 LTC Bullet: LTCI Conferences Illuminated Friday, March 7, 2025 Seattle— LTC Comment: On the eve of the 2025 ILTCI Conference, we celebrate the distinguished history of long-term care insurance conferences, after the ***news*** *** DON’T MISS this extraordinary AI-generated “podcast” recounting the history of LTC insurance conferences. Click here and listen to 10 minutes of commentary summarizing and analyzing a quarter century of professional LTC insurance meetings. *** *** ILTCI ’25 convenes in Philadelphia March 9-12. Attendees can access the meeting’s mobile app here. Directions to the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown and parking information are available here. If you haven’t registered already, do so here. Hope to see you there. *** *** 3/3/2025,
“Genworth
and CareScout Release Cost of Care Survey Results for 2024,” Genworth
and CareScout LTC BULLET: LTC CONFERENCES ILLUMINATED LTC Comment: Today’s LTC Bullet is our 1400th since the Center for Long-Term Care Reform’s founding in April 1998. During those years we reported on every major LTC insurance conference. In April 2021, in the throes of the pandemic and shortly after a “virtual” conference replaced that year’s cancelled in-person gathering, we published a “History of LTC Insurance Conferences.” We encourage you to browse that history and remember (for those who lived them) or learn (for those new to the business) the extraordinary challenges, victories, defeats and progress we’ve shared. While you’re at it, check out a few photos of LTCI leaders, many of whom are still around, though maybe a little longer in the tooth. To get you off to an easy start, listen to this 10-minute interview, generated by Google Illuminate, discussing the “History of LTC Insurance Conferences.” I think you’ll agree it’s pretty amazing what Artificial Intelligence can do in 30 seconds with an 80-page document that could take you several hours to read carefully and many more to analyze thoughtfully. See if you agree with the robots’ summary and analysis. For my part, I attended and reported on almost every one of the LTC insurance conferences starting in 1991. You can find the Center’s real time coverage of the meetings, often called “LTC Embed Reports” or “Virtual Visits,” going back to January 2000, by searching for the word “conference” here. I watched the early “Private LTC Insurance Conferences” gradually co-opted by advocates of public LTC financing and eventually replaced by the Intercompany LTC Insurance Conferences (ILTCI) sponsored by the Society of Actuaries and honchoed by Jim Glickman. Among my favorite meetings over the years were the ones aimed at educating and inspiring LTCI producers. Thank Jesse Slome and Greg Luque for making those agent-oriented conferences happen. They’re included in the history. I haven’t always been thrilled with the LTCI conferences’ evolution. In the early years, they took more notice of how private insurance fits into the broader LTC industry. Efforts were made to reach out to LTC providers such as nursing homes, assisted living and home care companies. There was great potential in linking the interests of businesses that supply LTC insurance with others that benefit from funding LTC privately. But that relationship never matured. Nor did an early focus on understanding, adapting to and changing public LTC financing policy for the better. After progress in the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (a cap on Medicaid’s home equity exemption, longer and stronger transfer of assets restrictions, and unleashing the LTC Partnership Program), further Medicaid reform and stronger LTCI tax incentives were never achieved. Nowadays, we see a very positive focus on wellness initiatives, but otherwise the emphasis is on technical issues and marketing, important but not necessarily transformational topics. Still, the surviving ILTCI meetings are a great place to meet, network, and learn. Hope to see you in Philly. To close, here are some highlights culled from the “History of LTC Insurance Conferences” selected for you by the Center’s Vice President for Administration, Damon Moses. He’ll be in Philly too, so say hello. 2001, Miami, FL: ILTCI #1 “John Hancock featured a guest celebrity, knuckleball pitcher Phil Niekro, signing baseballs for a line of fans stretching all the way out into the hallway. CHCS had perhaps the most unique hospitality suite. They created the illusion for each participant of an old age infirmity, such as smeared glasses to imitate cataracts, and then in true Florida style, let them try their luck at completing a punch card voter ballot with the correct answers to a delayed word recall test.”
“Steve Moses gave this talk [‘Long-Term Care's Race for Survival’] to the First Annual Society of Actuaries Intercompany LTCI Conference in Miami, Florida on January 23, 2001. In it, he summarizes the Center's recently published LTC Triathlon study. He diagnoses the malaise in America's long-term care service delivery and financing system. And he makes an appeal for greater communication and cooperation between the private sector financiers, providers and insurers of long-term care.
2002, Beverly Hills, CA
According to conference organizers: “A LONG, HARD LOOK at long-term care insurance reveals a product on the cusp of widespread acceptance. However, as LTCI has come of age, so too have the challenges facing insurers: the internet's effect on underwriting, claims practices, pricing assumptions, population eligibility, profitability management, and legislative initiatives, to name a few.”
2003, Las Vegas, NV
Unless LTCI specialists understand what nursing homes, home health companies, and assisted living facilities are up against, they cannot fathom why LTC providers (and the public) mostly ignore long-term care insurance and cling to government financing alternatives. For example, the conference offered no educational sessions on public policy, on long-term care service delivery, on competition from the 800-pound gorillas of long-term care (Medicaid and Medicare), on the Medicaid-driven fiscal crisis in the state and federal governments which practically begs for help from private insurance, on the drought in debt and equity capital facing long-term care providers, nor on the huge tort liability and liability insurance crisis facing LTC providers. … “Monday, January 27, 2003: "Rate Stabilization - What Does it Mean to Me?" Moderated by David Benz of Thrivent Financial for Lutherans (see picture below). Panel: Al Schmitz of Milliman USA; Peggy Hauser of the LTC Group; and Dennis O'Brien of New York Life. This session anguished over rate stability challenges: What went wrong? Why are rates going up? How can the industry set rates properly? What is the proper interaction between management, actuaries and regulators? …
2003, San Antonio, TX
The 16th Private Long-Term Care Insurance Conference: "Shaping the Future." This meeting convened at the Marriott Rivercenter Hotel in San Antonio, Texas from February 12 to 14, 2003. The Private Long-Term Care Insurance Conference was the grand-daddy of industry meetings in the LTCI field. Some say its name is a misnomer, because this conference catered as much to advocates of government long-term care financing as to manufacturers and purveyors of private LTC insurance. People still complain about its 1993 conference in Baltimore (during an ice storm) when Congressman Pete Stark bashed long-term care insurance agents and insulted the industry in an over-the-top "keynote" address. Check out all the details including many contemporaneous pictures of LTCI’s leading lights in The Zone here.
2003, New Orleans, LA
The National LTCi Producers Summit Presented by LTCi Sales Strategies magazine, this 2½-day conference boasted a sold-out attendance of over 700 people, and featured 25 sessions, 50 LTC expert speakers, ample networking opportunities, over 100 exhibitors, cocktail receptions, breakfasts and lunches, the LTCI Sales Idol contest, the top 10 producers contest, and even optional sight-seeing tours. The Next Financial Boom: Reverse Mortgages & LTC Protection. Presented by Peter Bell, President, National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association, Washington, D.C. In this session Peter explained how reverse mortgages can be used as an LTCi financing sales strategy to offer to prospects that are house rich and cash poor. The following are brief "man-on-the-street" type of interviews. [Damon Moses] asked eight registered attendees two questions: 1.) why don’t more people buy private long-term care insurance; and 2.) what percentage of total nursing home and home health care expenditures are paid out of people’s assets (as opposed to any other source of funding, such as Medicaid, Medicare, personal income, etc.)? The purpose of asking these two questions together is to illustrate one point: that the majority of LTC services are not paid for by consumers, they are paid for by the government. If a relatively small percentage of total nursing home and home health care expenditures are paid out of people’s assets, then why would the average person save for and then buy long-term care insurance? Why would people buy something that the government is giving away? The answer is that they wouldn’t unless their assets were at risk. Here are the questions again: 1.) Why don’t more people buy private long-term care insurance? 2.) What percentage of total nursing home and home health care expenditures are paid out of people’s assets (as opposed to any other source of funding, such as Medicaid, Medicare, personal income, etc.) ? To read these interviews and see the pictures of interviewees, check out our Virtual Visit to this conference. [This content is in the Center’s members-only content (The Zone.) You will need your user name and password, for which contact Damon@centerltc.com. 2004, Houston, TX
“The great thing about this conference is that it brings together all components of the long-term care insurance industry in a setting that encourages cross training and mutual understanding. That's as opposed to the more adversarial settings that actuaries, marketing people, underwriters and management often find themselves in, fighting to discover the right balance between price and salability of a complicated, deeply conceptual product.
“Unfortunately, there is a slight pall on the conference. Everyone knows the long-term care insurance industry faces daunting challenges. In the past years, and especially recently, we've seen consolidation, companies exiting the business, level or declining sales, rate stability concerns, disappointing profitability, etc. Industry analysts have painted a less-than-bright and hopeful picture of the business for the immediate future. But, at least at this meeting, I find a strong sense of optimism and renewed commitment that trumps the downbeat perspectives and worries.” “A long-term care producer with insight into the back-office aspects of the LTCi business opined that ‘This industry has seen some hard times, but the worst is behind us. Pricing is improving; public awareness is increasing; and the same promising demographics are still out there. Industry consolidation and belt tightening will prove to have been healthy and beneficial in the long run.’ Steve Moses made the case for private LTC financing while Dr. Judith Feder, then Professor and Dean of Public Policy at Georgetown University appealed for public financing in a session at the Fourth Annual Society of Actuaries Long-Term Care Insurance Conference in Houston, Texas on February 10, 2004.
2005, Orlando, FL “Today's alert comes to you from the fifth annual Society of Actuaries Long-Term Care Insurance Conference in Orlando, Florida. The SOA-LTCi meeting has evolved into the premier industry event for executives involved in the nuts and bolts of long-term care insurance. We realize many of you can't or won't attend, so as we did last year from Houston, here's a brief report on the proceedings from Steve Moses on site. … LTC Bullet: Clueless in Orlando
2006, Anaheim, CA
Attendees heard a report on the "Medicaid Commission’s” findings. Like most commissions, it achieved nothing of consequence. Steve Moses delivered a speech titled "What I Believe About Long-Term Care." The Center's Vice President for Administration, Damon Moses, circulated at the conference interviewing attendees. Interview Question: What effect do you think the new Deficit Reduction Act will have on the marketability of private long- term care insurance? Can you put a percentage on that? Check out our Virtual Visit for answers.
2007, Dallas, TX
ILTCI #7 opened to a body blow from the New York Times: “Aged, Frail and Denied Care by Their Insurers,” by Charles Duhigg, March 26, 2007. We responded immediately. Read our response and more about this conference in our virtual visit titled LTC Bullet: Sucker Punched in Dallas, Tuesday, April 10, 2007.
2008, Jacksonville, FL
A distinctive feature of this year’s conference was the presence, at the venue’s front door, of a small Airstream trailer emblazoned with the decals of companies sponsoring the Center for Long-Term Care Reform’s 2008 “National Long-Term Care Consciousness Tour.” Read all about it in LTC Bullet: The Jacksonville LTCI Conference. Enjoy this musical reminder of tour highlights.
2009, Reno, NV
The Silver Bullet of Long-Term Care again graced the entrance to the 9th Annual Inter-Company Long-Term Care Insurance Conference. We published one LTC Bullet and three LTC E-Alerts (here, here, and here) about the meeting.
2010, New Orleans
Gail Sheehy keynoted the conference, but later dissed LTCI on NPR. Despite some very strong panelists speaking on behalf of logic, evidence and actuarial sanity (Steve Schoonveld of LifePlans; Malcolm Cheung of Prudential; and Al Schmitz of Milliman), everyone seemed to be bending over backwards to give CLASS the benefit of the (clearly overwhelming) doubt.
2011, Atlanta, GA
Four breakout sessions focused on the CLASS Act including Steve Moses and John Greene debating CLASS with Connie Harner and Rhonda Richards (AARP). Find summaries of all four CLASS sessions and several other sessions in our Virtual Visit to the conference here. During the lunch break on the second day, the 3in4 Need More campaign had a press conference to introduce the LTCI industry's answer to dairy's "Got Milk" message. Spotted at the 3in4 Need More event and throughout the ILTCI conference was Glenn Ruffenach of the Wall Street Journal. Maybe there's hope for some good publicity for LTCI now.
2011, Las Vegas, NV Here’s another non-ILTCI conference to remember. The 9th LTC Insurance Producers Summit, held April 3-5, 2011 in Las Vegas, had the theme "Get Over It!" Get over lagging sales, disappearing carriers, premium increases, and bad publicity. Get over it and, one might add based on the content of the conference: Get On With It! Proceedings got underway with a standing-room-only crowd for the "3 in 4 Need More" campaign's second press conference. Cameron Truesdell, CEO of Long-Term Care Financial Partners, delivered the "Keynote Address." He pointed out the desperate need for responsible long-term care planning and insisted: It's up to us to make it happen. Echoing a patriotic appeal, he asked "If not us, who? If not now, when? 2012, Las Vegas, NV
For a full account of the conference’s highlight event, the “Clash of Titans” debate between Harley Gordon and Steve Moses, check out LTC Bullet: LTC Embed Report from the ILTCI Conference in Las Vegas.
Now to recount the most fun that was had at the conference. In the afternoon of DAY ONE, a great debate ensued titled “Clash of the Titans: Moses vs. Gordon on Medicaid and Other Dark Matter.” Ably produced and moderated by Federal Long-Term Care Insurance Program CEO Paul Forte, the program included a dramatic “fight poster” inviting the audience to attend, slides featuring great debates of the past, e.g. Lincoln/Douglas, etc., and a dual-podium presidential-style debate format. Moses and Gordon each began with 3-minute opening statements. (Find a transcript of the “fable” I began with at the end of today’s Bullet.) After a coin flip to see who would get the first question, Forte pummeled the combatants in turn with six queries ranging from why the LTCI market languishes to what they’d advise presidential candidates to say about LTC financing. Answers were strictly enforced to no more than two minutes, with a one-minute rebuttal, and a final 30-second “re-direct” by the original answerer. The program moved fast with lots of humor and more than just a little gentlemanly confrontation. In the second phase of the debate, the participants asked each other questions, with the same time limits applying. Neither knew what the other would ask so the questions and responses were totally spontaneous. Finally, the audience submitted written queries pinning down the debaters with new and different viewpoints. Bruised, bloodied, but upright, Moses and Gordon shook hands at the end and affirmed they remain friends. They look forward to continue pursuing their different paths toward the common goal to improve long-term care for all. Who won? Just between you, me and the lamppost, here’s how LTCI producer and author Craig McCormick, a former college debater himself, scored the matchup: 13 to 4, for Moses. Now, I acknowledge that Mr. McCormick may have a bias in my favor. So I invite any of you faithful readers out there who may have attended the debate to weigh in with your own scoring of the event. I’d particularly like to hear from anyone who gave the win to Harley instead of me. Well, I want to hear from anyone except you, Harley! I’ll publish any thoughtful comments or analysis of the debate in a future LTC Bullet. Let us hear from you. The last session I attended was a post-mortem on CLASS titled “Meeting the Needs that CLASS Intended,” moderated by Prudential’s Malcolm Cheung with presentations by Bob Yee, lately CLASS’s actuary; Yair Babab from the University of Illinois, Chicago; and Mark Meiners, the father of the LTC Partnership Program. I came away convinced less-than-ever that anything about CLASS is salvageable and more convinced than ever that LTC financing solutions must come from reducing government interference in the market, not increasing it. Stop giving away LTC to people who should, could and would buy LTCI and the market will work its magic. 2013, Dallas, TX Overall, the mood of the conference was one of optimism and motivation. In reference to this, Sally Leimbach states: “Several Exhibitors seemed to me to be relatively small providers vying to become a part of the process of underwriting LTCi or providing services at time of claim. To me, that showed optimism about the growth of the market among providers.” Sally continues by mentioning she encountered “[m]ore optimism than expected. It rubbed off. I have come back reenergized for educating people to plan for LTC and selling to assist to meet the ever important need.” What an excellent reminder of why events like this are so important to the industry. Many conference attendees in Dallas expressed high satisfaction with the value of networking opportunities with industry professionals as well as the quality of educational content. Honey Leveen states:
2014, Orlando, FL The 14th Annual Inter-Company Long-Term Care Insurance Conference convened in Orlando, Florida at the Rosen Centre Hotel from March 16-19, 2014. We asked conference founder Jim Glickman for his highlights of the meeting. He responded: 1. The 14th Annual Intercompany LTCi Conference in Orlando, FL (co-sponsored by the LTC Section of the Society of Actuaries) had over 900 attendees, an all-time record surpassing the 855 attendees in Jacksonville, FL in 2008. [NB: the Silver Bullet of Long- Term Care was parked outside the conference venue in Jacksonville as we were well underway with the Center’s 2008 “National Long-Term Care Consciousness Tour.”] 2. As usual, the largest representation from the 10 tracks (Actuarial, Claims, Compliance, Field Marketing, Group, Home Office Marketing, Management, Operations, Policy and Providers, and Underwriting) was from Field Marketing, followed closely by Actuarial and then Management). 3. For the first time in several years, there were attendees from multiple insurance companies not currently participating in the LTCi marketplace, together with most of the larger companies, who have at least temporarily, stepped away from issuing new business. 4. Also in attendance were several reinsurers not currently in the LTCi marketplace together with several representatives of the private equity world, apparently looking for new opportunities to consider. 5. The two full days and two half days featured over 45 educational sessions, together with more than 20 hours of organized networking. 6. The Exhibit Hall featured 54 Exhibitors, displaying all the latest innovations for insurance company home offices and their agents. 2015, Colorado Springs, CO The 15th annual Intercompany Long-Term Care Insurance Conference convened March 22-25, 2015 at The Broadmoor resort in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The annual Inter-Company Long-Term Care Insurance Conferences are always something special. But this year’s meeting exceeded all that came before. It exceeded by breaking past records: over 1100 attendees, up from the 900s; 72 vendors, up from 56; 44 sponsors and 170 speakers. It exceeded by offering new programs including: demonstration rooms where exhibitors could make scheduled presentations; a “social media” room with Twitter feeds; a “future leaders” program; a new Sales and Distribution combination track; and a new “Alternative Solutions” track, honchoed by Eileen Tell and John O’Leary, which replaced Policy and Providers, and captured me for all seven break-out sessions on the agenda. 2016, San Antonio, TX
The conference’s closing general session was It's Not Me, It's You; A Consumer View on LTCI. Behavioral economist Jeremy Pincus and consumer insight expert Luisa Uriarte delivered new information about how our current approach and sales and marketing techniques are actually standing in the way a broader appeal for long-term care insurance. These fascinating presentations challenged everything we thought we knew about LTCI marketing, such as-- explain the problem, price the risk, scare the pants off ‘em and they’ll buy. Well, no, turns out that just drives people away. What’s needed is an approach that generates good feelings and makes people positive about preparing for what’s coming. Interestingly, this session was a perfect bookend for the conference, by providing evidence from behavioral research for some of the same insights about human behavior shared by the opening general session speaker about the turnaround he led at Harley Davidson. 2017, Jacksonville, FL THE 17TH ILTCI CONFERENCE convened March 26-29 at the Hyatt Regency in Jacksonville, Florida, with the theme “Navigating the Future.” What follows are some quick impressions of the sessions I attended. These are not a representative sample of the conference content as I visited almost exclusively the program’s “Alternative Solutions” track. Special thanks to Eileen Tell and John O’Leary for the hard work they expended to put together the sessions comprising the Alternative Solutions Track. The other tracks were Actuarial & Finance; Claims & Underwriting; Combination Products; Legal, Compliance & Regulatory; Management, Operations & Technology; and Marketing & Distribution. The conference also featured a vast exhibit hall and special “demo rooms” where companies could present their products and answer questions. This year’s keynote speaker, sponsored by Genworth, was Anat Baron, former head of Mike's Hard Lemonade, a change strategist and “disruptor.” Her bio calls her a “force of nature” and states “she spent her illustrious career moving at warp speed while shaping and defining the trends that form today's business world.” She turned around Mike’s Hard Lemonade by aiming its marketing at women who wanted something to drink out of a bottle while guys were quaffing beer. Her message to the LTCI industry? “Disrupt or Die: Reinvention in an Ever Changing World.” We live in a time of huge and rapid change. Facebook, Twitter, Skype, the Cloud, etc., are barely a decade old. Yet they’ve changed the world and how we survive, prosper or not in it. Social networking rules. Master it or expect failure and embarrassment (such as being identified in the audience as a flip-phone user or a non-texter.) Ms. Baron’s session was entertaining and interesting, but would have benefited from more effort on her part to apply her observations and analysis to the LTC insurance business and its challenges. 2018, Las Vegas, NV The 18th Annual Intercompany Long-Term Care Insurance Conference was held March 18-21, at the Paris Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, NV. Attendance was high at over 1,000 attendees, 60+ exhibitors and nearly 40 sponsors.
Every year the Intercompany Long-Term Care Insurance Conference takes the pulse of the LTCi industry and offers direction forward. To that end, “A Matrix of Opportunities” was the tagline for this year’s conference and that optimism filled the agenda. According to the conference website’s homepage:
A quiet revolution is taking place in the long-term care insurance industry. More interest than ever is being focused on private sector solutions to the growing societal issues pertaining to long- term care. Planning choices for consumers are growing at a rapid pace. Insurance companies are developing new innovative approaches to providing long-term care liquidity at various life stages and insurance agents and financial advisors are showing renewed interest in talking to consumers about their long-term care planning needs.
With entitlements and social programs strained, longevity and healthcare costs increasing, caregiver supply decreasing and the age wave cresting, how we finance long-term care now and in the future is a demographic, political and fiscal Rubik's Cube. This year’s ILTCI conference contributed to solving that multi-dimensional puzzle by hosting the innovators who are offering new directions and products designed to save people from the risk and cost of long-term care. 2019, Chicago, IL The 19th Annual Intercompany Long-Term Care Insurance Conference convened at the Sheraton Grand Hotel in Chicago, Illinois from March 24 to 27, 2019. Today’s LTC Bullet offers you a virtual visit to that event, the biggest of its nearly two-decade history. My Million Dollar Mom, about Ross Schriftman’s movie he wrote and produced about caring for his mother through her Alzheimer’s Disease. First order of business was presentation of the “ILTCI Recognition Award” to “a person(s) or organization that has made a significant, long-term contribution towards the attainment of the ILTCI vision” which is “to create an environment for aging in America that includes thoughtful, informed planning that takes into account the most effective and efficient use of resources in addressing the risks and costs of long term care for all levels of American society.” Steve Moses, president of the Center for Long-Term Care Reform, acknowledged the honor saying I like to think my stuff is kind of edgy, so I was afraid the ‘boos’ might overwhelm the cheers after this announcement, but they didn’t, so thank you. I want to thank the nominators, the board for selecting me, all our wonderful friends and financial supporters. There are too many to list, so I’ll only mention one by name, my son, Damon, whom many of you know. I’ve heard this honor called a “lifetime achievement” award. That sounds like you’re putting me out to pasture. So, to my friends, let me assure you I’m not going anywhere. To those who disagree with me, don’t think this will stop me. Thanks again to all.”
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