term care benefits for care that occurs in the home.

Unum holds 76 percent of the group long term care market and has ranked No. 1 in the industry in terms of inforce cases and insured individuals for the past three years. In 2007, Unum covered 653,038 people under its long term care policies.
Further analysis of the group long term care sales data reveals:

– Women represent the majority (52 percent) of the purchasing population.
– The average age of a purchaser of a group long term policy is 43.5.
– Unum experienced a 37-percent increase in new long term care cases sold in 2007 compared to 2005.
– The top five industries purchasing group long term care insurance are law firms, physicians, insurance brokerages, management consulting services and engineering firms.
– The top five states purchasing long term care insurance are California, Florida, Ohio, Texas and Georgia.

Unum revealed in last year’s Landscape of Long Term Care a dramatic increase in employer-funded policies. The trend continued into 2007, with 90 percent of new group long term care cases being employer-funded.

This year, Unum reveals insight into those businesses. More than 53 percent of employers offering long term care coverage have 250 employees or fewer. More than 36 percent of those employers have fewer than 100 employees.

“We continue to see the smaller to mid-level employers willing to offer long term care coverage to their employees and also fund some of the cost,” said Noble. Unless referenced otherwise, the statistics included in this news release are based on Unum internal data as of 2007.